Emma Lazarus Famous Poem Myth

Beyond Boundaries Midterm Spring 2021

Professor Oltman

In this exam you will write two (2) essays, each one 2-3 pages (typed and double-spaced). Your essays should have a brief introduction followed by several paragraphs – one major point for each paragraph – and a short conclusion. Please save your essays as one Word document and put your name in the title. Please do not send two separate documents. Do not save it as a PDF or a google doc. The exam is due in my mailbox ([email protected]) no later than Sunday Feb. 28 if you want to receive a “P” for your midterm grade. (A passing midterm grade does not guarantee that you passed the midterm.) I will acknowledge receipt of your exam when I download it to my computer. If you do not receive an acknowledgement, assume I have not received it.

Section 1 (choose one topic to write about)

In 1610, Sir Thomas Gates and Lord La Warr went to the Virginia colony (at Jamestown) on behalf of the Virginia Company only to discover that out of 600 original settlers only 60 remained. The following year when Sir Thomas Dale arrived to check on things, he found the settlers starving – and yet they were bowling in the streets. Why were they bowling when they should have been taking care of themselves? What does this tell us about the first permanent settlers in the British mainland colonies – in terms of their expectations about what they would find; and also their relationships with the Indians? How did Dale respond to this sorry state of affairs and to why was his response ineffective? How did the first immigrants finally solve the labor problem at Jamestown?

Emma Lazarus’s famous poem that is positioned at the base of the Statue of Liberty contributes to one of the central myths of the United States. What is that myth – and what does the history of immigration to the United States tell us about reality? Who are the “wretched refuse” and when are they allowed in the country? When are the doors shut? You will find the answer to this question in Gerber.

Section 2 (everyone should answer this question)

Explicate this passage by Rose Schneiderman (it comes from Todd’s “Remembering the Unknowns”). You answer should include a brief discussion of Schneiderman, who she was and the context in which she was speaking. (You should find this information in the article and not on Wikipedia.) Who was she talking to when she made this speech? What does she mean when she says that public officials “have the workhouse just back of all their warnings”? Why does she say that she “can’t talk fellowship” with those who organized the meeting (and were sitting in the orchestra seats)? Your answer should include a discussion of social class.

I would be a traitor to those poor burned bodies if I were to come

here and talk good fellowship. . . . We have tried you citizens; we

are trying you now and you have a couple of dollars for the sorrowing

mothers and brothers and sisters by way of a charity gift. But every

time the workers come out in the only way they to protest against

conditions which are unbearable, the strong hand of law is allowed to

press down heavily upon us. Public officials have only words of warning

or us – warning that we must be intensely peaceable, and they have the

workhouse just back of all their warnings. The strong hand of the law

beats us back when we rise. . .. I can’t talk fellowship to you who are

gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my

experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. And the

only way is through a strong working-class movement (Todd, 67).