Immigration 1815 - 1860
•1815
– 1860 5 million Europeans came to
the U.S.
•3 million came in one decade 1845 – 1854
•Largest immigration proportionate to the
total population in American History
•Irish were the most numerous immigrant
group
•Germans second
•Other groups include: England, Scotland,
Whales, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and
Holland
Immigration 1815 - 1860
•Expectations
•Why did most immigrants come to the U.S.
•Religious
freedom
•Mormons recruited in the slums of England
•Emigrants from Norway were Quakers fleeing
persecutions by Lutheran clergy
•Largest numbers of immigrants had come to the U.S. to
better their economic situation
•Many
expected utopia
•Travel to U.S. was terrifying
•Farming in U.S. lacked the social aspects that
European farmers were accustomed to having.
Immigration 1815 - 1860
•Expectations
•Ports of departure were often used by
custom. Each country would tend to use one
port more than another. Therefore, immigrants
entering the United States would enter into
the same port from the same country most of
the time.
•Irish
– New England, New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey
•Germans – New Orleans, but then settled in the
upper Mississippi and Ohio valleys, (Illinois, Ohio,
Wisconsin, and Missouri)
•Settlement patterns characterized immigrants
Immigration 1815 - 1860
•Expectations
•Germans and Irish tended to concentrate in
cities forgoing farming
•Cities need strong labor forces
•Irish built the houses, new streets, and
aqueducts that were changing urban America
•Irish also built canals and railroads
•Cities
offered social aspect that farming
lacked for the immigrant
Immigration 1815 - 1860
•Expectations
– The Germans
•Diverse group
•Bavarians, Westphalians, or Saxons rather
than Germans.
•Could be Catholic, Protestant, most often
Lutherans and Jews.
•Came from a wide range of social classes and
occupations
•Mostly farmers, some were professionals,
artisans, and trades people.
Immigration 1815 - 1860
•Expectations
– The Germans
•Heinrich Steinweg – Henry Steinway
•Steinway pianos
•Levi
Strauss – Levi’s
•Bound together by common language
•Stayed in German neighborhoods
•Climbed social ladder in their on ethnic
communities
•Schools, volunteer organizations,
newspapers, etc
Immigration 1815 - 1860
•Expectations
– The Germans
•Economic self-sufficiency conspired with
the strong bonds of their language to
encourage a clannish psychology among
the German immigrants
•Americans admired industriousness
•Americans resented their economic
success
•Americans disdained their clannishness.