They’re Coming to America!“Old Immigration”

Where art thou from?

• 1. Where does your family come from?• 2. If you don’t know, speculate!• 3.Write down what you think of the following

song. Is the song jubilant? Is it sad? Would it make your ancestors (or you) want to come to America??

Neil Diamond’s “America”

• “On the boats and on the planesThey're coming to AmericaNever looking back againThey're coming to America”

• “Home, to a new and a shiny placeMake our bed, and we'll say our graceFreedom's light burning warmFreedom's light burning warm”

“Foundation”

• We all have a “foundation”.• A “foundation” is the basis or groundwork of

anything…• What is your “foundation”?

Ashford (Surrey), England

The New World

• Spain: Florida, New Mexico, California• Great Britain: “13 Colonies”• Holland: New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut• France: path of the Mississippi River, the Ohio

country.• Russia: Alaska• Sweden/Finland: Pennsylvania, Delaware,

New Jersey

Reasons for New World Immigration

• Religious toleration• Chance to start a new life• Escape- Cromwell, Napoleon, etc.• You were a slave…• You were bored

Germans

Poor conditions at home

Hessian Soldiers and Loyalist fears

Religion- Pennsylvania Dutch

The “Forty Eighters”

Columbus and Cincinnati

Scandinavians

• Northern settlers• Many came through Canada• Agrarian: Dairy farms• Settled the northern plains states.• Do they like it cold?• Did they give us anything of importance?

Irish

• They were Catholic. THEY were Protestant.• Keep them down- the Penal Laws• You can grow taters in Ireland. Dependent• The Famine and the Great White Queen• Landlords and evictions• Here they come…

Irish

Some wore blue. Some wore grey…

• Many immigrants fought in the Civil War.• German 48’ers fought for the Union.• Many European immigrants sided with the

Union.• The Irish had men on BOTH sides of the

conflict.

Cobb and Meagher

• General Thomas Reade Roots Cobb- CSA• General Thomas Francis Meagher- USA• Battle of Fredericksburg, Mayre’s Heights• Meagher’s brigade virtually wiped out in the

assault.• Brother shooting brother…

Why Should I Go to the New World?

• Why would you or your ancestors want to come to the new world?

• What were some incentives?• What were some of the drawbacks?

Home, to a new and a shiny placeMake our bed, and we'll say our

graceFreedom's light burning warmFreedom's light burning warm