Immigration was our main topic this morning as we began a new chapter in our text (Chapter 20, page 249) reading about the influx of immigrants pouring into America. We read about the conditions under which many traveled, in steerage, or the lowest class on a ship, and that many Irish people came because of the Irish potato famine and to escape anti-Catholic persecution from the Protestants in Great Britian. Most settled in northeastern cities to work as industrial and domestic laborers. We also read about other immigrants - the Germans - who made up another significant percentage of US immigrants and tended to settle in the Midwest to become farmers. We read that most immigrants settled in clusters and that many Scandinavians settled in the northern Midwest, whereas Chinese people, who immigrated across the Pacific, settled in California.