american immigration

“Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations”. These famous words, which were spoken, by the famed author and poet Walt Whitman is a perfect way to describe our ever changing melting pot society, which we call America. Immigration has effected and changed our country in many ways, many of which being economic reasons from 1820-1860. There have been many reasons for people migrating to America. Among the top of these reasons are those of Political Freedom, and Economic opportunities, which include people wanting more money and better jobs. A large amount of immigrants from this time period came by way of Slavery. From the 1820s until 1860 Immigration to America has affected the national economy in many positive and negative ways.

Around 1830 in America there was an abundance of land at a cheap cost, jobs were found with little difficulty because of the decreased birth rate and high urbanization and industry that was greatly increasing. The attraction that America had towards the Immigrants was mainly the large amounts of land for farms, which the people greatly desired. Many of the early arrivals to America were followed with reports to the people’s homeland countries that the streets of America were “paved with gold”. This saying was to refer to the prosperity that the American economy had during the early19th century. Many countries outside of America during this time were in great despair.

When there is no land left for farming of a crop, which is heavily relied on throughout your country, people tend to leave. One main source of immigration to America was the Irish. During the mid 1800s Ireland’s population grew rapidly and many of the people lived on small farms that produced very little, because of their poverty the people depended mainly on the potato crop. However around 1845 a plant disease killed the majority of the crop. Around three quarters of a million people died and thousands more left the country in search of a better life. Many of the emigrants to America from Irish were under the age of thirty-five and men. Families sent their strong sons to the New World in order to make money to afford the trip of the other family members. Even though there was a low birth rate and plentiful jobs in America many of the Irish found that the fast pa...

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...is crop into fabric that was sold and distributed throughout the world. The African-Americans were the most influential immigrant group to come to America during this time. They were used as slave labor mainly to harvest the enormous cotton crops in the south. This group even though were not allowed to take part in any form of public education did however harvest many notable writers, poets and politicians.

As shown, the immigration of different ethnic groups greatly attributed to America's flourishing economy. Without them this country would have fallen and collapsed soon after it's creation.

Bibliography

1. Http://www.bergen.org. American Immigration. 2001

2. The American Pageant. David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen, Thomas A. Bailey. Copyright 2002. Houghton Mifflin Company

3. World Book Encyclopedia. Volumes A&I. William H. Nault, Frank D. Drake. Copyright 1989. World Book Inc. Chicago, Illinois.

4. Immigration: Opposing Viewpoints. David L. Bender, Bruno Leone. Copyright1992. Greenhaven Press, Inc., San Diego, California.