Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis was lived through  May 3, 1849 to May 26, 1914. He was born in Ribe, Denmark and was known as a U.S newspaper reporter, social reformer,and photographer. He shocked the United States by showing he slum conditions in his books, one being How the Other Half Lives in 1890. He was the ted Emancipator of the Slums who who exposed the downside of the United States in the late 19th century. 

Jacob Riis came to the United States at the age of 21, he held various jobs. In 1873 he became a police reporter and was assigned to New York's Lower East Side. He used flash bulb technique photographing to dramatize his lectures and photos in his books. How the Other Half Lives is Riis most famous book. 

When How the Other Half Lives was published it was seen by Theodore Roosevelt, the New York Police Commissioner, and he had the police lodging houses that were in the book closed down. Throughout the next twenty five years Jacob Riis wrote and lectured about the problems on the poor. He was a terror to officials and the government. He exposed them in articles, books, and public speeches. He not only got news but he cared about it. Jacob Riis was a man who hated tryannies, misrery and abuses. 

 

Battle of Little Bighorn: Textbook

The Battle of Little Bighorn was fought on January 25,1876 at Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. Federal Troops were led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer against the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Sitting Bull was the holy man who led his people against the resistance of the United States Government. It was Sitting Bull's vision had motivated the natives to fight. Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw the 7th Cavalry's defeat led by Custer.

Before the Battle of Little Bighorn tensions had rise since the Americans discovered gold on Native American lands. It was an accidental discovery of gold on the western border of the Sioux reservation. This was the reason for Americans settling in and wanting Native American lands, because of the gold. The Native Americans believe it was the Americans who started the war because they came into Native American lands and began pushing the Natives out. They moved them out of their land by burning their tipis destroying all their food and belongings and even killing Natives. Kate Bighead a Cheyenne Indian told this story stating that General Custer had Killed Chief Black Kettle and his band.

The Native Americans began to fight back. General Custer had to confront the Native Americans at Little Bighorn, however; he was unaware of how many number of Native Americans were fighting under Sitting Bull's command. Custer and the 7th Cavalry were outnumbered and destroyed by Sitting Bull and his band and this became known as Custer's Last Stand.

Why did Americans pass the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?

The Chinese Exclusion act was a United States Federal Law that passed on May 6, 1882. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States of America. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 removed Chinese immigration for ten years and declared Chinese as unacceptable for naturalization. According to documents A through D in our Chinese Immigration and Exclusion: Graphic Organizer packet many white Americans supported the Chinese Exclusion Act. The reasons why Americans passed the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882 was because Americans believed the Chinese were bringing competition to them as they flourished into the United States and began to occupy all jobs.

In both Document B and D, these documents support the fact that the Chinese were occupying the jobs of other immigrants in the United States. If you take a look at document B a political cartoon by Thomas Nast from 1871 we see an illustration of Columbia defending and comforting a Chinese immigrant from other immigrants such as a gang of Irish and German thugs. He is hated because the Irish and Germans believe the Chinese immigrants are taking their jobs as they enter into the United States. Document D is a passage from Lee Chew's, "The Biography of a Chinaman." In this document the passage states the reasons for why the Chinese immigrants are being hated. Lee Chew states that, "It was the jealously of laboring men of other nationalities---especially the Irish---that raised the outcry against the Chinese." So this shows more proof on why the Exclusion Act was passed, it was passed because the Chinese were occupying other immigrant's jobs.

In document A and C, these documents support the fact that the Chinese immigrants were occupying not just immigrant but white american jobs as well. In document A we have a script from a play called "The Chinese Must Go" published in San Francisco, 1879. In the script their are two main characters Sam Gin and Ak Coy. These two main characters discuss on how they are better then white Americans and they realize they can do a better job, so they plan on taking American jobs. Document C is a speech from a workingmen of San Francisco on August 16, 1888. In this speech he state how rich men have realized they can use the Chinese as cheap labor so they have imported thousands of Chinese immigrants into the country. Now thousands of Chinese immigrants are occupying every single jobs. The workingman list that the Chinese filled mainly all boot, shoe, and cigar industries. The Chinese immigrants also obtained nearly all farming and sewing jobs. So in conclusion, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed because Americans believed they were competition and they were taking every job in the United States.