United States History Student Edition

E Advice From a New Arrival to the United States In 1849, Margaret McCarthy sailed to the United States from Liverpool, England. Several months after her arrival in New York, she wrote a letter to her parents back in Ireland to describe her impressions of her new home and to offer advice for anyone who was considering making the journey. PRIMARY SOURCE: LETTER “ My Dr. [dear] Father I must only say that this is a good place and A good Country for if one place does not Suit A man he can go to Another. . . . But there is one thing that’s Ruining this place Especially the Frontirs towns and Cities where the Flow of Emmigration is most, the Emmigrants has not money Enough to Take them to the Interior of the Country which oblidges them to Remain here in York and the like places for which Reason Causes the less demand for Labour and also the great Reduction in wages. . . . [B]ut any man or woman . . . are fools that would not venture and Come to this plentiful Country where no man or woman ever Hungered . . . but I can assure you there are Dangers upon Dangers Attending comeing here but my Friends nothing Venture nothing have. ” — Margaret McCarthy, 1849 oblidge [oblige] to be bound to do something reduction lowering EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Explaining What reason does McCarthy provide for encouraging immigration to the United States? 2. Explaining Why does McCarthy warn others from her home against coming to the United States? 3. Analyzing Points of View What does McCarthy mean when she writes “nothing Venture nothing have,” at the end of her letter?

F

Guide to New York City In 1842, the famous British author Charles Dickens took a trip to North America. While there, he visited a neighborhood in New York City on the Lower East Side known as The Five Points. Many of the city’s poorest residents lived there, including African Americans, unskilled workers, and Irish immigrants. Dickens described the community as part of a travelogue of his trip. PRIMARY SOURCE: TRAVELOGUE “ Let us go on again, and . . . plunge into the Five Points. . . . Poverty, wretchedness , and vice are rife enough where we are going now.

This is the place—these narrow ways . . . reeking everywhere with, dirt and filth. Such lives as are led here bear the same fruits here as elsewhere. The coarse and bloated faces at the doors have counterparts at home and all the wide world over. Debauchery has made the very houses prematurely old. See how the rotten beams are tumbling down, and how the patched and broken windows seem to scowl dimly. ” — American Notes for General Circulation , Charles Dickens, 1842

wretchedness misery rife commonly occurring coarse rough

debauchery the act of taking part in bad behavior

EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Explaining Describe Dickens’s overall impression of The Five Points neighborhood. Use language from the text in your answer. 2. Interpreting How does Dickens personify the neighborhood’s buildings? How do these descriptions reflect how Dickens feels about the residents?

(l)Margaret McCarthy, “An Irish Emigrant to New York Writes Home,” HERB: Resources for Teachers. American Social History Productions, Inc., n.d.; (r)Dickens, Charles. American Notes, Pictures from Italy, and A Child’s History of England. London: Chapman and Hall, 1891.

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