Contrast the journey to America described by Richard Whyte coming to America from Ireland, with Richard Duden's description of the Midwest as he travels around the countryside in the 1820s seeking to persuade German immigrants to make the trip to lands far richer than anything they can expect to possess back in the homeland. Is one more "right" than the other in his presentation?
Both Richard Whyte and Richard Duden pioneered efforts to inhabit America. Richard Whyte’s journey gave hope to many Irish people resulting in waves of immigrants from the country in the United States. The journey to America gave the individuals’ aspirations of a new life. It was also a trip filled with tragedies and struggles since most people who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to reach the United States succumbed to starvation, poor traveling conditions, and illnesses. More than half of the population in Ireland moved to America to pursue better lives (Political Nativism, n.d.). Richard Duden’s motives for traveling were based on reclaiming the United States that was once a colony of German. Through his journeys, he prompts conservative Lutherans to move to America to regain the roots of the Reformation religion, unionism, and rationalism.
Richard Duden’s travels were more of political propaganda to instigate the Germans to repossess the capital of their world dominance. Richard Whyte, on the hand, inspired people in Ireland to leave their devastating and impoverished lives to seek new opportunities in America. His depictions were better than those of Richard Duden. Whyte’s ideas were also reaffirmed by those who had already gone to the country. They wrote to their families telling them of the numerous jobs and good wages in the United States to entice them to join them. The Irish immigrants flooded the Midwestern states that had lucrative work opportunities such as Cleveland. The towns had steel and iron industries, rolling mills, and blast furnaces. The persuasion from the two authors worked in favor of the Immigration Bureaus who had sent out agents to lure immigrants with free and inexpensive land and travels (Political Nativism, n.d.).
This week's reading assignments are particularly rich in diversity of testimonies from a variety of people seeking entrance into the U.S. As well, arguments from opponents to those individuals coming into the country. Your task this week is to differentiate (if you can) between the kinds of immigrants portrayed in this week's readings, versus those immigrants portrayed in previous weeks' readings, from earlier times. For example, fears of the "natives" over the arrival of Irish Catholics in the post-1850-s. What makes them so "different"? Who cares about Maria Monk anyway? What differences (if any) that you can define?
Nativism entails a political ideology of preserving the established cultures in an area from the threats of immigrants or newcomers. Before 1845, Romans Catholics comprised of a small group of individuals who were accomplished socially. With time, they increased into a well-knit unit of educated and landowning aristocrats who emphasized Catholic heritage. Between 1850 and 1920, members of other religions such as Buddhists, Muslims, Protestants, Jews, and Hindus started streaming into the United States. The Irish Catholics also entered the country in large numbers making the religion have a more significant proportion of followers (Political Nativism, n.d.). Religious animosity emerged resulting in the formation of Protective Associations and Institutions to prevent the assimilation of Irish Protestants into Catholicism. The Catholic religion attracted many individuals because of its organization, support, village lifestyle as well as the social development mention earlier.
Many disclaimers started to arise so that people could tarnish the Catholic religion. An example is Awful Disclosures or Hidden Secrets of Maria Monk. The book turned into a best seller for revealing the infanticide and sexual exploitation that nuns had to undergo from the fathers. Many scholars termed the literary work as a hoax saying that Maria Monk had had a brain injury as a child; hence, she did not understand the difference between fantasy and facts. The testimonies of the nun made a difference because many Americans began to view the Catholic religion from a different perspective while others developed hatred towards it. Maria Monk disclosed the fraudulent acts of the Catholic Church at a time of American anti-Catholic dislike (Monk, Dwight, Slocum & Hoyte, 1836). Hence, her words sparked an outrage within the United States that called for a comprehensive investigation of the Catholic Church. However, many factors such as the characters and venues indicate that the story could have been a make-belief from a girl suffering from mental instability.
Question 3 ( Read page 195-288 and this link to answer this question: https://archive.org/details/Voyage.Of.The.Damned.1976 . IMPORTANT TO WATCH THIS VIDEO IN ORDER TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION. YOU DON’T HAVE TO WATCH THE WHOLE VIDEO TO GET THE POINT.
"A considerable proportion of immigrants now coming are from races and countries, or parts of countries, which have not progressed, but have been back- ward, downtrodden, and relatively useless for centuries. If these immigrants "have not had opportunities," it is because their races have not made the opportunities: for they have had all the time that any other races have had " These words are from the Immigration Restriction League's charter, the section taken from this week's reading.
Compare these thoughts with the fate of the passengers aboard the St. Louis' (this week's visual "reading"), and see how they can be justified.
The Voyage of the Damned depicts a story of a group of people from the Jewish religion escaping Germany with the hopes of a new life in Cuba. The Jews were being persecuted by the Germans found relief in the ship that was commandeered by Gustav Schroder. Unlike in Germany, where the Jews underwent oppression and harsh treatment, the voyage was enjoyable for them since they were treated as regular tourists with good food, music, dances, and other leisure activities. The captain struggled to find homes for the Jewish refugees throughout Europe after they were turned away by Cuba and the United States. Countries such as Belgium, France, and the U.K agreed to take a portion of the passengers (The Voyage of the Damned, 1976). The tussle to find a home for the passengers aboard the St. Louis may have been brought about by their background or religion.
Many people did not have high regards concerning Jews. The captain himself in the film almost denied the request to transport the refugees once he heard that they were Jews. The Germans had created an inferior perspective concerning the community that made other nations devalue them. The countries that declined to provide safe passage to the members of the voyage such as Cuba and the U.S. may also have not wanted to develop conflicts between them and Germany. The Immigration Restriction Charter prevented several ethnic and racial groups such as Asians and the Jews from entering the American continent in the 19th century (Political Nativism, n.d.). They allowed safe passage to White people or Commonwealth citizens coming from Germany, Italy, Ireland, etc. with the exception of the Blacks who came to work as slaves. The voyage took place around the time of World War II when Hitler planned the global dominance of Germany. Most of the passengers aboard the ship thus succumbed to the battle.
References
Monk, M., Dwight, T., Slocum, J. J., & Hoyte, W. K. (1836). Awful disclosures. M. Monk.
Political Nativism. (n.d.) Civil War and Immigration.
The Voyage of the Damned (1976). Retrieved May 10, 2016 from https://archive.org/details/Voyage.Of.The.Damned.1976.
