Chapter 9

Chinese

Chapter 9 reminded me a lot of an ethic studies class I took in fall 2010. We talked about Asian American immigrants and their push pull factors. Chapter 9 talks about Chinese Exclusion Act of suspended Chinese immigrants from coming into the U.S.  Before the exclusion act about 300,000 Chinese immigrants entered the U.S.  Just to come over here, Chinese immigrants who didn’t have enough money would borrow money and then have to pay 2x more repayment then the original payment. “Chinese were borrowing seventy dollars and obligating themselves to pay back two hundred dollars.” (241) According to the book their ticket was $50 and $20 for their expenses.  San Francisco was the “port” of entry for them.  Parts of San Francisco became Chinatowns.  The Chinatowns are where most of the immigrants lived, worked and socialized. Chinese immigrants born in U.S. were automatically a citizen.

Japanese

-Early years of Japanese Immigrants were mainly men

-worked as agricultural laborers

-Gentleman’s Agreement: according to wikipedia.org "an informal agreement between two or more parties. The essence of a gentlemen's agreement is that it relies upon the honor of the parties for its fulfillment, rather than being in any way enforceable. It is, therefore, distinct from a legal agreement or contract, which can be enforced if necessary."

·         Provided family unification, passports were only issued to people who has already been to America and to “parents, wives, and children of laborers resident there.” (255)

- After Gentleman’s agreement, about 20,000 adult Japanese women. Some were married, but other’s came as picture brides. This reminded me of the movie we saw called “Picture Bride” In that movie, the girl comes over as a bride as well. The only thing she has a picture of her husband.  She migrates over and her husband is a 40 yr old man. She gets mad, because she is a girl who’s probably no more than 16 thinking that the husband would be young too. This was what was happening. The men migrated first and were lonely so they would pay for a picture bride to come over. It’s a great movie that points out what it would like for lives of immigrants who worked in the fields. They worked pretty much all day and lived in tiny shacks and they had terrible wages in my opinion. I’m not sure in the movie if she migrated to Hawaii but it was definitely a similar situation.

-Other Japanese American were in wholesale, retail trade or personal services.

French Canadians

-“only ethnic group whose migration was chiefly accomplished by rail.”(258)

-French speaking population was in Quebec

- From what I understand mostly mill workers

            After doing the readings for each chapter, I keep seeing one thing they all have in common. I think I’ve mentioned this before too. Every ethnic group has suffered. But I think no matter what there will always be suffering.

Chapter 8

Basics of Chapter 8

Around 26 European ethnic groups emigrated to the U.S. from the area north of Greece and east of Germany. 
žBetween 1812-1924, more than 3 million immigrants arrived. Most members of these groups arrived in the last of the 19th century. 

ž“They settled predominantly in the cities of the north-eastern & north-central states, cities known today as the “rust belt” for the demolished or obsolete and rusting factories that once made the region the greatest manufacturing center in the world.” (pg.213) 

Poles

“The creation of a new Poland by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, no Polish state existed. Interwar Poland lasted just twenty yrs. A new one was created by the victorious allies after WW2.” (pg. 215)

-Poles who came to America lived in one of 3 main European empires- German, the Austro-Hungarian, & the Russian. Other Poles came from France.

-Ethnic Poles who came to America shared 2 characteristics: spoke Polish as mother tongue, they were roman Catholics.

-Poles followed their clergy.

-Poles that settled in American cities were driven by economic motives.

-Poles were influenced to come to America by other Poles such as Priests, relatives & friends.

  Eastern European Jews 
-250,ooo Jews in U.S. in 1880.   
-Migrated b/c they wanted to improve their standard living. 
-Migration was difficult for Eastern European Jews; they came from poor backgrounds.
-Had Religion & determination to stay in U.S.
-“The generation of eastern Europe Jews lived in a Jewish world in which Yiddish was the medium of communication….” (pg. 227)
-Biggest tragedy- Triangle Shirt Waist Fire of 1911. Other types of work was with retail trade. 

 Hungarians
 ž-Most representative of emigration from the other groups. 
ž-Magyar migration was short.
ž-Over 450,000 Hungarians came. 
ž-Most were under the age 30, 88% were literate
-Worked dangerous jobs with long hrs. at low wages.

Questions for exam

1. What were 1 of the characteristics that Poles shared?

spoke Polish as mother tongue, they were roman Catholics.

2.What was the main reason for Eastern European Jews migrating?

 they wanted to improved their living conditions.   

3. What were the primary language that the Eastern European Jews spoke?

Yiddish 

 

 

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 begins with distinguishing between who the old immigrants are and who the new immigrants are. The old immigrants according to the book are “the British Isles and north-western Europe who came before the 1880s, were very much like the settlers of the colonies and were relatively easy to assimilate. The new immigrants were persons from the southern and Eastern Europe who came after the 1880s, were of very different ethnicity who spoke strange languages and worshiped strange god—that is, they were not Protestant.” (pg. 121) I see race and different culture playing a part in separating people already.  People should NOT be separated based on the language they speak or their religion. People should only be judged by the content of their character. However, no matter what you do or what time in society you live in people are always going to judge you. That’s how I feel about the people who were considered to be new immigrants were being treated. For being a little different the new immigrants were judged.

The main reason for Irish migration during the 19’th century was either because of the potato famine or famine in general.  During the 1840s and early 1850s the “great hunger” was a major push factor.  Up until the 1921, Ireland was not a free nation. I thought that was really interesting. If you think about it every nation had their own problems of why people were trying to leave it. It’s all about survival and people were migrating to survive. They were migrating to help support their families.

I love potatoes! So reading about the Irish and they survived on potatoes was very interesting for me.  It all started after Emancipation Act of 1829 when rent grew higher.  When I read that an “acre of a half of potatoes could feed a family of six.” (pg.133) I can’t believe that these poor people survived just on potatoes then again it was survival. I think if you are put in that situation then you no choice and that’s what happened to these people. For poor people, potatoes were the bulk of their diet.  I didn’t know that potatoes has a disease called Phytophthora infestants or otherwise known as potato blight. The potato blight was horrible. For some potato was the main crop they ate. I wonder how this fungus was contracted. Nowadays there’s no secret that we have a lot of chemicals put into our foods to preserve it. I also wonder if it still happens nowadays or with all the chemicals they put into the food that doesn’t happen. That is something to wonder.  Either way the safest way to eat vegetables is to grow them yourself or unless you know its organic.

Olaudah Equiano The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African Chapter 1

Olaudah Equiano
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African 

Chapter 1

Chapter one was pretty interesting to read. The reason why I chose chapter 1 was because I wanted to know about their marriage traditions and I wanted to see if things are different. All I can say is that I’m glad I live in today’s society. I thought it was interesting how if the wife cheated on her husband then the husband can chose her punishment, but men have a plurality.  The marriage was set up by their parents and once married the woman is then the property of her husband. Why is she considered to be his property? Why can’t he be her property? In many cultures why are men always dominant? Even in the Indian culture men are dominant. We as women have to bow down to the men in my culture. Thankfully, a lot of that is changing now. I don’t think it’s changed in India, but it’s not likely around here. It really makes me realize how lucky I am.

I also found it interesting how the women would fight side by side with their men. I just feel like woman don’t get enough credit sometimes. It happens everywhere at jobs, in culture/society. I mean if women are considered to be their property, why do they have to fight just like men? I think that it needs to be equal. If a woman is in the fighting alongside with her husband then she should be allowed to call him her property as well.

I thought it was strange how the house would have a master, then the family and slaves. I didn’t really understand that concept. I thought it would be awkward all these people living in the same house at once. It was understandable to let the master have the biggest room in the house, because he’s the one in charge.

Chapter 1 made me think about how many women have to marry men that their parents pick out for them. I know I could never be able to do that, especially because I come from an Indian background. Usually it would be the father who picks the best suitor for his daughter. That would not fly with me. We have freedom, but in those other countries these women they don’t have freedom or voice. They don’t have a say in what they want to do with their life.  This really makes me realize how lucky I am. The women from the tv show Bridezillas should realize how lucky they are as well. In that show these women are so mean to their parents who give them everything, but what they should do is stop and come back to reality. They could be the ones who would have to have an arranged marriage and then become their husband’s property. Count your blessings!

Other Europeans In Colonial America

Other Europeans In Colonial America

This was a very interesting chapter.  Every Immigrant race went through their own set of hardships. There were some pretty interesting/ disturbing things that went on. The voyage of the Scotch Irish was the most disturbing.  Apparently, 46 passengers starved to death and the 60 people who survived only survived due to cannibalism. This reminded me of the Donner Party.  When the Donner party was rescued some of the passengers who survived were asking the rescuers if they were from the heavens. The documentary I saw stated that the people didn’t know if they were dead or alive. Due to the situation, people were driven to being delusional. Wow, I can’t imagine what it might be like to have to be in that situation. How awful and traumatizing!!! I bet these people were in the same situation as the Donner party.  The only difference was that the Donner party was a group of 87 people who were headed for West Cali. And they got caught into snow on their journey.  Both groups of people were stuck in some terrible situations and I really feel for them.  They were stuck in situations where they had no choice. It was all about survival for them. I think they were brave for having the courage to result to cannibalism.

Reading about the Irish Catholics was also interesting. One man’s story was just upsetting to me. It was Charles Carroll. I can’t believe that his estates in Ireland were confiscated. Why?  I didn’t really understand what the book was talking about when it said that they added his name to the Declaration of Independence.  I was surprised to find out that most Irish were supporters of the Patriot Cause. For Jews, I wasn’t surprised to find out that they didn’t marry outside the faith. That must have been common a lot. However, I am glad that eventually they allowed Jewish spouses in mixed marriages. Some of the history that these people went through still happen today like the mixed marriages for Jewish spouses. Still today, in some places people are still accepting mixed marriages. I believe that one day that will all change.  

I keep seeing repeats in history.  Like the Donner Party and the Scotch Irish people. They both went through similar horrific hardships.  Those events have a disturbing connection, but the people had no choice it was survival. In the end with nature it is always all about survival. The situation with Charles Carroll, estates and other items still get confiscated today. I would say for those people who were semi-rich like Charles Carroll would share history with Native Americans because technically it was their land first and what happened to them was not right in both cases with Native Americans and other people.  Same thing with mixed marriages same thing still around today. Like I stated before one day people will learn to accept it. History in general holds a connection with the past, present and future and I think it always will.