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Clearing | Stories of Yesterday and Today

A New Land 1492-1790

The beautiful state of the New World amazed the European explorers who arrived on N American shores around 1500. They realized the economic possibilities of the fertile soil and many natural resources. In the 17th century, Europeans established successful permanent settlements in what is now the United states. The European settlers soon dominated the Native American civilizations, which had existed for thousands of years. The major European powers (including England, Spain, and France) established colonies,

which are lands controlled by a faraway government. The people who lived in the colonies were called colonists. Enduring groovy hardship, the colonists built new communities in the New World
1492-1500s

The Explorers

In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer and excellent sailor, crossed the Atlantic Sea in search of a shorter trade road to Asia. After more than than ii months at ocean, he landed in the Bahamas in the Caribbean islands. Although Columbus never reached the mainland of North America, he had discovered the gateway to a vast continent unexplored by Europeans. Columbus returned to Europe believing he had reached previously unknown islands in Asia. Word of the new road spread in Europe. Over the side by side few decades, other explorers followed in Columbus's wake, hoping to take advantage of the shortcut to Asia. It would be another Italian explorer, named Amerigo Vespucci, who realized that what had really been discovered was a continent unknown to Europeans. He called it the New Earth.

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1565-1600s

New Settlements

European nations—including Spain, France, holland, Portugal, Sweden, and England—vied to claim pieces of the new land. In the 1600s, England founded colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, from what is now New Hampshire to Georgia. These original thirteen colonies would somewhen become the United states of America. Spain founded a colony at Saint Augustine, Florida, as early as 1565 and would go on to claim parts of what are at present us of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. French republic established colonies along the Saint Lawrence River, in what is at present Canada; and likewise in the southern role of North America, in the region that is now Louisiana. The Dutch began the settlement of New Amersterdam on the southern tip of what is now Manhattan Isle, dwelling house to part of New York City. The European countries frequently fought each over buying of the new land; more than land meant more power and economical opportunity.

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1607

Jamestown Succeeds

In 1607, England sent 100 men to America to institute a new colony. The colony was named Jamestown after Rex James I and was located on the coast of what is now Virginia. Information technology would become the first English language colony to succeed in America, simply its beginning was exceptionally difficult. The colonists were hoping to find gold easily, simply didn't. And tragically, they hadn't anticipated how difficult information technology would be to survive in the New Globe. More than than one-half of the settlers died in the offset twelvemonth because of the harsh winters, poor planning, and illness. But nether the leadership of the colonist John Smith, the colony began to succeed. They grew tobacco, which was sent back to England and sold for turn a profit. With the profit, the colonists had the money to plant other crops, such as wheat, grapes, and corn, which is a nutrient native to North America. By 1620, Jamestown plus other settlements that sprang up nearby had a population of well-nigh 4,000. The colony was thriving. This economical success gave England a powerful interest in protecting its foothold in the New World.

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1619

Slavery Begins

Africans get-go arrived in Due north America in 1619. In that year, 20 African people were brought to the Jamestown colony aboard a Dutch warship. They were slaves. They had been taken from their homes in Africa by force. They were beaten and enchained past men conveying weapons. Over the next almost 200 years, hundreds of thousands of Africans would be brought to America every bit slaves to piece of work on plantations, especially to grow tobacco. By the end of the colonial flow, Africans numbered well-nigh 500,000 and formed about 20 pct of the population of the United States.

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1620

The Pilgrims

Some colonies were formed because people wanted to escape religious persecution in Europe. In 17th century England, two groups of Christians, the Catholics and the Anglicans, were arguing over what religion and church building should exist the truthful church of England. Some of the Anglicans, called Puritans, thought that there should exist more distinction betwixt their Church of England and the Catholic Church. Some Puritans, called the Separatists, didn't want to belong to the Church building of England at all anymore. King James, who was the caput of the Church building of England, would not allow the Separatists to practise religion on their ain. To escape the situation in England, a small grouping of Separatists left Europe on the Mayflower send. In 1620, the ship landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, carrying 102 passengers. Many were Separatists, who became known as the Pilgrims. They established Plymouth Colony.
After the Pilgrims, many more people flocked to the new colonies for religious reasons: Nearly 200,000 Puritans emigrated from England during the years 1620 to 1641.

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1634-1680s

Religious Freedom

Subsequently the Pilgrims, many other immigrants came to America for the religious freedom it offered. The colony of Maryland was founded in 1634 every bit a refuge for Catholics, who were persecuted in England in the 17th century. In 1681, William Penn began a Quaker colony in the state that was subsequently named after him: Pennsylvania. The master settlement was Philadelphia, which prospered through farming and commerce. In 1685, 14,000 Huguenots who were persecuted in France likewise joined the growing English colonies.

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1680-1776

Expanding Colonies

Early on immigrants to America settled up and down the East Coast. Farming was difficult in the rocky soil of New England, and so people grew only enough nutrient for their families to alive on. This is called subsistence farming. They also became fishermen, fishing cod in the Atlantic Ocean and selling it to the European markets. As they needed good ships for fishing, they started making them, becoming successful shipbuilders.
In the South, where farming was easier, colonists started big plantations to grow crops, such every bit tobacco, rice, and indigo. Indigo was a rich bluish dye, mainly used for dyeing textiles. Plantations depended on the complimentary labor of the slaves. Many more slaves were forced to come to America to meet the need for labor.
By the time of the Revolutionary War, near 2.5 one thousand thousand people lived in the colonies, including approximately 450,000 Africans; 200,000 Irish gaelic; 500,000 Scottish and Scotch-Irish; 140,000 Germans; and 12,000 French.

Every bit the colonies grew, people began to look past the natural bulwark of the Appalachian Mountains. They moved west into the frontier lands, in what is now Ohio, and beyond.

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1776-1790

A New Nation

The colonies grew prosperous and the population increased. Betwixt the time of the first settlements and the Revolutionary State of war, about seven generations of people were built-in in America. Many of them no longer wanted to be ruled by the English throne. And they didn't want to pay taxes to the English authorities when they had no colonial representation in the Parliament. They became known as Patriots, or Whigs, and they included Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
The Loyalists were colonists who wanted to remain part of England. The Patriots and Loyalists were bitterly divided on the issue. In 1776, the Continental Congress, a group of leaders from each of the xiii colonies, issued the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration stated that the The states of America was its own country.
The Patriots fought England in the Revolutionary War to gain independence for the colonies.

In 1783, with the help of the French, who had joined their side, the colonists won the state of war. The Usa of America was a new nation.
The new government conducted a census, or count, of everyone living in the United States. At the time of the first census in 1790, virtually 700,00 Africans and 3 million Europeans lived in the new United States.

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Expanding America 1790-1880

Total U.S. Clearing from 1820 to 1880 by Continent of Origin
- Europe
- Asia
- The Americas
- Africa
- Oceania *
In the decades subsequently the Revolutionary War, the 13 original colonies grew to include states stretching from Maine in the north to Louisiana in the south; from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to Illinois in the west. As a new nation, the United states of america thrived. By 1820, the population had grown to well-nigh 10 million people. The quality of life for ordinary people was improving. People were moving west, creating towns along the road of the Transcontinental Railroad, which connected the entire country past rail, east to west, for the commencement time.

The prosperous young country lured Europeans who were struggling with population growth, country redistribution, and industrialization, which had changed the traditional manner of life for peasants. These people wanted to escape poverty and hardship in their domicile countries. More 8 million would come to the U.s. from 1820 to 1880.
*Number of legal immigrants as recorded past immigration officials nationwide. Source: U.Southward. Department of Homeland Security.
1808

Slavery Continues

At the plow of the 19th century, more than than ane one thousand thousand African Americans lived in the United States. As slaves, they were not considered citizens. Big farms and plantations depended on the free labor they provided in fields and homes. It was difficult, backbreaking work.
In 1808, the United States regime banned the importation of enslaved people into the country, although the practice did continue illegally. Slavery, however, was non abolished for nearly 60 more years.

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1820

The Irish gaelic and Germans

In the early on and mid-19th century, about all of the immigrants coming to the U.s. arrived from northern and western Europe. In 1860, seven out of 10 foreign-born people in the U.s. were Irish or German language. Near of the Irish were coming from poor circumstances. With little money to travel whatever farther, they stayed in the cities where they arrived, such equally Boston and New York City. More than than 2,335,000 Irish gaelic arrived between 1820 and 1870.
The Germans who came during the fourth dimension period were frequently improve off than the Irish were. They had plenty money to journey to the Midwestern cities, such every bit Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, or to claim farmland. More than than 2,200,000 Germans arrived betwixt 1820 and 1870.

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1845-1851

The Irish White potato Famine

In 1845, a dearth began in Ireland. A potato fungus, likewise called bane, ruined the irish potato crop for several years in a row. Potatoes were a key part of the Irish nutrition, so hundreds of thousands of people now didn't have enough to eat. At the aforementioned time of the dearth, diseases, such as cholera, were spreading. Starvation and illness killed more than than a meg people.
These extreme conditions caused mass immigration of Irish people to the United states. Between 1846 and 1852, more a one thousand thousand Irish are estimated to have arrived in America. The men constitute jobs building railroads, digging canals, and working in factories; they as well became policemen and firemen. Irish women oft worked as domestic servants. Fifty-fifty afterward the dearth concluded, Irish people continued to come to America in search of a better life. More than than iii.5 million Irish in total had arrived by 1880.

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1861

Ceremonious War and the End of Slavery

In the early 1860s, the Us was in crisis. The Northern states and Southern states could non agree on the result of slavery. About people in the Northern states idea slavery was wrong. People in S, where the plantations depended on slavery, wanted to continue the practise. In 1861, the Civil War began between the North and Southward. It would be an extremely bloody state of war; over 600,000 people would die in the fighting.
Many immigrants fought in the war. Since immigrants had settled by and large in the North, where factories provided jobs and small farms were available, hundreds of thousands of foreign-born men fought for the Marriage.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all the slaves in the rebelling Southern states were complimentary. It was the beginning of the end of slavery.

To ensure that the abolishment of slavery was permanent, Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed slavery throughout the United States. The 14th Subpoena, adopted in 1868, declared that African Americans were citizens of the United States. In 1870, African Americans numbered almost 5 1000000 and made up 12.7 percent of the U.Due south. population.

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1862

The Homestead Act

In the late 19th century, America was looking west. People began moving abroad from the now crowded Eastern cities. Some were motivated by the Homestead Act of 1862, which offered free land from the regime. The authorities offered to give 160 acres of country—considered a skilful size for a unmarried family to farm—in areas including Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. Homesteaders were required to stay on the land, build a home, and farm the country for five years. The offering attracted migrants from within the country—and waves of more immigrants from Europe. For case, many people from Sweden, where country was extremely scarce, were drawn to come to the Us. These brave settlers worked hard to outset a new life on the frontier. Though life was difficult, many succeeded.

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1863-1869

The Transcontinental Railroad

The Transcontinental Railroad was a massive construction projection that linked the country by rail from due east to west. The railway was congenital entirely by hand during a half dozen-twelvemonth period, with construction ofttimes standing around the clock. Chinese and Irish immigrants were vital to the project. In 1868, Chinese immigrants made upwardly about 80 percent of the workforce of the Central Pacific Railroad, one of the companies building the railway. The workers of the Union Pacific Railroad, some other visitor that built the railroad, were generally Irish immigrants. These railroad workers labored under unsafe conditions, often risking their lives. Afterward the Transatlantic Railroad was completed, cities and towns sprung up all along its path, and immigrants moved to these new communities. The Transcontinental Railroad was a radical improvement in travel in the United States; subsequently its completion, the trip from East Coast to West Coast, which in one case took months, could be made in v days.

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The American Dream 1880-1930

Total U.Due south. Immigration from 1880 to 1930 by Continent of Origin
- Europe
- Asia
- The Americas
- Africa
- Oceania *
By 1880, America was booming. The image of America as a land of promise attracted people from all over the world. On the East Coast, Ellis Island welcomed new immigrants, largely from Europe. America was "the golden door," a metaphor for a prosperous order that welcomed immigrants. Asian immigrants, all the same, didn't have the same experience every bit European immigrants. They were the focus of one of the offset major pieces of legislation on immigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 severely restricted clearing from Cathay.

And the 1907 "Gentlemen's Agreement" between Japan and the United states of america was an breezy agreement that limited clearing from Nippon. Despite those limitations, virtually thirty one thousand thousand immigrants arrived from around the world during this keen moving ridge of immigration, more than than at any time before.
*Number of legal immigrants as recorded by immigration officials nationwide. Source: U.Due south. Section of Homeland Security.
1892

Ellis Isle

In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison designated Ellis Island in New York Harbor as the nation'due south first clearing station. At the time, people traveled across the Atlantic Ocean by steamship to the bustling port of New York City. The trip took ane to two weeks, much faster than in the past (when sailing ships were the manner of transportation), a fact that helped fuel the major moving ridge of immigration.
For many immigrants, one of their first sights in America was the welcoming beacon of the Statue of Liberty, which was defended in 1886. Immigrants were taken from their ships to exist processed at Ellis Island earlier they could enter the state.
Near 12 1000000 immigrants would pass through Ellis Isle during the time of its functioning, from 1892 to 1954. Many of them were from Southern and Eastern Europe. They included Russians, Italians, Slavs, Jews, Greeks, Poles, Serbs, and Turks.
Explore the Ellis Island Interactive Tour

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1900s

Bursting Cities

New immigrants flooded into cities. In places similar New York and Chicago, groups of immigrants chose to live and work nigh others from their home countries. Whole neighborhoods or blocks could be populated with people from the same country. Pocket-sized pockets of America would be nicknamed "Picayune Italian republic" or "Chinatown." Immigrants often lived in poor areas of the city. In New York, for example, whole families crowded into tiny apartments in tenement buildings on the Lower Due east Side of Manhattan.
Many organizations were formed to effort to help the new immigrants conform to life in America. Settlement houses, such as Hull House in Chicago, and religious-based organizations worked to help the immigrants learn English language and life skills, such as cooking and sewing.

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1910

Angel Island

On the Due west Coast, Asian immigrants were processed at Affections Island, oft called the "Ellis Island of the Due west." Angel Island, which lies off the coast of San Francisco, opened in 1910. Although the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricted immigration, 175,000 Chinese came through Angel Island over a period of 3 decades. They were overwhelmingly the main grouping candy here: In fact, 97 pct of the immigrants who passed through Angel Isle were from China.
Explore the Angel Island Activeness

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1920

Building America

Many of the immigrants who arrived in the early 20th century were poor and hardworking. They took jobs paving streets, laying gas lines, digging subway tunnels, and building bridges and skyscrapers. They too got jobs in America'southward new factories, where weather could be dangerous, making shoes, clothing, and glass products. Immigrants fueled the lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest, the mining industry in the West, and steel manufacturing in the Midwest. They went to the territory of Hawaii to work on sugar pikestaff plantations. Eventually, they bargained for better wages and improved worker rubber. They were on the road to condign America'south eye class.

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1920-1930

Backlash

By the 1920s, America had absorbed millions of new immigrants. The state had just fought in the "Great War", every bit World War I was known then. People became suspicious of foreigners' motivations. Some native-born Americans started to express their dislike of foreign-born people. They were fearful that immigrants would accept the available jobs. Some Americans weren't used to interacting with people who spoke different languages, practiced a different religion, or were a different race. Racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia (fear and hatred of foreigners) were the unfortunate result.
In 1924, Congress passed the National Origins Act. It placed restrictions and quotas on who could enter the land.
The almanac quotas limited clearing from any country to iii pct of the number of people from that country who were living in the Us in 1890. The event was to exclude Asians, Jews, blacks, and non-English speakers.

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A Place of Refuge 1930-1965

Full U.S. Clearing from 1930 to 1965 by Continent of Origin
- Europe
- Asia
- The Americas
- Africa
- Oceania *
From 1930 to 1965, the earth underwent a great deal of strife, conflict, and change. The United States suffered through the Great Depression in the 1930s. America no longer looked like the country of opportunity, and few immigrants came. From the late '30s to 1945, Earth State of war II locked Europe, Japan, and a cracking deal of the Pacific Rim in conflict. In the postwar period, much of Europe was physically and economically in ruin. Europeans started looking to America over again equally a place of refuge. The idea of the immigrant as refugee, from both hardship and oppressive regimes, would change how the country thought most immigration in this period and beyond.
*Number of legal immigrants as recorded by immigration officials nationwide. Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
1930s

The Nifty Depression and War in Europe

In the 1930s, the country was going through the Not bad Depression, a terrible period of economic hardship. People were out of work, hungry, and extremely poor. Few immigrants came during this period; in fact, many people returned to their home countries. Half a million Mexicans left, for example, in what was known as the Mexican Repatriation. Unfortunately, many of those Mexicans were forced to leave by the U.S. government.
In 1933, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was formed. It nonetheless exists today.
In 1938, World State of war II started in Europe. America was again concerned about protecting itself. Fears about foreign-built-in people continued to grow.
As a result of the turmoil in the 1930s, immigration figures dropped dramatically from where they had been in previous decades. In the 1920s, approximately 4,300,000 immigrants came to the United States; in the 1930s, fewer than 700,000 arrived.

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1940-1950

Globe War II and the Postwar Period

The United states entered Earth War Two in 1942. During the war, immigration decreased. There was fighting in Europe, transportation was interrupted, and the American consulates weren't open. Fewer than 10 percent of the clearing quotas from Europe were used from 1942 to 1945.
In many ways, the country was still fearful of the influence of strange-born people. The Us was fighting Germany, Italia, and Nippon (also known every bit the Axis Powers), and the U.S. government decided information technology would detain sure resident aliens of those countries. (Resident aliens are people who are living permanently in the Us but are not citizens.) Oftentimes, there was no reason for these people to be detained, other than fear and racism.
Outset in 1942, the government fifty-fifty detained American citizens who were ethnically Japanese. The government did this despite the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which says "nor shall any Land deprive any person of life, liberty or property without the due process of law."

Also because of the war, the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943. Red china had quickly become an important ally of the Usa confronting Nippon; therefore, the U.S. government did away with the offensive law. Chinese immigrants could one time over again legally enter the country, although they did so only in small numbers for the next couple of decades.
After World State of war 2, the economic system began to improve in the United States. Many people wanted to leave war-torn Europe and come to America. President Harry Southward. Truman urged the government to help the "bloodcurdling dislocation" of hundreds of thousands of Europeans. In 1945, Truman said, "everything possible should exist done at once to facilitate the entrance of some of these displaced persons and refugees into the Us. "
On Jan 7, 1948, Truman urged Congress to "pass suitable legislation at in one case so that this Nation may do its share in caring for homeless and suffering refugees of all faiths.

I believe that the access of these persons will add to the strength and free energy of the Nation."
Congress passed the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. Information technology immune for refugees to come to the Usa who otherwise wouldn't take been immune to enter under existing immigration law. The Human action marked the start of a flow of refugee clearing.

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1950-1965

The Common cold State of war Begins

In 1953, the Refugee Relief Act was passed to replace the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, which had expired. It also immune non-Europeans to come up to the United States every bit refugees.
The Refugee Relief Act also reflected the U.S. government'south business with Communism, a political credo that was gaining popularity in the globe, particularly in the Soviet Marriage. The Soviet Union was also controlling the governments of other countries. The Act allowed people fleeing from those countries to enter the United states.
When he signed the Act, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "This action demonstrates once more America's traditional concern for the homeless, the persecuted, and the less fortunate of other lands. It is a dramatic dissimilarity to the tragic events taking place in East Deutschland and in other captive nations."
By "convict nations," Eisenhower meant countries being dominated by the Soviet Union.

In 1956, in that location was a revolution in Republic of hungary in which the people protested the Soviet-controlled government. Many people fled the land during the brusque revolution. They were known as "50-sixers". Almost 36,000 Hungarians came to the U.s.a. during this time. Some of their countrymen too moved to Canada.
In 1959, Cuba experienced a revolution, and Fidel Castro took over the authorities. His dictatorship aligned itself with the Soviet Union. More than than 200,000 Cubans left their land in the years after the revolution; many of them settled in Florida.

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Building a Modern America 1965-Today

Total U.Due south. Clearing from 1970 to 2010 by Continent of Origin
- Europe
- Asia
- The Americas
- Africa
- Oceania *
A major change to clearing legislation in 1965 paved the style for new waves of immigration from all over of the earth. Asians and Latin Americans arrived in big numbers, while European immigration declined.

Today, immigration to the United States is at its highest level since the early 20th century. In fact, as a result of the diverseness of these recent immigrants, the The states has become a truly multicultural society. The story of America — who nosotros are and where we come from — is still being written.
*Number of legal immigrants equally recorded by immigration officials nationwide. Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
1965

Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, also known as the Hart-Celler Act. This act repealed the quota organisation based on national origins that had been in place since 1921. This was the most significant change to clearing policy in decades. Instead of quotas, immigration policy was at present based on a preference for reuniting families and bringing highly skilled workers to the Us. This was a change considering in the past, many immigrants were less skilled and less educated than the average American worker. In the modern catamenia, many immigrants would be doctors, scientists, and high-tech workers.
Considering Europe was recovering from the war, fewer Europeans were deciding to motility to America.
But people from the rest of globe were eager to move here. Asians and Latin Americans, in particular, were meaning groups in the new wave of clearing. Within five years after the act was signed, for example, Asian immigration had doubled.

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1965-1980

Vietnamese Immigration and the Refugee Act

During the 1960s and 1970s, America was involved in a war in Vietnam. Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia, on the Indochina peninsula. From the 1950s into the 1970s there was a great bargain of conflict in the area. After the state of war, Vietnamese refugees started coming to the U.s.. During the 1970s, near 120,000 Vietnamese came, and hundreds of thousands more continued to get in during the next two decades.
In 1980, the regime passed the Refugee Deed, a law that was meant specifically to aid refugees who needed to come to the country.
Refugees come considering they fearfulness persecution due to their race, organized religion, political beliefs, or other reasons. The U.s.a. and other countries signed treaties, or legal agreements, that said they should help refugees. The Refugee Human action protected this type of immigrant's correct to come to America.

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1980s

Latin American Immigration

During the 1980s, waves of immigrants arrived from Primal America, the Caribbean, and South America. Hundreds of thousands of people came only from Republic of cuba, fleeing the oppressive dictatorship of Fidel Castro. This was a significant new moving ridge of immigrants: During the 1980s, 8 million immigrants came from Latin America, a number nearly equal to the total figure of European immigrants who came to the United States from 1900 to 1910, when European immigration was at a high point. The new immigrants inverse the makeup of America: By 1990, Latinos in the United States were about 11.2 percent of the full population.

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1990-Today

A Multicultural America

Since 1990, clearing has been increasing. Information technology is at its highest bespeak in America's history. In both the 1990s and 2000s, around ten one thousand thousand new immigrants came to the U.s.a.. The previous record was from 1900 to 1910, when around eight million immigrants arrived.

In 2000, the foreign-born population of the United states was 28.iv million people. Also in that year, California became the start country in which no i ethnic group made up a majority.

Today, more than fourscore per centum of immigrants in the U.s. are Latin American or Asian. Past comparison, equally recently as the 1950s, two-thirds of all immigrants to the United States came from Europe or Canada.

The main countries of origin for immigrants today are Mexico, the Philippines, Communist china, Cuba, and India. About 1 in 10 residents of the The states is strange-born. Today, the Usa is a truly multicultural society.

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