Coming to America: Chapter 6

The text starts with a new distinction between immigrants which shifted from "old" to "new" to north western Europeans to south eastern Europeans. Many of these differences in the distinction of these two groups is religion, language and rural or urban lifestyles.

In the 19th century many of the push factors changed from previous immigration factors. Many people from Ireland during the time of the 1840s and 1850s were heavily influenced by the potato famine or "great hunger". But a main factor that was still present before and after this famine, was the Catholic religion of the people.

The divisions among the Germans became more severe during this time as well. The text states that many of these divisions were caused by geography, ideology and religion. The Scandinavians were a much smaller group than the Germans and Irish. All of these groups have their similarities and differences as to their own reasons why they came to America. The answer will vary from person- to- person. Many of the pull factors are impacted by the social and political actions during the time period of their immigration as well.

In the beginning of the text it mentions the National Origin Act of 1924, which is a apart of the Immigration Act of 1924 as well as the Asian Exclusion Act. All of these acts are to minimize the number of immigrants  into the United States since the population was increasing with number of different ethnicities. This reminded me of the Japanese Exclusion Act where the United States put Japanese-American's into internment camps. This stuck to me because it reminded me of my grandfather who was placed in a camp with his family. After hearing his story, I can only imagine that these other people felt the same discrimination as the Japanese did during this time.  Even today, if people are excluded from a group of friends, they feel like they don't belong or being secluded out, which is what most of these exclusion and immigration acts did.


Below is a picture of the National Origin Act of 1924, which is usually referred to as the Immigration Acts.

Chapter 4: Discussion Questions

1) Why did many of theses ethnic groups move in large groups?


2) Why was the advertised notion of America to be "a land without landlords where the land was for those who wanted it", such a major pull factor for some of these immigrants?


3) Why did Jews allow marriage between other faiths?

Coming to America: Chapter 4-5

 In the beginning of chapter 4, the text refers to the first census and how three-fourths of the population were white and from England and more than two-fifths were from Britain. As mentioned in class, the Natives were not included in the census which really messed up the actual  number of  people in the "New World".

Many other ethnicities were coming to America, like the German, aka Dutch, Scotch Irish, Scots, Irish, Welsh, French, Spanish, Swedes and Jews. Most of these groups were able to keep their language and established their own communities throughout the states.  The Germans were skilled miners, whom many of which were either Protestant, Catholic or Jewish. The Scotch Irish refer to the Presbyterians from the Scottish lowlands who settled in Northern Ireland.  The Scots are those who came directly from Scotland. The Irish were in American during many of the earlier years. Many of the Jews established synagogues in five states. Many of the other ethnicities also arrived in specific ports or areas when coming to America. I think these "community" settings helped these people adjust to their new life in America and being away from home.

in the fifth chapter, it describes the time near the end of the seventeenth century where the population of non-English decent dropped increasingly at this time while people of English decent were higher. The dominance of the English culture was heavier now than ever before. This was also the beginning of Indian segregation  with Indian reservations, many of the colonists called these reservations "Indian plantations", "Indian villages" or "praying towns".

Discrimination against other ethnicities were also against the Germans and well as the Blacks also. I think that from the slavery, many Europeans still felt superior than other groups including other "white" groups. At the beginning of this chapter it asks the question of "what is an American" and provides an answer by Michael-Guillaume-Jean de Crevecoeur. But i think this question doesn't have an answer that is specific based upon someone's ethnicity or color. I think an American is someone who lives in America or calls America one of their home because many people now have multiple places that they call home. There are many other things that make people apart of America and giving a definition may exclude a part of a person.

Coming to America: Chapters 1, 2, & 3

Before reading the first chapter, I didn't really know the exact different between migration and immigration. I knew there was a difference but reading this text really put it in terms for me. With migration simply meaning moving and immigration meaning moving across national frontier, helps me understand and think in terms of how these words are applied to a specific migrating group, when reading.

It wasn't really shocked by the text when it states that the Europeans thought of themselves as superior to any/all cultures they encountered. It seemed that way to me ever since I first learned about the Europeans contact with the Native Americans when I was younger. With the Europeans forcing their language onto the Natives and suppressing their own cultures and beliefs showed me a sense of superiority at a young age. Its just that most of the texts you read don't blatantly say it.

In the second chapter, it describes the majority of Europeans were British-- meaning their language and culture would be English. Since Europeans were superior and felt their cultures, languages, traditions and beliefs were the "chosen one', this became apart of "American" cultures.

There were large numbers of people migrating and immigrating to "America". Many of these groups of people didn't know how to survive in these types of living conditions, like the natives had learned. From that, many of these English immigrants in Maryland, Virginia and New England had more deaths than living people. Eventually, the Europeans figured out how to take advantage or "use" the Natives for what they wanted. This helped more people survive from hunger and diseases, slowly resulting in their population to increase instead of decrease.

One of the most surprising things i read was about the Indian massacre. Although I have heard about it before, I had never read it how the text stated the details in number. From the large number of Natives that lost their land or were killed, shows a that more than half of their population was gone.

When reading the section about indentured immigrants made me think of the reason why racism and segregation started. As the text describes, indentured servants were both African and European and slowly transformed into only African- because of color. This lead to color segregation and racism of thinking these people of African decent are "different" or "less superior" from their skin color. African were the most "American" in the sense that they lost almost all of their culture, tradition and beliefs when being forced into labor. They were also stripped of  their language and were not allowed to have the ability to read and write.

The third chapter continues with the African slave trade. There was almost no existence of letters, diaries or written evidence during this time period because of the lack of literacy. This division in literacy and color/race also helped create a division between social classes. Since  the "white, upper class" people (Europeans, usually) were literate and owned businesses and houses while the "black, lower class" people (Africans) were not literate and couldn't own anything, not even their own freedom.

This form of "cheap labor" increased for business profit. The conditions for these people were horrible and it became apart of western ways and European imperialism. many industries became slave-based, mostly farming like cane sugar. This also helped develop "American capitalism"

Prehistory: Pacific Seafarers & Maritime Cultures (p.8-13, 22-29)

The first portion of the text began with seafaring. I had a idea of what the term meant but not exactly. After reading more into the text, I realized that my definition was correct. I never realized that these people who wanted to migrate to other parts of the earth had to figure out a way- by boats. May of these voyages probably werent successful at first because of technical issues when developing their boat. To imagine that these migrators could think of something like a boat that is so complex and be able to successfully reach land at the end of their voyage, says a lot about their intellect and society.

I found it very surprising and interesting that the Polynesian migration was included. Throughout all of my previous history classes I have never heard about the Polynesians' history. i specifically liked reading how the seafaring was incorporated in how the polynesians were able to travel through the Pacific oceans as well as other groups who traveled long distances, crossing oceans.

I also found it very interesting how one of the "branches" of Austronesians left a trail of "distinctive decorated ceramics". This reminded me of the story of "Hansel and Gretel" who left a trail of bread crumbs because it seems as though this branch of  Austronesian people wanted there to be a way for themselves or others to gain a sense of direction.

In the second part of the reading, it described the Native American seafaring more specifically. Much of the evidence throughout all of the text, as a whole, includes supporting evidence of seafaring in the early years. I found the shape of their boats the most interesting. The Native Americans seemed to have built a canoe-like row boat. With their weaving skills, it seems that they would have made a more stable version of a boat.


                                             Reed Boat:

                              



                                             Bull Boat:

The American Indian & The Problem of History- Ch.3

It was not surprising to me that the European settlers to America termed themselves "civilized Christians" and the Indians as "savages" or heathen natives. It seems that the Europeans didn't realize who was actually on the land first.

Although the Europeans may have "claimed" parts of the land "before" some of these Indian tribes, many of the tribes were migratory throughout the land due to their cultivation of the land. As much of this is already known, the Indians knew how to survive on the land that they lived on. On the other hand, the Europeans were new to the area and didn't know as much about crops and cultivating the land.

I can only imagine that there would have been some type of miscommunication between the Indians and Europeans as they different languages when "discussing" things like land or even religion. Since the Indians were at home, they tried to continue to live their lives as they did normally, while the Europeans were looking for freedom from their country.

You can imagine that the Europeans tried to influence the Indians into their religion and maybe even their own cultural traditions. It seems that throughout  history, Indians were able to fight for their culture and traditions to preserve them as much as they could without the influence from their surroundings.

Although the text may refer to this preservation of culture and tradition "individualism", in the end it helped the Indian community stay whole and true to their own identities without loosing them over a period of time.

While the text as a whole includes a lot of important information, i felt that the story of the underlying preservation of the Indian's culture and traditions seemed to be the more important and rewarding information in the text because without those two elements, Indians might not have the same identity as is their past.

The Americas: A Hemispheric History- Chapters 1 & 2

It was surprising how the "New World" slowly became the Americas. With Columbus having much to do with the discovery of the new world, many new colonists were calling themselves "Americans" before the actual name came into play. The texts goes on to explain how the term "North America" is in reference to cultural unity that has build over the years.

This brings me back to our class discussion of ethnicity. Many people in the New World were from various different places. Many of these people were "escaping" from something whether its was religious freedom, leaving a monarchy, or just simply being able to do what is comfortable for themselves. Most of these people wanted better lifestyles than the one they were living. This example bring in the ethnicity factor in todays America. Many people still come to America for those similar reasons stated above and many want opportunities that might not be available to them in their own country.

While the next chapter refers to the adjustments the people had to make once coming to America, it seemed as though other people were learning from each other. Many of the Europeans didn't know how to grow crops like the Native Americans and even cultural influences were shared. Many of these people "went their separate ways" once they found that America was a vast piece of land, they didn't have to be so close to all the other civilizations. As some people may have "separated" from other settlers/colonists, many people stuck together with people who had commonalities. This, in a way, helped preserve their own cultures and traditions by having some type of freedom to create their newly adjusted lives without losing their ethnic backgrounds.

Trial Post

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