Presentation Notes
Many have said that America was built on the backs of immigration and minorities that settled in America. There is a lot of evidence to support this, as the Irish and German immigrants that came in waves during the 1880s were often used for cheap labor. In addition, African-Americans were used as slave labor until the conclusion of the Civil War, playing an important part in the development of the country. In addition, Native Americans were also prominently involved in the process, but certainly not in a positive way; this is because the United States government used resettlement techniques and fought numerous wars against them in order to drive them from their land. Thus, there were numerous competing perceptions of these minority groups across the country. The primary minorities being examined are African Americans, Native Americas, Irish, German, and the Scottish, and each received a very different welcome in America.
Slide Three
The mass migration from the Irish in the 1800s was caused largely by the potato famine. For three years, farmers were unable to grow the staple crop of the island, and this led to widespread starvation and migration. Upon arriving, Irish immigrants faced serious racism from the pre-established population. For example, the Thirteen Colonies had instituted taxes against the Irish servants/indentured servants before the Revolution due to the conflict between the Emerald Isle and England. In the more modern era, people took to hanging signs in their business windows that said, “No Irish need apply” for open job positions. The Irish were heavily discriminated against because they were Catholic while the majority of the population was Protestant. In some cases violence was committed, as an angry mob burned a Catholic convent to the ground in 1834 near Boston. The Irish were also frequently used as a cheap labor source, as the impoverished nature of their journey from Ireland made them increasingly dependent upon low-income wages in the US.
Slide Four
German immigrants received a slightly different welcome, though due to many different reasons. The German immigrants were largely accepted because they came from a similar religious group and also because the Germans typically came with knowledge of valuable trades, whereas the Irish were escaping from famine. People typically look more favorably on richer immigrants coming to their country. The German group also tended to settle in Quaker Pennsylvania which was more tolerant than the rest of the country. They became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch because the German word for German is “Deutsch”. Thousands of Hessian mercenaries during the Revolutionary War deserted from the British side and fought for the revolutionaries, which also helped bolster public opinion in Germanic favor during the next several decades. However, after the 1840s, German immigrants were widely frowned upon due to the political upheavals of their time. Until this however, Germans faced no serious opposition.
Slide Five
The situation for the Native Americans was much more perilous than other minorities. Natives faced extreme prejudice from an American population that had spent centuries fighting them for control of the same land. In 1838 and 1839, President Andrew Jackson ordered the removal of the Cherokee to land in Oklahoma, creating the infamous Trail of Tears. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 orchestrated this, as the United States reneged on its land agreements and began pushing tribes far away. This came after many years of the discrimination, starting when the British Crown had begun paying for colonists to kill natives. The savagery of the early decades of colonization and the subsequent wars with the first encountered natives led to such racial distrust and discrimination.
Slide Six
African slaves were also a considerable minority in the south, while freedman occasionally escaped southern slavery and made it to the free North. In the South, natives were largely opposed to the creation of more and more free blacks. In the North, slavery was abolished in every state but many states adopted laws that forced segregation between blacks and whites. All other minorities were also capable of owning slaves, even Native Americans; there were reportedly many slaves that accompanied the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. African-Americans were even reportedly held in contempt by the poor Irish immigrants because the slaves were valuable, whereas the Irish were hired as cheap labor to participate in the highly dangerous construction of American infrastructure, like canals (Library of Congress, n.d.). In addition, freedmen were still not held in equal regard in the North, as most states would not allow them to vote or hear their testimony in court cases.
Slide Seven
Finally, the Scottish had a very different experience was very different from other minorities. Most Scottish immigrants settled in isolated communities in the Carolinas due to persecution at home and because of the favorable conditions imposed by the governors of the Carolinas. As this region was relatively sparsely settled during the colonial era and remained so up until the Civil War, this very specific demographic was able to form an important block that kept them isolated from the racism from other parts of the US. This was very similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch. The culture in this region continued to develop on its own without a substantial amount of outside influence. During this time period, the Scottish were undergoing a serious level of persecution in their homeland, and the relative isolation in the Carolinas helped attract a significant group of immigrants.
