Eth125 Axia Italy
...areas are north east in the United States. During the period of highest immigration, between 1870 and 1920, most immigrants arrived through Ellis Island, and thus New York was the first location where they stopped. As a consequence, today New York has the highest concentration of Italian-Americans in the United States (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990). The immigrants looked for jobs wherever they were available, most moving among the emerging industrial centers in cities. Other Italians worked at building railroads, as miners, or as migrant workers in southern plantations. (Enc. P. 883)
The history of the Italian migration to North America can be roughly divided into three periods: the first, from Columbus's arrival to 1870; the second, from 1870 to 1920; and the third, from 1930 to the present. By 1870 there were about 44,000 Italian-Americans in the United States. Among the first Italian settlements were those of Jamestown, Virginia; Los Angeles;
New Orleans; Delaware; New Haven, Connecticut; Philadelphia; and San Francisco. Little is known of the first Italian colonists. Some were adventurers, explorers, and artists, and often members of the upper classes. Many were mariners, like the Genoese, or were fleeing religious persecution, like the Italian Waldese Protestants. Most participated actively in the revolutionary war. Two Americans of Italian heritage were among the signers of the Declaration of Independence: William Paca and Cesar Rodney. Larger numbers of Italians moved to North America between 1850 and 1870, among them very often were middle- class families and intellectuals escaping the political purges of the post-Napoleonic restoration. The majority (up to 85%) came from northern Italy, The trend was inverted after 1880, when the majority (up to 80%) of the Italians immigrating to America came from the southern regions. About 5,000,000...
View Full Essay
