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5.g.1 - Understand how human activity has and continues to shape the United States.

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5.G.1.1,5.G.1.3, & 5.G.1.4

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Explore the major reasons why people emigrated from Ireland to America! Here see the conditions they endured.

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Goodbye to old Ireland!--Passengers on tender at Queenstown, going out to an ocean-liner

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1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph.

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Learn about German & Irish journeys while traveling.

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Check out this document that talks about the classes that arose after the liberation of Slaves and influx of other races into industrialized America.

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In 1899, Mr. Samuel Scottron, an African-American scholar from Brooklyn, New York, published an article in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper in which he reminded readers that African Americans had gained full and legal citizenship status in the United States. Scottron's article was a response to a proposal made by Senator M.C. Butler recommending that all African Americans be colonized in South America. In the article, Mr. Scottron refers to comparisons made between Chinese immigrants and African-American citizens by the editor of the Boston Herald newspaper. The editor had suggested that the Chinese immigrants on the West Coast were better suited to American citizenship than were African Americans. What is Scottron's position on extending citizenship to Chinese immigrants? What evidence doe he provide to make the case that African Americans had become good citizens? Do you think that the comparison between Chinese immigrants and African-American citizens was fair? Why or why not?

View the entire article from African American Perspectives, 1818-1907. Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.

"Under the above caption, in 1891, for some reason which I at this moment do not recall the Boston Herald was giving in its editorial columns considerable attention to the discussion, 'Chinese vs. Negroes.' Several articles appeared in it, justifying its opinions, when occasionally they were disputed by other journals, foremost among which I noted the Boston Journal.

"I recall the matter now because the Negro is the recipient of much attention, as before referred to, and because circumstances confronting our government at this time render the subject of extreme importance. Since then the United States has acquired territory very largely inhabited by Chinese and other Asiatic races, and the question becomes important immediately to the American people as to what policy shall be pursued in the future with reference to these races.

"Were the fears which moved the American people in the past to exclude Asiatic races justified, or have we seen new light? Is Christian civilization endangered by the presence of these people? All are potent questions at this time, requiring sound judgment and unerring decision; for a day a temporary house, but one which it is hoped shall endure forever.

"What may have been the questions which occupied the attention of the American people in the past in regard to the Negro as a fit subject for assimilation within the body politic, there can be but little or no good reason for continuing those discussions now. Since the Negro is already admitted to citizenship, guarded by constitutional enactment, and, whatever may be the difference of opinions to this mental capacity, as compared with the Caucasian or Asiatic, there nevertheless remains the gratifying fact that no one has attempted to prove that his presence is in the least threatening to our Christian institutions. Indeed, it may be said, upon the other hand, that many thoughtful persons regard the Negro's presence as a comforting assurance, a bulwark for the preservation of the faith of the founders of our government.

Writing now from memory, not having a copy of any of the articles referred to as having appeared in the Boston Herald, I will briefly outline as best I can their import. The position taken by the editor was not new, but one assumed by many able persons in similar discussion. "The Chinese," he says, "are an ancient race, with a civilization antedating our own; largely progressed in the arts and sciences; having made many important discoveries before our own age. While on the other hand, the Negroes comes from the wilds of an unknown continent, a barbarian, a slave, mean of intellect and of forbidding mien, with thick lips, black face, flat nose and woolly hair; who has not in the interval of time shown the high capacity of the Caucasian for improvement.

"The fathers of the republic," he further says, "while providing an asylum for the oppressed of other lands, nevertheless were desirous of attracting hither only the most intelligent peoples, depending upon these rather for the perpetuity of republican institutions." But, as we have said, the Negro has been already admitted to citizenship, and the question closed in one of its aspects: so that the only question remaining for us to consider is, what I may regard as a corollary to the first proposition, viz.; Negroes having been admitted to citizenship, shall we not now admit the Chinese? If the semi-barbarous Negro can be ingrafted upon our body politic, can we not safely extend to these Asiatic races, having centuries of civilization behind them, the same privileges?

Had we not an actual experience with the two races, covering a period sufficient to form a safe judgment, we would very likely jump at a conclusion in answer to the last question and decide it in the affirmative. Experience, however, is a safe teacher.

The difference between the Chinese and Negroes is as that between old men, with fixed ideas, and children. If we have ideas and institutions to perpetuate and preserve, we shall entrust and communicate them to children rather than to those grown old in an opposite philosophy and experience. The new born mind is a blank ready to receive impressions and to develop largely according to its surroundings. Early impressions may never be lost.

The minds of the American Negro and the American Indian, considered as adult, were the only maiden minds among all those present in the early days of the colonies and the formative period of the republic. By maiden minds I mean blank minds; minds never before impressed with any praise of civil government; minds ready to receive new impressions; ineradicable impressions. The American Negro has never known anything save those things distinctly American. We may have various opinions as to the desires of the fore-fathers of our republic, and we may differ on many other points, but it may be very safely asserted that we will all agree that notwithstanding their desire for the preservation of religious freedom, it was, nevertheless, their aim and hope, and it is the aim and hope of their children and grandchildren to found and perpetuate a government immovably fixed upon Christian principles and philosophy. Has it ever occurred to our friend's mind that the presence of the Negro is threatening to that central thought? On the other hand, what of the Chinese?

As we have said, the Negro came with his mind a blank, with no preconceived opinions as to form of government, no attachment to a foreign flag or institutions. No flag, only the American flag; no home save America. The faith of the fathers is faith. Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Grant, his highest conceptions of human greatness. Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill the shrines of his patriotic pilgrimages. Christ his only refuge in religion. The Sunday of the fore-fathers his holy day, the Fourth of July his highest patriotic reverence. Christmas and Eastertide his hours of holy reflection. The machinations, editions and conspiracies of the socialist, communist and anarchist his greatest aversion.

Religious freedom is the law of the land, and yet the most superficial observer is aware that our whole fabric, our whole structure is builded upon Christian philosophy. It is stronger than the written law; upon it is founded the whole law and order of society. It was the faith of the forefathers and upon its philosophy and reasoning was and is based every act, every constitutional engagement, every personal property and public right. These institutions could not have been evolved from minds immersed in centuries of Buddhism, nor can they ever be more than dimly perceptible to its children. Has any one ventured to indict the Negro for lack of sympathy for the Christian faith? Of all the people possibly the Negro lives nearest the faith of the founders of this government. Of the 50,000 Chinese settled in the City of San Francisco for many years, upon how many has Christianity made the least perceptible impression? There Buddha and Confucius still live.

Maltreat the Negro as you may, he is nevertheless American to the core and he will follow the flag wheresoever it leads, Santiago and San Juan hill he will rush upon to the inspiring strains of "Yankee Doodle" and "The Star Spangled Banner," insensible to every danger."

View the entire article from African American Perspectives, 1818-1907. Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.

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Chinese Vs. Negroes as American Citizens - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress

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In 1899, Mr. Samuel Scottron, an African-American scholar from Brooklyn, New York, published an article in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper in which he reminded readers that African Americans had gained full and legal citizenship status in the United States. Scottron's article was a response to a proposal made by Senator M.C.

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Many immigrants had difficult journeys and took up the worst jobs available despite being doctors or lawyers in their home countries. Why might they do this? Read this piece from a Norwegian Immigrant.

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The following excerpts are taken from Chapters 6, 7, and 40 of the book Recollections of an Immigrant, in which the Norwegian author, Andreas Ueland, recounts his immigration experience. Son of a farmer and politician, Ueland left for America in 1871 in late adolescence and traveled west by train. According to Ueland, how did the Norwegian upper classes view the United States in the 1820s and 1830s? Who were some of the first Norwegians to immigrate to the United States and why did they choose to leave Norway? Why did Ueland leave Norway? What does Ueland observe about the contributions made to the United States by immigrant populations? What does he think immigrants must do to be fully integrated into U.S. society?

View the entire document from Pioneering the Upper Midwest, ca. 1820-1910. Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.

Speaking generally, America was not favorably regarded in Norway until many years after the emigration started in 1825. The official class naturally disliked to see people leave the country and were disposed to sneer at almost everything American. Being well educated at the university and holding their offices for life, they were looked up to with great respect by the common country-people. NO wonder, therefore, that to the official class many things in America seemed bizarre. Just think, a railsplitter being president and a tailor vice-president! Besides, was not almost everybody in America carrying revolvers, and quick on the trigger on slight provocation? Was not justice administered by mobs or vigilance committees? In addition to that, there was negro slavery and so much humbug--"American humbug!" Why should any one go to a country like that?

Some had gone, however, following the Sloopers of '25 from 1836 on, but they were mostly tenants or very poor farmers who had barely scraped up enough to pay the passage on sailships and canal boats as far as Chicago or Milwaukee. Of some of the few educated persons leaving it was said they were no longer safe at home and that for them America was a safer and more suitable place. Letters were coming back from the poor emigrants, telling how much land they had acquired for little or nothing, how much stock they had and how they fared on pork, eggs, and white bread every day, instead of in Norway (as they used to say) "one day on soup and herring and the next day on herring and soup," or "one day mush and milk and the next day milk and mush." But years passed before this changed the attitude toward America of farmers with land owned in the family for generations, and proud to think themselves better than the poor emigrants. Those proud farmers could not then think of going to America without a feeling of humiliation, and when one of them went he felt half-ashamed.

Father died in January, 1870. That changed abruptly my whole aspect of life. An older brother was to have the farm after Mother; what was I to do? Mother wished to have me educated to teach, but I did not wish to be a teacher. There was left the choice to stay home and wait for something to turn up, go out as a laborer or to learn a trade, or to sea, or to America!

A farmer from Houston County, Minnesota, returned on a visit the winter of '70-'71. He infected half the population in that district with what was called the America fever, and I who was then the most susceptible caught the fever in its most virulent form. No more amusement of any kind, only brooding on how to get away to America. It was like a desperate case of homesickness reversed. Mother was appealed to with all the arguments I could think of, such as that I would escape being drafted as a soldier and would surely soon return. On my solemn promise to be back within five years, she consented, stocked me up. . . .

We were a party of about thirty and left Stavanger for Hull May 6th on an English steamer as deck passengers and slept below on a cargo of hay; were herded on the railroad by an interpreter from Hull to Liverpool, then put into another English boat for New York, driven party by sail and partly by steam. . . .

We had no Ellis Island or other gauntlet to run in New York but were speedily lodged in the old Castle Garden where we slept one night on the floor, and that did not matter to one who travelled with his thoughtful mother's feather quilt.

Then west by train on road and route not known to us. We saw mountains, which must have been the Alleghenies, and felt much depressed. Was that America? Had we been fooled? We expected to see flat ground with no timber or boulders to clear. When we came far enough to see that kind of country our spirits rose again. . . .
Some Forty Years Later
...I am again on a railroad train winding its way westward between wooded hills for one hundred and fifty miles and thence in straighter lines four hundred miles further over Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana prairies. I see farms to the right and left with comfortable dwellings and big, red barns, sheltered in groves of planted trees. I see herds of cattle, horses, hogs and sheep browsing on cornstalks left in the fields, or burrowing for food or shelter into huge straw piles left from the fall threshing. The ground is fall-plowed, ready to be seeded again as soon as spring returns. I pass through towns with fine buildings for dwellings and business. I reflect that when there wasn't yet a wagon road where I now ride in Pullman, Norwegian and Swedish immigrants came here in canvas-covered wagons pulled by oxen, and where they found no human trace on the ground they unhitched, built log or sod houses for shelter, and out of the wilderness made what I now see. How proud they well may be of that hard, creative work! They have been given political independence and have earned economic independence of their native countries, and they must, I think, for their own development, and in the interest of their adopted country, attain intellectual and spiritual independence also, without a dual national sentiment.

View the entire document from Pioneering the Upper Midwest, ca. 1820-1910. Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.

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Recollections of a Norwegian Immigrant - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress

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The following excerpts are taken from Chapters 6, 7, and 40 of the book Recollections of an Immigrant , in which the Norwegian author, Andreas Ueland, recounts his immigration experience. Son of a farmer and politician, Ueland left for America in 1871 in late adolescence and traveled west by train.

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Immigrants often banded together in tight knit communities of similar ethnic backgrounds. Why might a group from Germany select Texas as home?

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Excerpts from three oral interviews appear below. German immigrants in Texas are among the topics covered in each interview. According to these interviews, what reasons did Germans have for settling in Texas? What experiences did German immigrants have in Texas? How do German immigrants in Texas contrast with other immigrants you know about in other places in the United States?

View more interviews with and about immigrants from American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940. Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.
Mrs. Lucinda Permien Holze
"I was born in the year 1857 in Mechlenburg Germany. My father, Ludwig Permien, emigrated to America in the year 1871. He settled at the town of Fredericksburg, Texas. When he was located he sent for my folks in the year 1873. By this time he had become a naturalized American citizen. The war between the states was over and the worst of the reconstruction days were past. But there were still some Indians in the western part of the state where we came.

"The country was mostly a stock and ranch country, but in between the hills there was timber and so they raised their grain in these valleys. When they took their stock and produce to the markets they went to San Antonio, Austin and Brownsville. There was lots of Mexicans near our town and the German settlers employed them to clear the brush from the land they put in cultivation and to help herd the cattle. There were a very few slaves at this time in Gillespie. The settlers lived in log cabins and the schools and churchs also were the log houses. . . .

"In 1884 my husband brought his family to the German settlement near what is now Perry, Texas. We owned a little store and he was post--master at a little place called Stamps. It was at this place that we had our experience with robbers, one afternoon as we were ready to close the store, two men rode up on horse-back, came in and asked for tobacco. As my husband turned to get it, they drew a gun on him and told him to give them all the money he had.

"At the same time the other one turned to me and told me that if I made a noise that he would shoot me, then he turned to help the man who held the gun on my husband, rob the cash drawer and safe. When he did this I ran to a neighbor's and gave the alarm, but when the neighbor got there they had the money and were gone. We never did recover of our money or find the robbers.

"I will not attempt to give you the story of the German settlement at Perry, but there was a young man from Germany by the name of Von Holwegg who was among the colony that Mr Schlimbech brought over. This young Holwegg accumalated a large amount of property and made Mr Otto Rau his overseer. Mr Rau also was one of the first ones to come over from Germany with this colony. My son Louis married his daughter and after Mr Rau died he took charge of this property and is the agent yet. . . .

"Yes; I can give you a little of the history of the early days of some of the German communities in Texas before the Civil War came, as handed down to the descendents of those who were among the first settlers. It is said that in the spring of 1846 the first train for Fredericksburg, consisting of twenty wagons and some two-wheel Mexican carts, left the town of New Braunfels for the new settlement on the Pedernales. There were about 120 men, women and children in this train, accompanied by eight of the soldiers furnished by the "Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas."

"After a trip lasting sixteen days they arrived at the future town of Fredericksburg. It is worthy of note that the meat for the first meal to them in this new location was bear meat. John Schmidt, one of the military soldiers shot a bear on the banks of the Pedernales river. . . .

"It is a matter of record that the first school in Fredericksburg was organized by the "Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas. John Leydendecker held the school in the church building. When the first city school was organized in 1856 August Siemering was chosen as the teacher. By 1860 there were ten schools in the settlement around Fredericksburg and an enrollment of 260 pupils. In 1860 the number of white people in the country was around twenty-seven hundred, thirty-three slaves and thirty-eight people in business."

View the entire interview with Mrs. Holze from American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 . Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.
Mr. George Ogden
"After becoming tired of the ranch life I went to work for the Star mail route which handled the mail for Texas, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. My route was in Texas where I helped to harvest the wild grass and to put the hay up at the stage stops which was kept to feed [te?] horses which was driven to the old Concordia stage. These coaches [di?] not have springs but the bodies of the coach were hung to the running gear by leather straps of several ply's thickness, and for that day and time these coaches were great luxury with their railing which ran around the top for the baggage, with the drivers seat on top. There was always a detail of two soldiers who rode with the driver for his protection against robbers and Indians. The coach was pulled by from four to six horses and always driven in a lope. Many a silent monument to these old stage lines are written in the blood of those brave stage drivers and their passengers, for even in this late day at the dawn of the railroads the stage robbery was a common occurrance.

"In this work of stocking the stations with feed-stuff, my work began at Fredericksburg and we worked in the direction of El Paso. This took as thro' Loyal Valley, Fort Mason, Kickapoo Springs, Concho and Fort Stockton. In harvesting this hay we were supplied with ten regular soldiers for guards who kept a watch for robbers or Indians while we worked. We bought some wheat from some Germans at Loyal Valley to place at the stage stops, as the wild grass had died out from a drouth. In many places there were from 16 to 20 men working and we used [sme?] grammar grass, this grass was very hard to cut so we used hoes instead of the sickles and mower's. There were many Indian mounds in this section.

"We had some trouble with the Indians here. They would hide in the brush and chase those who went into the town, among them was a young man who out-ran them, but the men in the saloons made fun of him, and called him a coward, this resulted in a shooting and the young man who has escaped from the Indian's was killed. I saw this man killed.

"While we were putting this wheat up for the stage stops, there were German families here and they too, were putting theirs up. While they were working they kept their guns lying close by to be ready for the Indians as they were very bad that summer making raids on the settlements. About two weeks later while we were at Kickapoo Spring we met a band of Indians, but saw them in time to form a corral in a circle around our stock. The Indians circled around this corral of wagons, but as they found no opening they galloped away. After trying to find an opening several times. When we reached Kickapoo Springs we camped in the stone house with the corral around it. . . .

"When the International and Great Northern railroad came thro' this section and passed thro' our community they named it Otto, after one of the pioneer German emmigrants. . . . To the east of Otto was what was known as the Mettina settlement. This was where Von Molwegg bought 3200 acres of land and settled German immigrants on it, selling it to them on time. He made a number of trips back and forth to the old country and would bring some with him on each trip, among them was his body guard in Germany to whom he gave a nice tract of land in this settlment."

View the entire interview with Mr. Ogden from American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 . Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.
Charles L. Weibush
"Not all the German immigrants who came to Texas during the thirties remained in Houston and Galveston, their first stop. Some went into the interior and laid the basis for a number of German settlements in Austin, Fayette, and Colorado counties. From these settlements in turn other settlements were founded in the forties and fifties in the counties just named as well as in Victoria, De Witt, and Washington counties.

"My father was one of the immigrants who settled in Washington County in the fifties, to be exact, it was the spring of 1855. He lived at this place a few years and learned to speak the American language. After this he secured a job as stage driver. For several years he drove the stage from Washington to Waco. This took him over the road in Falls county known as the Waco, Marlin road. . . .

"When we moved here in 1879, all the land east of the H T.C. railroad was range land, Bill and Green Barnes had large cattle herds and Titsworth and Corning had large sheep ranches. On what was then known as the black prairie near by there were only two German families who came in 1878. This was east of the present town of Perry.

"A small number of German families were living in the timber land west of the town of Perry on what was known as the post oak country. They all settled on what was known as Big Sandy Creek, in the Brazos bottom. In those early days it did not rain on the prairie like it did in the bottom. The names of the settlers that were here when we came are as follows. (That is, their last names). . . .

"In the fall of 1873 Fritz von Schlimbach moved here from Germany and bought his first tract of land and started what is known as the Schlimbach boom. He was a Methodist minister and preached in Waco from about 1884 or 5 too 1876 or 77. Then he and his family returned to Germany for a while. . . .

"When Mr Schlimbach came from Germany on his first trip, he brought about 25 people with him, they were mostly young men. After those young men had made enough money to send for them, they sent for their sweethearts and married them and this increased the number of families of his settlement. He started the land boom and it was raised from $2.50 an acre to $8.00 or $10.00.

"In connection with the building of his house I might mention the fact that while it was being built he and his family stayed at the home of my parents. They had to stretch a few tents to make room for us all, and at the far end of our farm there was a rambling old house where the young men who came with Mr Schlimbach from Germany stayed while his house was being built. They slept and did their own cooking at this house.

"Soon after Mr Schlimbach finished building his house he started buying land and improving it together with all kinds of farming implements. Within the next few years [?] made a number of trips to Germany and on his return he always brought more people with him. But there were a few of the young men who became homesick and returned to Germany."

View the entire interview with Mr. Weibush from American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 . Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.

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German Immigrants in Texas - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress

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Excerpts from three oral interviews appear below. German immigrants in Texas are among the topics covered in each interview. According to these interviews, what reasons did Germans have for settling in Texas? What experiences did German immigrants have in Texas? How do German immigrants in Texas contrast with other immigrants you know about in other places in the United States?

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See how it was for children your age to experience immigration.

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