Immigration
0 The original 13 colonies had been settled mainly by
English settlers.
0 Sweden, Holland, France, Scotland, Ireland and
Germany soon followed.
0 After 1815 an increasing number of Irish immigrants
began to arrive.
0 Prior to the Civil War 400,000 immigrants had come
to America, following the war it began to rise sharply.
Old Immigration
0 Old immigration was the period between the 1830’s
and peaked in the 1840’s when many immigrants
were coming to the U.S.
0 During the 1840’s and 1850’s an additional 1.5 million
people came to the U.S.
0 ½ of those were from Ireland, Ireland had been
suffering from a potato famine.
0 These Irish immigrants settled in New York, and
Boston mainly since these were the 2 ports of entry
into the U.S.
Old Immigration cont.
0 In the 1840’s there was also a large number of
Germans who came to the U.S. mainly to escape crop
failures, others were avoiding political persecution
following the failed revolution of 1848.
0 Many others were German Jews who were seeking
religious freedom.
Old Immigration cont.
0 Large numbers of Germans settled on farms and in
cities in the Midwest, areas of rapid growth with many
job opportunities.
0 The Germans gave a distinctive flavor to certain cities
like Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and St. Louis.
Old Immigration cont.
0 In the 1850’s following the gold rush, many Chinese
immigrants began to flock to the Pacific coast.
0 Many worked for the railroads.
0 By the mid 1870’s around 100,000 Chinese had
settled in the West.
Old Immigration cont.
0 During the colonial period immigrants were generally
accepted due to the need for jobs.
0 European railroad and steamship agents referred to
America as the place where riches could be had
almost for the asking.
0 The most persuasive way to get people to come to the
U.S. was from letters written by recent immigrants to
family and friends back home.
Old Immigration cont.
0 In the 1840’s and 1850’s many native born Americans
began to resent these newcomers.
0 The Irish immigrants were the most resented.
0 Some resented the Irish because they dressed and
talked differently.
0 Others resented them because they were catholic.
New Immigration
0 Until the 1880’s most newcomers came from the
nations of northern and western Europe.
0 After 1885 large numbers came from nations of
southern and eastern Europe.
0 These new immigrants came from Italy, Russia, and
Poland as well as nations in the Austro- Hungarian
empire.
New Immigration cont.
0 Italians were one of the largest groups of new
immigrants.
0 Many came from Sicily and southern Italy where these
people were facing economic misfortune.
0 Overpopulation and unemployment made life hard
which led many Italian Catholics to
go to the U.S.
New Immigration cont.
0 Eastern European Jews were another large group of
immigrants.
0 Despite living in different areas these Jews all faced
the same issues.
0 They were generally victims of religious
discrimination.
0 In many regions Jews weren’t allowed to own land,
work in certain trades, or move out of areas that had
been set aside for them.
New Immigration cont.
0 These limitations on the Jews created widespread
poverty.
0 Eastern European Jews also lived in danger of
pogroms.
0 Pogroms are organized massacres.
New Immigration cont.
0 Slavs made up the next largest group of immigrants.
0 Slavs is a broad label given to a people generally from
eastern Europe and have similar languages and
customs.
0 In the late 1800’s large numbers of Slavs left Russia,
Poland, and other countries to escape economic woes,
others left for political freedoms.
New Immigration cont.
0 These new immigrants to the U.S. were for the most
part poor.
0 They came to the U.S. for a better life.
0 The labor provided by these immigrants allowed the
U.S. to industrialize.
Ethnic Neighborhoods
0 These immigrants moved to the cities and lived in
homogeneous neighborhoods.
0 Little Italy and the Jewish lower east side were a few
in New York City.
0 In these places they lived life they way they were used
to and spoke their native language.
0 The villages they created revolved around similar
traditions, they built churches, synagogues, clubs, and
newspapers like their homeland and adapted them to
their new home.
Resentment
0 Many social problems arose due to these immigrants.
0 Many Americans wondered if these immigrants would
ever assimilate into American culture since they
continued to speak their native language and live life
as though they were still in their homeland.
0 Many workers blamed these immigrants for low
wages.
Resentment cont.
0 Others resented that many of these new immigrants
were catholic or Jewish.
0 The railroad strike of 1877 and the Haymarket Square
riot of 1886 resulted in many people's fear of
immigrants who, many believed, were for socialism or
anarchism.
0 Anarchism is a belief that there is no direct
government authority over society.
Resentment cont.
0 A few politicians were strongly reactionary in their
response to the issue of immigration.
0 One of them was Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts.
0 These men wanted immigration from southern and
eastern Europe to be stopped completely.
0 Lodge wanted a bill to be passed that required all new
immigrants to read or write 25 words of the U.S.
constitution in some language, if they couldn’t they
weren’t allowed in the U.S.
Resentment cont.
0 In the late 1800’s hostility grew towards many of the
new racial and ethnic groups in the U.S.
0 The differences in customs, dress, and language
created a basic distrust of the foreign born by many
native born Americans.
0 Some historians believe that this reaction was a
response to the rapid changes occurring in America
due to industrialization.
0 Those who were uncertain or disturbed by social
change took their hostilities out on the immigrants.
Opposition
0 Some Americans formed groups to counter what they
considered the immigrant threat.
0 One group was the American Protective Association
which was founded in 1887 to protest the large
number of catholic immigrants.
0 In some parts of the country, local laws were passed
that prohibited immigrants from holding certain kinds
of jobs and denied them other rights.
Opposition cont.
0 Jewish immigrants were denied admission to some
universities.
0 Other immigrants faced actual physical attacks.
0 The anti- immigration movement was not limited to
groups such as the American Protective Association.
0 Many scholars during this time felt this way too.
Opposition cont.
0 Future President Woodrow Wilson and frontier
historian Frederick Jackson Turner lamented the
lessening flow of immigration from northern Europe
and the rise in numbers of “inferior stocks” coming to
the U.S.
0 On writer considered the new immigration a plot by
European governments to “unload the sweepings of
their jails and asylums”.
Anti- Chinese
0 Resentment wasn’t just toward European new comers
but Asians as well.
0 The Chinese on the Pacific coast were discriminated
against as well.
0 Gold and cheap labor brought many Chinese to the
California area in the mid 1800’s.
0 Many worked for Central Pacific Railroad or in gold
mines.
Anti- Chinese cont.
0 In 1852 there were around 25,000 Chinese living on
the Pacific coast and each year after the rate increased
by 4,000 a year.
0 By the end of the 1870’s there were around 75,000
Chinese in California.
0 Their willingness to work for low wages prompted a
violent anti- Chinese movement among the white
workers in California.
Anti- Chinese cont.
0 These feelings intensified during hard economic
times, during the depression that followed the Panic
of 1873, unemployed workers in California attacked
the Chinese.
0 Americans began to demand that Chinese immigrants
be excluded from the U.S.
Anti- Chinese cont.
0 In 1879 Congress forbade the importing of foreign
workers under contract, a law aimed primarily at the
Chinese.
0 Then in 1882, Congress responded to pressure from
the western states and suspended nearly all
immigration from China for 10
years.