American Civilization
REVIEW - MAJOR FEATURES OF THE U.S.
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REVIEW - MAJOR FEATURES OF THE U.S.
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THEME 2: THE PEOPLE
“America is not merely a nation but a nation of nations.”
Lyndon B. Johnson – 36th President (1908 - 1973)
First thought: Why do people migrate or immigrate?
1. Refugee/asylum (religious, political, disaster,
etc.)
2. Economic difficulty at home
3. Family
4. Professional development
Much immigration occurs for economic
reasons.
CONTENTS
1. ‘A nation of nations’: the process
2. Recent immigration policies
3. The U.S. - a ‘promised land’?
1. The First Americans
- At least 14.000 years ago, the first American immigrants were Asian hunters
getting to America across a land bridge where Bering Strait is today.
1. The First Americans (cont)
- About 1.5 million Native Americans lived in America before 1492.
- Native Americans got the name ‘Indians’ because Christopher Columbus named the discovered land the ‘West
Indies’, which means ‘India in the West’.
- We call these people the ‘indigenous people of the Americas’, or native American Indians.
2. The first European explorers & early settlers
Jan 1776: Thomas Paine wrote in
The British pilgrims (Puritans) escaped Common Sense: “Europe, and not
Columbus’s first foot (1492)
England, is the parent country of
religious persecution from Great Britain
America. This new world hath been
and arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts in the asylum for the persecuted lovers
1620 of civil and religious liberty from
every part of Europe.”
3. European Immigrants
1st wave (16th-18th centuries): mostly settlers from
the British Isles attracted by economic opportunity
and religious freedom
A mix of wealthy individuals and servants
Mostly Puritans (English Protestants)
2nd wave (1840s-1850s): Irish, German, and
Scandinavian immigrants
Fled famine, religious persecution, and political
conflicts
Mostly Catholics
3. European immigrants
1790 Naturalization Act allowing any free white person of “good character” living in the U.S. for two
years or longer to apply for citizenship
1815 Immigrant influx from Western Europe
1819 Many of newcomers arriving sick or dying from their long journey across the Atlantic. The
immigrants overwhelmed major port cities, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia and
Charleston. In response, the U.S. passed the Steerage Act of 1819 requiring better conditions on
ships carrying immigrants.
1849 America’s first anti-immigrant political party - Know-Nothing Party - formed as a backlash to the
increasing number of German and Irish immigrants
1875 Following the Civil War (1861-1865), some states passed their own immigration laws. In 1875 the
Supreme Court declared that it was the responsibility of the federal government to make and
enforce immigration laws.
4. The enslaved Africans – unwilling immigrants
Slavery in America assumedly started in 1619, when 20
African slaves seized from a Portuguese slave ship were
brought ashore in the British colony of Jamestown,
Virginia.
Throughout the 17th century, the forced migration, called
the Middle Passage, brought enslaved Africans as a
cheaper, more plentiful labor source for European
settlers.
The years 1830 to 1860 were the worst in the history of
African-American enslavement.
American Civil War (1861-1865): brought freedom to
black slaves
The Underground Railroad (late 18th century to the Civil War)
A vast network of individual people - many
whites but pre-dominently black - who helped
fugitive slaves escape to the North and to
Canada
Effectively moved hundreds of slaves
northward each year
The South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810
and 1850
Recommended: Harriet (2019 U.S. biographical movie)
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Cotton: Tears of Native Indians and African Slaves
Cotton was highly profitable but extremely labor-intensive
Native Indians driven out of their land and African slaves brought in
Cotton: Tears of Native Indians and African Slaves
The Trail of Tears (1838) removed the native Indians from the South,
resettling them to ‘Indian Territory’ to give the richest cotton soil to the
white. This removal, following the Louisiana Purchase, created vast lands
for cotton.
The number of slaves needed in the new cotton states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana demanded slave
labor traded at more than tripled price (rising from $500 in New Orleans in 1800 to $1,800 by 1860, the
equivalent of $30,000 in 2005)
The dominant motto of the era: “Cotton is King!”
One of the greatest periods in economic expansion and profitability in American history
Also took a costly Civil War and the loss of more than 600,000 lives to end it
5. Willing immigrants around the world
Up to the present time, more and more immigrants from any parts of the world have been
immigrating into America.
Willing Immigrants (cont)
Listen to a lecture about Ellis Island in New York, a door opening to immigrants to the United States, and fill in each blank with
NO MORE THAN THREE words and/or a number.
1. Immigrants to the U.S. come from (1)____________ of the world.
2. From (2)_______________, immigrants reached Ellis Island in New York harbor by ship.
3. Becoming Americans were often (3) __________________ for many immigrants.
4. An immigrant’s health problems could disqualifying him/her from (4)_________________.
5.(5)_______ per cent of immigrants were kept and asked for more questions or sent back home.
6. Accepted immigrants still had difficulty because a majority of them spoke (6) ______________ English and few of them had money.
7.In the U.S., immigrants joined together to (7) __________________.
8. Over time, many immigrants went west to work on farms, in factories, set up new businesses and (8)________________________.
9. (9)________________________ have moved to the southwest of the U.S. from Mexico and Central America.
10. As immigrants build their new lives, they make America (10)_________________.
IMMIGRANTS TO THE U.S.
Listen to a lecture about Ellis Island in New York, a door opening to immigrants to the United States, and fill in each blank with
necessary words.
every part of the world.
1. Immigrants to the U.S. come from (1)____________
1892 - 1924 immigrants reached Ellis Island in New York harbor by ship.
2. From (2)_______________,
long and difficult for many immigrants.
3. Becoming Americans were often (3) __________________
entering the country
4. An immigrant’s health problems could disqualifying him/her from (4)_____________________.
20% per cent of immigrants were kept and asked for more questions or sent back home.
5.(5)_______
little or no English and few of them had money.
6. Accepted immigrants still had difficulty because a majority of them spoke (6) ______________
form communities
7.In the U.S., immigrants joined together to (7) __________________.
become skilled workers
8.Over time, many immigrants went west to work on farms, in factories, set up new businesses and (8)________________________.
Thousands of people have moved to the southwest of the U.S. from Mexico and Central America.
9. (9)________________________
a better nation
10. As immigrants build their new lives, they make America (10)_________________.
Patterns of U.S. immigrants: past and future
U.S. population – 2050 (Projected)
8___
25%
WHITES
9___
14%
10___
8%
25% 14% Asians 53%
DACA* & DREAMERS
June 15, 2012: Homeland Security announced that certain people
who illegally came to the U.S. as children and meet several
guidelines may request consideration of deferred action for a period
of two years, subject to renewal. They are also eligible for work
authorization. DACA does not provide lawful status. About 800.000
applicants made their dreams in the U.S.
September, 2017: Trump moved to terminate this Obama-era policy.
January 20, 2021: President Biden issued a memorandum directing
the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Attorney
General, to take appropriate action to preserve and fortify DACA,
consistent with applicable law.
*Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
Central American migrant caravans
About 9,000 Honduran migrants Honduran migrants clash with
in Guatemala on Jan. 16. 2021 Guatemalan soldiers on Jan. 17, 2021
(Associated Press) in Guatemala (Associated Press)
Central American migrant caravans
• Migrants travelling from Central America to the Mexico–United States border to
seek asylum
• The largest and best known of these organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras (Village
Without Borders) that set off during Holy Week in early 2017 and 2018 from the
Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA)
• In early 2021, first migrant caravans departed for the U.S. from Honduras
International Committee for the Red Cross: "The combination of COVID-19,
social exclusion, violence and climate-related disasters that occur at the same
time with a magnitude seldom seen before in Central America raises new
humanitarian challenges.''
U.S. RACIAL PROFILE – PAST AND FUTURE
WHAT DOES THE CALL ‘GO WEST’ MEAN?
GO WEST: FROM A CALL FOR COLONIZATION TO A POP SONG
“Go west, young man” Come on, come on, come on, come on We will love the beach
We will go our way (Together) We will learn and teach
- A call attributed to American (Together) We will leave someday (Together) Change our pace of life
politician and newspaper editor (Together) Your hand in my hand (Together) We will work and strive
Horace Greeley in 1865: (Together) We will make our plans (I love you) I know you love me
(Together) We will fly so high (I want you) How could I disagree?
- An appeal to the continued (Together) Tell all our friends good-bye (So that's why) I make no protest
western expansionism that led (Together) We will start life new (When you say) You will do the rest
European settlers west (Together) This is what we'll do (Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) Life is peaceful there (Go West) In the open air
-> Establishment of key pieces of (Go West) In the open air (Go West) Baby you and me
the nation - California, for (Go West) Where the skies are blue (Go West) This is our destiny…
example - during the 19th century (Go West) This is what we're gonna do Go west) sun in wintertime
(Go west) we will do just fine
(Go west) where the skies are blue
(Go west, this is what we're gonna do)
…..
POP SONG: GO WEST
Village People - 1979 Pet Shop Boys - 1993
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wc-AQJ2MYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNBjMRvOB5M
GO WEST: A CALL FOR COLONIZATION TO A POP SONG
Village People - 1979 Pet Shop Boys - 1993
Go West: Go to San Francisco, where life was more Go West: Go to the U.S., where political atmosphere
welcoming for the gay community is more open
Review Questions
1. Who were supposedly the first American inhabitants?
2. How has the U.S. become ‘a nation of nations’?
3. What do the Underground Railroad, Dreamers, and Migrant Caravan represent?
4. From your perspective, is the U.S. ‘a promised land’?
Answer to Numer 4 question: Individual response (one paragraph with two or three reasons +
details/examples).
Note: Your file submitted in your number + full name
Links to submit:
Group 1:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/
1iQi3woOb8zlkd4O0Wv7zc8tZ5BPWO6Yb?usp=sharing
Group 2:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12cj_-
TyZ8EeMT5P0VJLmNO77WzvWz8qe?usp=sharing
