A Nation of Immigrants

Between 1821 and 1997, about 64 million immigrants came to the U.S.A. It was the largest migration the human race had ever known. What caused it? In his book A Nation of Immigrants, John F. Kennedy (later the nation's thirty-fifth president) explained: "Three strong forces-religious persecution, political oppression, and economic hardship - ­provided the chief motives for the mass migrations to our shores." Kennedy's great­grandfather had been one of those immigrants, a farmer who left Ireland during the po­tato famine in the 1840s.

Immigration before Independence

The earliest immigrants to the area now known as the U.S. were probably the Native Americans (or American Indians). They came to the Western Hemisphere from Asia about 15,000 years ago or perhaps even earlier. By the fifteenth century, there were 15 million to 20 million Native Americans in the Americas. Perhaps as many as 700,000 were living within the present limits of the U.S. when Christopher Columbus reached the Western Hemisphere in 1492.

During the 1500s, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English explorers visited the New World. The Spanish founded the first European settlements in the area that is now the U.S. The first permanent British colony within present-day U.S. territory was established in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, by 104 British colonists. In 1620, a second British colony, consisting of 102 people, was founded in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

In 1790, the white population of the 13 original colonies totaled slightly more than 3 million. About 75% of these first Americans were of mostly British ancestry; the rest Dutch, French, Swiss, and Spanish. The British gave the new nation its language, laws, and philosophy of government.

Check your comprehension.

Why is English, rather than French or spanish, the major language of the U.S.?

Immigration from 1790 to 1920

American independence did not immediately stimulate immigration. Between 1790 and 1840, fewer than 1 million foreigners entered the country. But between 1841 and 1860, more than 4 million arrived. Potato crop failures in Ireland stimulated Irish immi­gration. Germans came to escape economic and political difficulties. During the last half of the nineteenth century, many Scandinavians came, attracted by good farmland. The Industrial Revolution and the westward movement gave new immigrants an important role in the nation's economic development. Employers needed factory workers. Landowners wanted tenants for western lands. They sent agents to Europe to "sell" America. Agents of steamship lines and railroad companies attracted thousands of im­migrants with stories about a fabulous "land of opportunity."

Immigration took another great leap after 1880. Between 1881 and 1920, about 23.5 million aliens were admitted. Nearly 90% of these newcomers were from Europe. After 1882, the government kept Asian immigration to a minimum because American work­ers feared that new Asian immigrants would take their jobs or lower their wages.

In the 1890s, the sources of European immigration began to shift. Between 1881 and 1890, approximately 80% of American immi­grants came from northern and western Eu­rope. By 1911, about 77% were coming from southern, central, and eastern Europe­ - from Italy, Russia, Austria, Hungary, Roma­nia, Bulgaria, Greece, and areas that later became Poland and Czechoslovakia. Many of those from Russia, Romania, and Poland were Jews feeling religious persecution.

Most immigrants arriving between 1886 and 1924 came into New York Harbor, past the inspirational Statue of Liberty, which is 151 feet tall. She invited them to go through the "golden door." But first they were taken to nearby Ellis Island to be checked in. From 1901 to 1917, this facility processed 2,000 to 5,000 immigrants every day. Now, it is a mu­seum.

Check your comprehension.

What historical developments in the U.S. stimulated immigration?

What problems in Europe stimulated immigration?