Immigration
Immigration History
Three Waves of Immigration
Supreme Court Cases
State's Rights
Sources
First Wave- Colonial Era
In the 1500's, the first Europeans, lead by the French and Spanish have started to establish America by making settlements.
In 1607, the English made their first permanent settlement known as Jamestown.
America's first settlers came to America to freely practice their own religion.
In 1620, 100 pilgrims fled Europe from religious persecution and established a colony at present day Plymouth, Massachusetts.
They were later followed by a lager group of people known as the Puritans, and settled near the Massachusetts Bay.
Between 1630 and 1640 about 20,000 Puritans immigrated to America.
Another group of immigrants were forced to America to become slave's.
By 1680, about 7000 African slaves were in American colonies, which then grew to 7000,000 by 1790.
Congress outlawed the owning of slaves in 1808, but it was ignored.
The U.S Civil War then started resulting in the emancipation of about 4 million slaves.
Second Wave- Mid 19th Century
Another major wave of immigration occurred around 1815-1865.
Most of these immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe.
About one-third came from Ireland escaping a massive famine.
In 1840's about half of America's immigrants was from Ireland alone.
Most of he Irish settled near the east cost.
Between 1820 and 1930, 4.5 million Irish was in the U.S. America also received 5 million Germans.
They traveled to present day Midwest where they built farms.
During the California gold rush, in the mid 1800's, about 25,000 Chinese came to America.
Many immigrants travel to America looking for jobs while others fled to America from religious purposes.
The U.S. experienced major depression from the Civil War in the 1870's that slowed down the flow of immigrants.
Third Wave- 1880-1920
Between 1880-1920, America received more than 20 million immigrants.
Immigrants in the 1890's were mostly from central, and southern and eastern Europe.
That decade alone, about 600,000 Italians migrated to America. By 1920 4 million have crossed into America.
Jews escaping religious persecution from Europe came to America in large numbers; over 2 million Jews came the the U.S. between 1880 and 1920.
During World War I (1914-1918) caused a major decline in immigration.
Congress enacted legislation requiring the immigrants over 16 to take a literacy test in 1917, and in the 1920's immigration quotas were placed.