Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
Americanization and the Bennett Law
In the mid-nineteenth century, reformers began to view education as a means of social change. As the number of immigrants continued to grow and diversify the population, a series of efforts were launched by policy makers to assimilate these disparate groups into mainstream American culture. Learning the English language became a central focus of many Americanization efforts.
In the 19th century, Wisconsin's first white settlers were mainly Yankees from New York and New England, but in the 1840s large numbers of European immigrants, primarily Germans and Norwegians, began settling in Wisconsin. Waves of ethnic conflict periodically swept through Wisconsin, though... more...
Original Documents and Other Primary Sources
 | A white man praises the transformation of Indian children into "Americans," 1894 |
| Wisconsin newspapers take a stand on the Bennett Law, 1889. |
| A Republican Senator defends the Bennett Law and Governor Hoard, 1890 |
| Milwaukee's Jewish community honors the work of Lizzie Kander in 1932 |
| Ho-Chunk women form a homemaking club, 1933 |
| An 1886 visit to the Menominee community of Keshena |
 | A miniature kit teaches mothers about safe homebirths, 1938 |
| A hand-made prom dress |
 | A group of Democrats break from party opposition to the Bennett Law |
| A German American editor provides reasons to oppose the Bennett Law |
| An 1892 rulebook for Indian schools |
| An 1898 manual for running Indian schools. |
| What the government thought Indian girls needed to know (1911) |
| Excerpts from The Settlement Cookbook |
| Reports on the progress of reform in mission kindergartens throughout Milwaukee, 1892 |
| A Republican Party pamphlet in support of the Bennett Law |
| Theodora Youmans emphasizes the need to educate women voters |
| Conditions on Wisconsin Indian reservations, 1909-1910 |
| Statistics on government schools for Indians, 1899 |
| The "Best" Books for Children, 1890 |
 | Ojibwe girls learn to use sewing machines, 1895 |
| Oneida Indians at church and school in Hobart, Wis., ca. 1910 |
| Pictures of the Potawatomi from the 1820's to the 1920's |
 | William Dempster Hoard defends the Bennett Law |
| Alfred Bridgman's English-Menominee word list from the 1870s |
| Frank Bridgman's Menominee vocabulary, 1878 |
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