Transcript Slide 1

Opportunity Costs: The Perils and
Profits of Assimilation
An Online Professional Development Seminar
Sponsored by the Library of Congress
Teaching with Primary Sources
Eastern Region Program,
coordinated by Waynesburg University.
Lewis Hine, “Group on Italians at Ellis Island,” 1905
We will begin promptly on the hour.
The silence you hear is normal.
If you do not hear anything when the
images change, e-mail Caryn Koplik
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for assistance.
The Profits and Perils of Assimilation
FROM THE FORUM
Challenges, Issues, Questions
Why did immigrants come to America?
How did their new life in America compare to the life they left behind?
Did they feel the journey was worth it?
What were the attitudes of Americans already living here toward the newcomers?
Did Social Darwinism influence non-immigrant America’s attitude toward
immigrants?
Was America a truly a melting pot?
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The Profits and Perils of Assimilation
FROM THE FORUM
Challenges, Issues, Questions
What was the daily experience of immigrants like?
How quickly did immigrants generally learn English?
How many generations did it require for an immigrant family to become
Americanized?
How difficult was it for religious families to maintain their religious and cultural
identities in the land of baseball and capitalism?
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The Profits and Perils of Assimilation
Joy Kasson
Professor of American Studies and English
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Author of three books about late nineteenthcentury and early twentieth-century American
culture, with a special interest in literature
and visual arts
National Humanities Center Fellow
1996-1997
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The Profits and Perils of Assimilation
FRAMING QUESTIONS
Who came to America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century,
and why did they come?
How did Americans regard newcomers during this period?
How did immigrants express their hopes and fears, and how did they relate
their experiences?
What was the myth of the melting pot, and what were its pros and cons?
What is the legacy for today of the immigration experience at the turn of
the century?
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The Profits and Perils of Assimilation
UNDERSTANDINGS
Immigration to America expanded in the late nineteenth century, crested
in the first decade of the twentieth century, and slowed to a trickle with
the immigration restriction law of 1924.
Immigrants fueled expanding industries in the years after the Civil War
and provided labor that transformed American culture.
Large numbers of new migrants settled in American cities, and
skyrocketing population put new stress on infrastructure and services.
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The Profits and Perils of Assimilation
UNDERSTANDINGS
Many immigrants strove for acceptance through assimilation and
Americanization.
Many immigrants faced prejudice, ridicule, and misunderstanding.
As America became more diverse, questions were raised about cultural
identity and traditions that remain to this day: how can families or
individuals retain aspects of their heritage and still participate in mainstream
American society?
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The Profits and Perils of Assimilation
FRAMING QUESTIONS
Who came to America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century,
and why did they come?
How did Americans regard newcomers during this period?
How did immigrants express their hopes and fears, and how did they relate
their experiences?
What was the myth of the melting pot, and what were its pros and cons?
What is the legacy for today of the immigration experience at the turn of
the century?
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Who came to America and why?
Source: Derived from Table 1 in Office of Immigration Statistics, US Department of Homeland Security,
Yearbook Of Immigration Statistics 2006 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2007.)
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Who came to America and why?
 What might account for peaks
and valleys in this chart?
 Immigration Act of 1924
restricted immigration
 Immigration and Nationality
Act of 1964 abolished
national origin quotas
 Immigration Act of 1990
increased legal immigration
by 40%
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Who came to America and why?
Place of Origin of the American Immigrant Population
1900
Source: United States Historic Census Web Page.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/hiscendata.html
http://theomahaproject.org/module_display.php?mod_id=114&review=yes
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Who came to America and why?
 In 1900 immigrants from
Northern and Western Europe
still predominated
 But immigration from South
and East Europe was growing
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Analyzing a Visual Text
 Avoid judgmental and interpretive statements at first, and concentrate
on careful looking. This does not require specialized language or
knowledge.
 What do you see (specifically)? Take note of details and overall
appearance of the painting/engraving/photograph.
 What do you know about how and when the visual text was created?
 What can the visual text tell us about its subject and historical period?
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Who came to America and why?
Lewis Hine, “Group of Italians at Ellis Island,” 1905
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Who came to America and why?
Reasons for Emigration
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Economic opportunity
Political freedom
Religious freedom
Emigrating with a group
Joining family members
Escaping persecution
Escaping poverty
Desire for adventure
Lewis Hine, “Group of Italians at Ellis Island,” 1905
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Analyzing a Text
 Who is the speaker?
 When was the text written?
 What sort of text is it (book, letter, interview, diary)?
 What does the text tell us?
 How does the text convey the speaker’s attitude and perspective,
as well as factual information?
 How does this text help us understand the experience of
immigration as seen by the immigrants?
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Who came to America and why?
Why did our people leave Canada and come to the States? Because they had to make sure of a living for their family
and themselves for a number of years, and because they greatly needed money. The wages paid by textile mills was
the attraction.
...
Our people didn't come to the States with money they had saved up, though, since they emigrated because they were
really obliged to go where they could earn their daily bread and butter. To raise enough money to buy railroad tickets
for the family and pay for food, rooms and other expenses on route, they had to faire encan, sell all their household
goods at auction. That money was practically all gone when they arrived here, and all they possessed was the clothes
they had on their backs, you might say. . . . As they were poor, all those who were old enough went to work without
waiting to take a much needed rest.
They boarded at first with relatives, if they were lucky enough to have any here, or in some
French Canadian family until they could rent a tenement for themselves, mostly in corporation houses, and buy the
furniture that was strictly needed.
Money was very precious to us in those days and we spent it carefully, getting along with only the things we couldn't
do without, but we were able to make a living and save something besides.
French Canadian Textile Worker, Phillippe Lemay, American Memory interview, 1938-39
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Who came to America and why?
Father died in January, 1870. That changed abruptly my whole aspect of life. An
older brother was to have the farm after Mother; what was I to do? Mother wished to
have me educated to teach, but I did not wish to be a teacher. There was left the
choice to stay home and wait for something to turn up, go out as a laborer or to learn
a trade, or to sea, or to America!
...
Norwegian and Swedish immigrants came here in canvas-covered wagons pulled by
oxen, and where they found no human trace on the ground they unhitched, built log
or sod houses for shelter, and out of the wilderness made what I now see. How proud
they well may be of that hard, creative work! They have been given political
independence and have earned economic independence of their native countries,
and they must, I think, for their own development, and in the interest of their
adopted country, attain intellectual and spiritual independence also, without a dual
national sentiment.
Andreas Ueland, Recollections of an Immigrant, 1929, American Memory
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How did Americans regard newcomers?
The Chinese Must Go! But, Who Keeps Them? [spread]:
From The Wasp: v. 2, Aug. 1877- July 1878
American Memory, The Chinese in California
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How did Americans regard newcomers?
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How did Americans regard newcomers?
According to the most reliable estimates, there are at the present time about forty thousand
Chinese in California; and every vessel that arrives from the Celestial Empire brings additional
immigrants. From a fourth to a fifth of these reside in San Francisco; the balance are scattered
about over various parts of the State--mostly in the mines. A few females--say one to every
twelve or fifteen males--are among the number; among these good morals are unknown, they
have no regard whatever for chastity or virtue. You would be puzzled to distinguish the women
from the men, so inconsiderable are the differences in dress and figure. The only apparent
difference is, that they are of smaller stature and have smoother features. They are not generally
neat in their outward habit. . .
Is this Chinese immigration desirable? I think not; and, contrary to the expressed opinions of
many of the public prints throughout the country, contend that it ought not to be encouraged.
It is not desirable, because it is not useful; or, if useful at all, it is so only to themselves--not to
us. No reciprocal or mutual benefits are conferred. In what capacity do they contribute to the
advancement of American interests? Are they engaged in any thing that adds to the general
wealth and importance of the country? Will they discard their clannish prepossessions,
assimilate with us, buy of us, and respect us? Are they not so full of duplicity, prevarication and
pagan prejudices, and so enervated and lazy, that it is impossible for them to make true or
estimable citizens?
Hinton Rowan Helper, The Land of Gold, 1855
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How did Americans regard newcomers?
OF course there was a large Chinese population in Virginia [City, Nevada]—it is the
case with every town and city on the Pacific coast. They are a harmless race when
white men either let them alone or treat them no worse than dogs; in fact they are
almost entirely harmless anyhow, for they seldom think of resenting the vilest insults
or the cruelest injuries. They are quiet, peaceable, tractable, free from drunkenness,
and they are as industrious as the day is long. A disorderly Chinaman is rare, and a
lazy one does not exist. So long as a Chinaman has strength to use his hands he needs
no support from anybody; white men often complain of want of work, but a
Chinaman offers no such complaint; he always manages to find something to do. He
is a great convenience to everybody—even to the worst class of white men, for he
bears the most of their sins, suffering fines for their petty thefts, imprisonment for
their robberies, and death for their murders. Any white man can swear a Chinaman's
life away in the courts, but no Chinaman can testify against a white man. Ours is the
“land of the free” —nobody denies that—nobody challenges it. [Maybe it is because
we won't let other people testify.] As I write, news comes that in broad daylight in
San Francisco, some boys have stoned an inoffensive Chinaman to death, and that
although a large crowd witnessed the shameful deed, no one interfered.
Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
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How did immigrants express their hopes and fears, and how
did they relate their experiences?
Discussion Question
How did immigrants express
their hopes and fears, and how
did they relate their experiences?
Sheet Music, 1916
from American Memory Website
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How did immigrants express their hopes and fears, and how did
they relate their experiences?
“The New Colossus,”
Emma Lazarus, 1883
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Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
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How did immigrants express their hopes and fears, and how did
they relate their experiences?
Lewis Hine, “Looking for Lost Baggage,” 1905
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How did immigrants express their hopes and fears, and how did
they relate their experiences?
“Once I thought to write a history of the
immigrants in America. Then I discovered that
the immigrants were American history. . . .
Immigration altered America. But it also altered
the immigrants. . . . Emigration took these
people out of traditional, accustomed
environments and replanted them in strange
ground, among strangers, where strange manners
prevailed. The customary modes of behavior
were no longer adequate, for the problems of life
were new and different. With old ties snapped,
men faced the enormous compulsion of working
out new relationships, new meanings to their
lives, often under harsh and hostile
circumstances.”
Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted, 1951, pp. 3-5
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How did immigrants express their hopes and fears, and how did
they relate their experiences?
“OI WEH! How it shines the beautifulness!” exulted Hanneh
Hayyeh over her newly painted kitchen. She cast a glance full of worship and
adoration at the picture of her son in uniform; eyes like her own, shining with
eagerness, with joy of life, looked back at her.
“Aby will not have to shame himself to come back to his old
home,” she rejoiced, clapping her hands – hands blistered from the paintbrush
and calloused from rough toil. “Now he’ll be able to invite all the grandest
friends he made in the army.”
The smell of the paint was suffocating, but she inhaled in it huge
draughts of hidden beauty. For weeks she had dreamed of it and felt in each
tin of paint she was able to buy, in each stroke of the brush, the ecstasy of
loving service for the son she idolized.
Ever since she first began to wash the fine silks and linens for Mrs.
Preston, years ago, it had been Hanneh Hayyeh’s ambition to have a whitepainted kitchen exactly like that in the old Stuyvesant Square mansion. Now
her own kitchen was a dream come true.
Anzia Yezerskia, “The Lost Beautifulness,” 1920
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How did immigrants express their hopes and fears, and how did
they relate their experiences?
The dream of buying a piano now became an obsession with Jacob.
He had heard one of the men who worked in the rag-shop, say that his
two brothers were coming from Russia and that they would be looking
for a place to live. The idea came to Jacob that he could rent one of
the bedrooms to these two men. He broached the subject to Sarah. She
thought it would be a good idea. Sarah had heard that pianos could be
bought on easy payments. Perhaps she could get enough from the man
to make the payments on a piano.
The boarders moved into one of the two bedrooms. A shiny new piano
was moved into the bare parlor. A relative gave the family a discarded
cot which was put into the parlor. On this Solly slept. Rosie was
moved into the bedroom where her parents slept. Her bed was made
up of the four chairs. . . .
Hilda Polacheck, “The Sarnoff Family Embraces America,” American Memory interviews, 1937-38
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How did immigrants express their hopes and fears, and how did they
relate their experiences?
Well, maybe you think my troubles was over? No, my troubles was just beginning. I
found out that I could not become a citizen, and so I could not bring mine wife and the
children to Chicago.
Well, the first thing was to make a living. One of my brothers had a fish market. So he
gave me a basket of fish and told me where to go to sell them. The first day, I made two
dollars. When I could speak a little English, I peddled fish in the high-toned places, and
I could charge a little more and I made a pretty good living.
My wife was writing me letters how terrible it was in Poland. I sent her money every
month. But it was terrible to have to keep quiet about being in Chicago. I could not get
citizenship papers, because I was smuggled in. And without citizenship papers I could
not bring my family to Chicago. Then my wife wrote me a letter that one of our children
died. I had plenty troubles. I couldn't go back to Poland and I could not bring my family
to Chicago. I didn't wanna go back to Poland. But I did want my family.
Well, then a law was passed that all people who came to America in 1921 and before
could get their citizenship papers. Well, I can tell you I got my papers as soon as I could.
Then I brought my wife and my daughter to Chicago. And you can see, I still sell fish.
Hilda Polacheck, “Louis T. ‘I Sell Fish,’” American Memory interviews, 1939
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What was the myth of the melting pot,
and what were its pros and cons?
Israel Zangwell, The
Melting Pot,
program, 1916, American
Memory
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What was the myth of the melting pot,
and what were its pros and cons?
DAVID
Oh, I love going to Ellis Island to watch the ships coming in from Europe, and to
think that all those weary, sea-tossed wanderers are feeling what I felt when
America first stretched out her great mother-hand to me!
VERA [Softly]
Were you very happy?
DAVID
It was heaven. You must remember that all my life I had heard of America—
everybody in our town had friends there or was going there or got money orders
from there. The earliest game I played at was selling off my toy furniture and
setting up in America. All my life America was waiting, beckoning, shining—the
place where God would wipe away tears from off all faces.
...
Israel Zangwell, The Melting Pot, 1916
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What was the myth of the melting pot,
and what were its pros and cons?
DAVID
To think that the same great torch of liberty which threw its light across all the broad seas and
lands into my little garret in Russia, is shining also for all those other weeping millions of
Europe, shining wherever men hunger and are oppressed—— . . .
Shining over the starving villages of Italy and Ireland, over the swarming stony cities of
Poland and Galicia, over the ruined farms of Roumania, over the shambles of Russia—— . . .
Oh, Miss Revendal, when I look at our Statue of Liberty, I just seem to hear the voice of
America crying: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest—rest——”
[He is now almost sobbing.]
MENDEL
Don't talk any more—you know it is bad for you.
DAVID
But Miss Revendal asked—and I want to explain to her what America means to me.
Israel Zangwell, The Melting Pot, 1916
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What was the myth of the melting pot,
and what were its pros and cons?
...
VERA
Look! How beautiful the sunset is after the storm!
[David turns. The sunset, which has begun to grow beautiful just after Vera’s entrance, has
now reached its most magnificent moment; below there are narrow lines of saffron and pale
gold, but above the whole sky is one glory of burning flame.]
DAVID [Prophetically exalted by the spectacle]
It is the fires of God round His Crucible.
[He drops her hand and points downward.]
There she lies, the great Melting Pot—listen! Can't you hear the roaring and the bubbling?
There gapes her mouth
[He points east]
—the harbour where a thousand mammoth feeders come from the ends of the world to pour
in their human freight. Ah, what a stirring and a seething! Celt and Latin, Slav and Teuton,
Greek and Syrian,—black and yellow——
Israel Zangwell, The Melting Pot, 1916
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What was the myth of the melting pot,
and what were its pros and cons?
VERA [Softly, nestling to him]
Jew and Gentile——
DAVID
Yes, East and West, and North and South, the palm and the pine, the pole and the equator,
the crescent and the cross—how the great Alchemist melts and fuses them with his purging
flame! Here shall they all unite to build the Republic of Man and the Kingdom of God. Ah,
Vera, what is the glory of Rome and Jerusalem where all nations and races come to worship
and look back, compared with the glory of America, where all races and nations come to
labour and look forward!
[He raises his hands in benediction over the shining city.]
Peace, peace, to all ye unborn millions, fated to fill this giant continent—the God of our
children give you Peace.
Israel Zangwell, The Melting Pot, 1916
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What was the myth of the melting pot,
and what were its pros and cons?
Better she had never known this “black year” of a country! Here everybody says
she is green. What an ugly word to apply to people! She had never been green at
home, and here she had suddenly become so. What do they mean by it, anyhow?
Verily, one might turn green and yellow and gray while young in such a dreadful
place. Her heart was wrung with the most excruciating pangs of homesickness.
And as she thus sat brooding and listlessly surveying her new surroundings—the
iron stove, the stationary washtubs, the window opening vertically, the fire
escape, the yellowish broom with its painted handle—things which she had
never dreamed of at her birthplace—these objects seemed to stare at her
haughtily and inspired her with fright. Even the burnished cup of the electric bell
knob looked contemptuously and seemed to call her “Greenhorn! greenhorn!”
“Lord of the world! Where am I?”she whispered with tears in her voice.
Abraham Cahan, Yekl, A Tale of the New York Ghetto, 1896
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What was the myth of the melting pot,
and what were its pros and cons?
“The children of Italian immigrants wish most of all to become Americans.
They make haste to adopt the American customs and speech. In fact they worry
and grieve their parents, who cannot understand or keep pace with them. It is
not a little tragic sometimes, —this conflict between the children and their
elders.
“Yes, that is true. But a price must be paid for progress. In this case it is the
parents that pay. They adapt themselves slowly to new and strange conditions.
That is why we have emphasized adult education. It prevents misunderstanding.
Too often the Italian youth seem cruel and disrespectful. The elders appear
tyrants and kill-joys to their children.”
Merton Lovett, interview with Roland Damiani, 1983
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What was the myth of the melting pot,
and what were its pros and cons?
Here have the very hallways been made into shops. Three feet wide by four deep,
they have just room for one, the shop-keeper, who, himself within, does his
business outside, his wares displayed on a board hung across what was once the
hall door. Back of the rear wall of this unique shop a hole has been punched from
the hall into the alley and the tenants go that way. One of the shops is a “tobacco
bureau,” presided over by an unknown saint, done in yellow and red—there is
not a shop, a stand, or an ash-barrel doing duty for a counter, that has not its
patron saint—the other is a fish-stand full of slimy, odd-looking creatures, fish
that never swam in American waters, or if they did, were never seen on an
American fish-stand, and snails. Big, awkward sausages, anything but appetizing,
hang in the grocer’s doorway, knocking against the customer’s head as if to
remind him that they are there waiting to be bought. What they are I never had
the courage to ask. Down the street comes a file of women carrying enormous
bundles of fire-wood on their heads, loads of decaying vegetables from the
market wagons in their aprons, and each a baby at the breast supported by a sort
of sling that prevents it from tumbling down.
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, Chapter VI, “The Bend,” 1890
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What was the myth of the melting pot,
and what were its pros and cons?
Jacob Riis, “Ready for Sabbath Eve in a Coal Cellar,” c. 1895
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What is the legacy for today of the
immigration experience at the turn of the century?
Ester Hernández. Libertad.
Etching, copyright © 1976.
Fine Prints Collection
(unprocessed). Prints and
Photographs Division.
LC-USZ62-127167.
Courtesy of the artist.
American Memory website
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Last Shot
Have we addressed your questions?
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Use The Forum
To continue the discussion.
To share fresh approaches and discussion questions that work.
We will monitor the forum until March 15.
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Next TPS-NHC Seminar
Why Some New World Colonies Succeeded
and Others Failed
7 p.m.
August 7, 2012
Kathleen DuVal
National Humanities Center Fellow
Associate Professor of History
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Please submit your evaluations.
Thank You
This seminar is sponsored in part by the Library of Congress
Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Program,
coordinated by Waynesburg University.
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