The most important thing to keep in mind is when our grandparents came from Italy there was no handouts there was no welfare, they worked hard and sacrificed for us
My grandfather came here in 1902 went to Ellis Island. They would not hire a 16 year old Italian so he went to Pennsylvania and worked in the coal mines. Eventually he got a job in the garment industry and moved to Boston. There he became a dress designer. In WWII the United States Government commissioned hin to design the Navy Waves Uniforms. He loved America and worked hard all his life... when he was 86 years old I saked him what was the best day of his life. He told me the day he became an American !!
My grandfather went to work in a coal mine at 7 years old, for 10 cents an hour. He saved the first silver dollar he earned and gave it to me, his granddaughter. He was very intelligent, industrious, creative, visionary and a very hard worker. He became a millionaire who helped many relatives and others in his life. He was a wonderful, loving sweet man and I loved him so much and miss him so much. He was proud to be an American 🙏
It was all so true, as a young boy I remember my grandfather telling us the story of his village back in Bari Italy when he had to eat the last dog before coming to America, to keep from starving to death... He then worked on the railroad out west eventually settling in Chicago, like so many others he sent most of his money back home. he got a mail bride from his local village back in Italy, she gave him 8 children, my father included. My mother's family was much the same but from Pescara, many a feud developed between the two families in typical Italian style! Growing up in Italian American families we were never taught the native language and it was even frowned upon to speak Italian! but for us, his descendants we did find the dream of freedom and prosperity something I will be eternally grateful for
My family immigrated to the U.S. from Italy to escape poverty. They found work, bought homes, and raised families here. They are all eternally grateful and love the U.S. they fly American flags and served in the U.S. military.
Italians in the late 1800s were subject to other emigration swindles. Some emigrants who bought tickets to sail to New York were dropped at night in small boats off the coast of Scotland and told they were in New York, which is 3,500 miles away. Most had no money to sail on to New York and they settled in Scotland where there were plenty of industrial and mining jobs. Many of their descendants are still in Scotland and they have prospered through education and hard work.
Not only that. British had a practice of came in the cargo bays where Italians was stored and ask for sexual favours to females. Not matter if married or engaged. If they didn't complied, they would have dropped out of the boat asap.
This is some of the history we should be learning in October "Italian Americans History Month" instead of wasting the whole month arguing about Columbus. We must know where we came from, in order to know where we're going 🇮🇹🇺🇲
My Italian grandfather came through Ellis Island and worked on the railroad. He was recognized for being a strong worker. My brother became a wrestler and was state champ and All American. Italian's are strong people!
Yes, we are! All of the men in my family are under 5'8 but they are solid! My dad was only 5'8 but built like a bull. He received a football scholarship and was eventually drafted to the NFL. He was a nose guard/tackle. Usually anyone under 5'10 is exempt from pro football. My dad was so strong, powerful and his "shortness" actually worked in his favor. He could easily get up under the lineman and lay them out.
@@deniece0821seriously my dad is 5'7 and my grandpa was 5'9.due to me being a little Irish I'm about 5'9 I'm kind of proud of it. Every other man in my dad's family was 5'8 or under.
Thankyou so much for so thoughtfully putting together this slice of early Italian immigrant history. My great grandmother arrived from Naples in 1882, giving birth to my paternal grandfather a few days after their arrival. My great-grandfather arrived 4 years later, with a large group of farm laborers from Potenza. I have no other information about thir circumstances in Italy. So the backdrop you paint here is very relevant. The family stayed in Brooklyn where great-grandfather worked for the LIRR. My grandfather relocated to Cleveland Ohio in 1900 where he practiced barbering and plumbing, trades he'd learned from pushing brooms, and cleaning out the sinks at an uncle's (?) barbershop back in NYC.
love how business owners back then chose to put people's lives in danger by hiring cheap labor instead of paying a living wage just as it's done today . When they say they loved how the Italians were as workers really meant they loved how they could get cheap labor without any problems because the Italians had no union to fight for their rights
Its almost like there's a necessity for some sort of ideology or political organization that can keep crooked business owners in check and protect the interests of the working class.
Their really isn’t the unions have all been bought off $$$. Criminals have and still are running this country we the people have to wake up and stop believing their lies.
History repeats it self. Nowadays the Venezuelans, Haitians, etc. Because we do not learn about US history in schools many crucial events are simply ignored.
What an awesome story! How brave these people had to be to make these amazing journeys for a better life. Hard work is what it took to get anywhere...to survive. Thank you for all the time and energy you put into your research. I found the book and look forward to reading this saga!
fantastic story and close to home for me , my grandad as a young man sailed from naples in the early part of the 20th century to New York and stayed a few years until he retuned home to calabria and then on to england where he is buried ! RIP
Yeah, my favorite part was when they highlighted the similarities of today where the capitalist of today are colluding with the government to undermine American labor.😢
I always wondered. Why would an italien leave Italy. To come here....money.....its hard to come here...basically only Englander. Should.feel.well here.
Many people in Europe were targeted by lumber companies. I had a Italian friend that came with his family before 1900. Almost the whole village came in a group to work in a logging camp in Northern California. The whole camp spoke Italian. And the Mafia was there, too. There were other logging camps in the Northwest of different nationalities. Mostly from Southern or Eastern Europe. Hungarians, Czech, Romanian, etc.
@@chrispaschal7955 Maybe he want to say that there was a specific mob (the "mafia", that in 1900 was only sicilian...not italian: if you were not of that island you couldn't have been a member. Not only: the village of origin was important).
The industrialists used the Italians, then when the Sicilians took over operations as 'the mob'.....oh my, they were all up in arms because someone 'stole' their place.......🤣🤣🤣🤣 the history of so called civilization.
Excellent reporting!!! The macinato tax was a footnote in the book of reasons why southern Italians emigrated at that time. Large parts of southern Italy were completely abandoned by the official Italian government that was run by northern Italy. That abandonment led to a lawlessness, libertarian type society where in the absence of democratic elections and a functioning government entered a mafia that rose to power by elevating the most violent, vindictive, and ruthless psychopaths to lead the region. That reign of terror is the #1 reason why many people tried to escape and much to their chagrin were in some cases followed by the same oppressors they faced back in Italy.
My great grandparents and grandparents came here from Norway - poor & almost starving and ready for hard work. Thank god no one forced them into a bus that took them to a faraway state that they had not planned on going to where they knew no one.
The Bank of America (along with many Italian American Credit Unions), Delmonte foods, Ghridelli chocolate operation, control of waste management and the eastern docks when they were excluded from entry.
Thank you very much for this moving immigration history video. I can feel the desperation of the new immigrants when they realized they had been swindled and there was no passage to Argintina. This could be the story of many immigrants to America. I will view your other videos.
The work was hard and dangerous but primary industries like fishing, mining and forestry were entry level jobs for every group of immigrants. Later it was railroads, hydro dams and road building. There were no unions until mass production factories spawned them in the 20's. The pay and food were good for the time and certainly the best opportunity for new immigrants who didnt speak the language to get ahead at the time. Until recently young men of all nationalities were drawn to such industries to get work, learn a trade and save money to start their own businesses later.
As you asked: The following people were lynched In the 1891 New Orleans riot. Remember- lynching is the crime of forcibly pulling someone out of jail or police custody. Subsequently killing them is called murder. List by name, occupation and legal status: Antonio Bagnetto, fruit peddler: Tried and acquitted. James Caruso, stevedore: Not tried. Loreto Comitis, tinsmith: Not tried. Rocco Geraci, stevedore: Not tried. Joseph Macheca, American-born former blockade runner, fruit importer, and political boss of the New Orleans Italian-American community for the Regular Democratic Organization: Tried and acquitted. Antonio Marchesi, fruit peddler: Tried and acquitted. Pietro Monasterio, cobbler: Mistrial. Emmanuele Polizzi, street vendor: Mistrial. Frank Romero, ward heeler for the Regular Democratic Organization: Not tried. Antonio Scaffidi, fruit peddler: Mistrial. Charles Traina, rice plantation laborer: Not tried. The following people managed to escape lynching by hiding inside the prison: John Caruso, stevedore: Not tried. Bastian Incardona, laborer: Tried and acquitted. Gaspare Marchesi, 14, son of Antonio Marchesi: Tried and acquitted. Charles Mantranga, labor manager: Tried and acquitted. Peter Natali, laborer: Not tried. Charles Pietza (or Pietzo), grocer: Not tried. Charles Patorno, merchant: Not tried. Salvatore Sinceri, stevedore: Not tried. Only one of the lynching victims, Polizzi, had a police record in the U.S., having reportedly cut a man with a knife in Austin, Texas, several years earlier.
@@experidigm447mafia guys? Really? They were innocent sicilian immigrants, they hadnt done nothing... anyway, south italians get revenge with the mafia the followed years, rightly so
Yes. Roosevelt gave us Columbus day because of those Italians that were wrongly accused and lynched by the towns people..and the cancel culture liberals wanna take it away.
Rochas isn't an Italian name of family. It is french. The French Archives confirm my suspicions. They are French emigration agents based in the port of Le Havre (1856/1895). Fiche descriptive Agents d'émigration. Intitulé : 1856-1895. Dates extrêmes : répertoire numérique détaillé. Niveau de description FR - AN - F/12/4880 à 4887. Référence : Archives nationales, Paris.
My grandfather and his brother came from Abruzzi to Jefferson County, Pennsylvania in 1901. Both brothers worked in the coal mines and, when his brother was killed in a mining accident in 1925 my grandfather moved his family to New Castle and bought a farm in Neshannock Township. I wonder if we are related!
Both sides of my family came from Italy. They faced discrimination and hostility. With hard work, determination and family values, they succeeded and got ahead. The only things holding people back are the limitations they set for themselves and constantly looking back to the harsh past.
@@ItalianAmericanHistory I think the one point I disagree with ,you called them peasants, a peasant is a person of low social and cultural status,so then it depends on how you measure social status,and lack of money is not my measure, good work ethics they seemed to had,also comradery family values humility courage and respect for others and themselves.not peasants they way I see it.
Hi Ben - The words in my script, including the word “peasant,” were taken from contemporary newspaper articles describing the swindled Italians. Here’s an example, from the December 16, 1872 edition of the New York Herald: chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1872-12-16/ed-1/seq-10/ At the top of the third column is an article titled “Italian Immigrants.” The sixth paragraph is titled “They Are Ignorant Peasants.” In the next paragraph, the editor referred to the Italian immigrants as “ignorant peasants.” There are many more newspaper articles from November 1872 through January 1873 referring to the swindled Italian immigrants as “peasants.”
@@ItalianAmericanHistory you did not quote the term as a dicription by a newspaper,you used the description and neither did you condemn such a term.,just because it was used in a paper it does not make it so. Sitting on the fence promotes such damming bullshit...
You do know those beloved Italians donated their precious silver dimes to rebuild the US Constitution when the call went out for help for America. Thanks Italy 🇮🇹 God bless you 😊
Undoubtedly the swindlers were a major factor in getting Italians on the boats, but the root cause of the migration was the mismanagement of the economy and the wretched poverty that Italians of that era endured. More generally, the years between the Civil War and World War I saw one of the greatest migrations in human history to America's shores, and also an enormous creation of wealth and prosperity for this country. By thinking in terms of producing abundantly rather than managing scarcity, the country over the long term provided a better life both for the incumbent population that was already here and for those who immigrated.
You are absolutely correct! The terrible economic conditions in Italy in the 1860s and 1870s induced tens of thousands to leave the country. The swindlers simply took advantage of their countrymen's situation.
This is not entirely accurate, and not by a longshot. Too long of a story to detail here, but the situation in places like Italy at that time was a legacy of fuedalism, and ultimately power in few hands and held by those few by force. Kind of like today..that dynamic doesn't change in industrial societies. Furthermore, centering economies around perpetual increase of production and consumption in itself is finally a recipe for disaster. How's that working out today? Human society may destroy itself this century in large part due to this. The dynamics illustrated here with swindlers is just the tip of the iceberg and indicative of entire capitalist systems which which may give ypu things temporarily but which are ultimately convincing ypu to give up rights, dignity, the ability of control over ypur own work and free association, amongst much else.
@@Luke43168To answer your question of "How's that working out today?", I defer to this paragraph of Jonah Goldberg's review of Piketty's last book: Thanks to capitalism, we have seen the single largest alleviation of poverty in human history. In 1981, 52 percent of humanity lived in “extreme poverty.” They could not provide for themselves and for their families such basic needs as housing and food. According to a recent study by Yale and the Brookings Institution, by the end of 2011, that number had fallen to 15 percent. They credit globalization, capitalism, and better economic governance (i.e., the abandonment of Marxism and similar ideologies). Even for economic nationalists, how is that not a staggering triumph for the ethical superiority of capitalism?
A very interesting and informative video. Italian immigrants faced widespread discrimination and persecution in Canada as well. I’m well aware of the discrimination perpetrated against my two grandfathers and their families. 🇮🇹🇨🇦
My Italian grandparents came from Southern Italy to Ellis Island in 1905. For many of promises of a better life, my great grandparents sent all of their children on ships to Ellis Island. Hard to comprehend as a father and a grandfather what that must have been like. They did it to survive, and they worked hard and created families who are still contributing to the USA today in a variety of ways and love this country. Nice what legal immigration can do.
My family has a long history in concrete. They are well known throughout the city as the best concrete workers in the city! Proud to be a Sicilian American!
Proud to say my Italian Great Grandfather and Grandmother came thru Ellis Island in 1912. He worked in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and Ohio while she kept the home. I'm now made up of mixed nationalities as my ancestors assimilated into the melting pot of America.
I saw a documentary about Barga last year, it is called the most Scottish town around Lucca, because many natives went to Scotland for work as well in 19th century, and then came back and brought some Scottish customs with them!
My Sicilian great grandfather and family moved to Romania c.1900 there was mining and stone cutting work Italy was not a good place to be poor during those times this is why so many left I doubt there was any swindle besides the failure of the Italian state to provide good jobs for the people remember Italy was different states before 1860s
Italians emigrated from all regions after national unity. In the beginning, from 1861 until 1900, more Italians emigrated from the North than from the South (therefore, the assumption that the North plundered the South is bullshit). Only the Italians from the North went to France, Argentina, Brazil and the rest of Latin America. Much less than the USA. Southerners, on the other hand, went mostly to the USA, so many there think that only Sicilians and Neapolitans emigrated. You can find regional data looking for: "Emigrazione Italiana" in wikipedia
Not an either/or. Swindles yes, and were indicative of much larger and deeper capitalist exploitation.. Ultimately poverty and immigration was the result of power in very few hands, held by force, in govts and the economy, convincing people to give up all they had for material things. Sounds like today.
My grandparents came from Northern Italy through Ellis Island and landed in West Virginia because it was very similar to their homeland. My grandfather worked as a stone mason and helped build some of the blue ridge parkway.
" Mamma Mia dami cento lire chi in America Voglio Andar ..." Honor to My Italian Nonni e Nonnas ! " Giancarlo you steal 1 Penny or you steal Millions ...you are still a Thief ! ". Work Hard - Be Honest - Thanks and Pray to God . First Lieutenant / Airline Captain ( Ret .) Air Force of Chile USAF Trained .
To read more about the challenges the Italians had both in the departure of their beloved country and the challenges of their life in America read: La Storia ; 500 years of Italian/American History. You will gasp, cry and kiss their ground.
Desantis lives in the present and is dealing with current situations, not stuck in the past with his ancestors. He is not hyphenated, he 8s American. Thats what happens over time. All the mongrels become molded into one construct. No different from any ppl thruout time in antiquity of the world.
Hi Tony - thanks for your comment. This video focused on what happened to the nearly 3,000 Italians who were scammed in the closing weeks of 1872. It was never meant to be a comprehensive history of all Italian immigration to the U.S. But you are right; the saga of Italian immigration to cities like New Orleans was no less eventful.
They treated us like crap. They thought we'd go back home after getting their projects completed. My grandfather left an agrarian community to come here. Now I live in a small agrarian community in Florida. We still get treated like crap to this day by "Americans".
Plus, grandparents arrived in America as early as the 1920's, not once did I hear a story of hardship/discrimination by any of them. This exaggerated nonsense must stop. This happened to EVERY immigrant class, and it was worse for some particularly the Irish and blacks.
excellent documentary on our ancestry and the lies they were told just to be used and abused when they arrived in America!! today they welcome illegal criminals to be allowed in through the open border as they did on the italian ships in the 1870's history repeats...mille grazie for your hard work joe and your research team!! ...ciao tutti
These men were hard working men and not banditis as they claim. Maybe a rotten apple slipped through but that's no reason to claim that these immigrants as a whole were criminal. The criminal element is everywhere, in all walks of life, in all races are psychos, that rise to the ranks to become dictators. Blaming all for one is not good
Illegal criminals? These people are coming to work. They are doing the shittiest jobs for less money than us Americans will work for. They are being used today against other ethnic immigrants on the job to prevent unions. They are used as temp labor to keep labor costs down. They are being used as much as the Italians were used.
There is no open border. It is just extremely difficult to patrol as it is over 1950 miles of hostile terrain. No administration has succeeded in doing much about it but has instead allowed the heat, wild animals and long distance do a lot of the deterrence while the administration picks up the stragglers. Some will get through, and they have done this for 200 years. But it is entirely political to say the border is open and that they welcome illegals. If that were true there would be no CBP because CBP would be superfluous.
This happened also to the Irish who spoke only Irish Gaelic. They were often swindled by their own people! After arriving in America, the Irish crooks promised their compatriots jobs & a place to live only to end up penniless in overcrowded tenements.
Didn't know this but I personally know Greeks who entered the United States through Canada some 40 years ago and some 30 years ago. They got jobs in Greek restaurants in southern California for poverty wages. NEVER made enough money to save to build a better life. Often if they asked for more money the Greek owner would call immigration and have them deported. Some of the restaurant owners live in Greece half the year and these men run their restaurants while they're in Greece working 16 hours a day. I have listened to their stories and helped one become a US citizen in the 1990s.
Very interesting story but it was very truthful and sadness but time took care of there Dreams and Hope . God Bless the hard working Immigrants they had a lot to over come for there families and grandchildren understand what they did to make it a better world for them.
This was a disgraceful , shameful and an abominable part of American history. America went across the ocean to hire poor men from an entire other continent who were unskilled and did not speak English when it already had millions of men of African descent who not only spoke and understood English, who unquestionably knew what hard work was all about and who were also highly skilled at many crafts and willing to work for modest salaries.. Absolutely unforgettable!
Poor immigrants and native blacks were pitted against each other…another example of racism and they way it has been used to keep wages low for all. Same thing with the Mexicans and Filipinos in the southwest.
This is pure spin and you are making assumptions and assertions that you aren't backing up with facts. Many blacks established their own businesses with help from their community, like every other minority group. Your propaganda and accusing others is what is shameful.
Another layer in the Italian immigrant story is that they brought their Catholic values. They contributed to the Catholic landscape with their patron Saints from their home towns. God bless the Italians!
They had to establish their own Catholic congregations because they Irish wouldn't let them join theirs (they thought the Italian saint cults were too extreme). So for this we are blessed with the beautiful Italian Catholic churches with their Italian statuary.
Hi Elio - I have the entire article, and I can send you a .jpeg copy of it, if you're willing to post your email address. Or, if you're on Facebook, can I find you there and send it to you that way? I found five people with your name on Facebook...
A similar fate awaited many Polish and Russian Jews fleeing adversity 'at home'. They purchased tickets to America and were unloaded in various Ports in the UK being told that this was the Promised Land. Not speaking and reading English most woke up when it was too late...the ships had sailed to pick up more easy targets.
@@petersclafani4370 I’m Romanian American but I’m getting a place in Italy soon did college in Florence and lived in Rome for a year as a kid before moving to New York in 86
Ultimately, the Europeans in Italy pulled a fast one on their own in a remarkably similar way as we would see the Europeans and Americans mistreat American Indian people. Preying on vulnerable populations, manufacturing consent from people who could be tricked into a predatory deal . The Great Swindle in Italy reminds me of the treaties signed by the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee, ceding lands and personal property in exchange for certain protections and provisions which were then, not honoured for a very long time.
your story line ignores the fact that after the unification of Italy, the south was decimated by the king's boot on their neck. Education of the south was outlawed and 25,000 leaders, clergy and academics were imprisioned in Turin to die over the next 3 years. The south went from a center of enlightenment to abject poverty. Naples and the former Kingdom of two sicilies had lead the world in transportation, education and business before unification, and only declined over unification.
We had to leave out a lot of history, otherwise our 25-minute project would have been a two or three hour documentary. Besides, the swindle was the focus of this project.
You have read propaganda of bad journalism or neo-borbonic books? I'm descendant of a coal miner of WV: he came from Apulia, but I don't like the crybabies. I don't like people who whine. If we look at the officialls numbers of emigrants from Italy, broken down by region, from 1861 to 1900, we see that more people emigrated from the North than from the South. The fact is that people from the North, generally, did not go to the USA. Certainly, the Venetians in Brazil were not treated better than the Sicilians in the USA nor the Tuscans who were brought by a Piedmontese to work on the Australian plantations, where they replaced the Kanaka. Not even the Piedmontese in Argentina found the red carpet. Dreams of a bright South are a thing of today and the reality of yesterday was very different.
I agree. However, I can't afford professional narrators and a sound stage. The narrations I used were computer-generated and were very affordable; it was a financial trade-off I had to make.
Some of my italian ancestors had their land in Italy taken from them by the church. All my Italian ancestors that came to the USA died as home owners with savings to pass on
I enjoyed this documentary very much. It shines a light on the very earliest period of Italian immigration to the USA. One criticism... it would be nice if the narrator could pronounce Italian names and words correctly. Every Italian word is pronounced incorrectly. Italian is a phonetic language and not very hard to pronounce if you know the rules. I think you would be showing a little more respect for the subject matter. Otherwise, very well done.
Thank you for your nice comment. Regarding the pronunciations: the narrations were all done using computer software. It was an inexpensive way ($100) to get the job done: live narrators (in a recording studio) would have cost about ten thousand dollars. Unfortunately, there was no way to make the computer voices pronounce the Italian names and words accurately.
Creating these videos with real narrators and studio rentals would have costed thousands of dollars. So, the narrations were all done (inexpensively) with an artificial intelligence application.Unfortunately, that put the pronunciations beyond my control. It was this, or nothing.
It seems to me that they need it cheap labor and brought them with the excuse “Oh you are stranded here” and sold all your properties and belongings back in Italy 😮 oh my oh my Oh ok here’s a shovel 😂😂😂
You are welcome to "move back" to a country where your ancestors were born 150 years ago, especially since things aren't as awful as they were when your ancestors came here to keep from starving to death.
The most important thing to keep in mind is when our grandparents came from Italy there was no handouts there was no welfare, they worked hard and sacrificed for us
Most proud of these brave and hard working Italians
My grandfather came here in 1902 went to Ellis Island. They would not hire a 16 year old Italian so he went to Pennsylvania and worked in the coal mines. Eventually he got a job in the garment industry and moved to Boston. There he became a dress designer. In WWII the United States Government commissioned hin to design the Navy Waves Uniforms. He loved America and worked hard all his life... when he was 86 years old I saked him what was the best day of his life. He told me the day he became an American !!
That’s what my grandfather did he was a coal
Miner when he first came here .
That’s when my great grandparents came! My great grandfather worked the railroads for a while before settling in Connecticut
My grandfather went to work in a coal mine at 7 years old, for 10 cents an hour. He saved the first silver dollar he earned and gave it to me, his granddaughter. He was very intelligent, industrious, creative, visionary and a very hard worker. He became a millionaire who helped many relatives and others in his life. He was a wonderful, loving sweet man and I loved him so much and miss him so much. He was proud to be an American 🙏
It was all so true, as a young boy I remember my grandfather telling us the story of his village back in Bari Italy when he had to eat the last dog before coming to America, to keep from starving to death... He then worked on the railroad out west eventually settling in Chicago, like so many others he sent most of his money back home. he got a mail bride from his local village back in Italy, she gave him 8 children, my father included. My mother's family was much the same but from Pescara, many a feud developed between the two families in typical Italian style! Growing up in Italian American families we were never taught the native language and it was even frowned upon to speak Italian! but for us, his descendants we did find the dream of freedom and prosperity something I will be eternally grateful for
My family immigrated to the U.S. from Italy to escape poverty. They found work, bought homes, and raised families here. They are all eternally grateful and love the U.S. they fly American flags and served in the U.S. military.
Italians in the late 1800s were subject to other emigration swindles. Some emigrants who bought tickets to sail to New York were dropped at night in small boats off the coast of Scotland and told they were in New York, which is 3,500 miles away. Most had no money to sail on to New York and they settled in Scotland where there were plenty of industrial and mining jobs. Many of their descendants are still in Scotland and they have prospered through education and hard work.
I have never heard of this before. Thank you for posting this.
Not only that. British had a practice of came in the cargo bays where Italians was stored and ask for sexual favours to females. Not matter if married or engaged.
If they didn't complied, they would have dropped out of the boat asap.
Italians were swindled by their own countrymen.
Taking advantage of their desperation was repulsive!
This is some of the history we should be learning in October "Italian Americans History Month" instead of wasting the whole month arguing about Columbus. We must know where we came from, in order to know where we're going 🇮🇹🇺🇲
My Italian grandfather came through Ellis Island and worked on the railroad. He was recognized for being a strong worker. My brother became a wrestler and was state champ and All American. Italian's are strong people!
Yes, we are! All of the men in my family are under 5'8 but they are solid! My dad was only 5'8 but built like a bull. He received a football scholarship and was eventually drafted to the NFL. He was a nose guard/tackle. Usually anyone under 5'10 is exempt from pro football. My dad was so strong, powerful and his "shortness" actually worked in his favor. He could easily get up under the lineman and lay them out.
@@deniece0821seriously my dad is 5'7 and my grandpa was 5'9.due to me being a little Irish I'm about 5'9 I'm kind of proud of it. Every other man in my dad's family was 5'8 or under.
Thankyou so much for so thoughtfully putting together this slice of early Italian immigrant history. My great grandmother arrived from Naples in 1882, giving birth to my paternal grandfather a few days after their arrival. My great-grandfather arrived 4 years later, with a large group of farm laborers from Potenza. I have no other information about thir circumstances in Italy. So the backdrop you paint here is very relevant. The family stayed in Brooklyn where great-grandfather worked for the LIRR.
My grandfather relocated to Cleveland Ohio in 1900 where he practiced barbering and plumbing, trades he'd learned from pushing brooms, and cleaning out the sinks at an uncle's (?) barbershop back in NYC.
You're welcome, and thank you for your nice comment on my work!
Dry good doc - well done. All Americans should watch this -
Thank you very much for your nice comment, J!
love how business owners back then chose to put people's lives in danger by hiring cheap labor instead of paying a living wage just as it's done today . When they say they loved how the Italians were as workers really meant they loved how they could get cheap labor without any problems because the Italians had no union to fight for their rights
Exactly
Its almost like there's a necessity for some sort of ideology or political organization that can keep crooked business owners in check and protect the interests of the working class.
Thank god we have SSSR, before it world was so cruel.
Their really isn’t the unions have all been bought off $$$.
Criminals have and still are running this country we the people have to wake up and stop believing their lies.
But the Italians were HAPPY. Did you catch that part?
History repeats it self. Nowadays the Venezuelans, Haitians, etc. Because we do not learn about US history in schools many crucial events are simply ignored.
Outstanding!! This should be teach in the school of USA and Italy.
Thank you very much for the nice comment!
I tried but at the time.black history was given precefernce
@@atkinsjoe5754What a pity 😢
It's 2023, and the same scenario is happening.
Nobody gave anything to Italians ..... but the ones that come in illegally now ..... get more than Americans.
Italian immigration have greatly benefitted America.
@@danielefabbro822 All immigration has benefited America.
@@lenr7068 sure. Right.
My Great Grand Father was apart of this 1889, I'm proud to be first generation Italian American.
Thank you for sharing
👍
Thank you for your nice comment!
What an awesome story! How brave these people had to be to make these amazing journeys for a better life. Hard work is what it took to get anywhere...to survive. Thank you for all the time and energy you put into your research. I found the book and look forward to reading this saga!
Thanks for your nice comments, MJ!!!
fantastic story and close to home for me , my grandad as a young man sailed from naples in the early part of the 20th century to New York and stayed a few years until he retuned home to calabria and then on to england where he is buried ! RIP
@@cfclazio621 Hello! Isn't it truly amazing what our forefathers did for their families to have a better life! Hard working ancestors!!!!
Yeah, my favorite part was when they highlighted the similarities of today where the capitalist of today are colluding with the government to undermine American labor.😢
I always wondered. Why would an italien leave Italy. To come here....money.....its hard to come here...basically only Englander. Should.feel.well here.
Many people in Europe were targeted by lumber companies. I had a Italian friend that came with his family before 1900. Almost the whole village came in a group to work in a logging camp in Northern California. The whole camp spoke Italian. And the Mafia was there, too.
There were other logging camps in the Northwest of different nationalities. Mostly from Southern or Eastern Europe. Hungarians, Czech, Romanian, etc.
There's always a mob, it's unavoidable, and they're not always Italian.
@@chrispaschal7955 Maybe he want to say that there was a specific mob (the "mafia", that in 1900 was only sicilian...not italian: if you were not of that island you couldn't have been a member. Not only: the village of origin was important).
The industrialists used the Italians, then when the Sicilians took over operations as 'the mob'.....oh my, they were all up in arms because someone 'stole' their place.......🤣🤣🤣🤣 the history of so called civilization.
You had an Italian friend that came wit his family before 1900" ? What a load of bullshit.
@@astephens1963 By 1900 there were 500,000 foreign born Italians in the US. Look it up.
Excellent reporting!!!
The macinato tax was a footnote in the book of reasons why southern Italians emigrated at that time.
Large parts of southern Italy were completely abandoned by the official Italian government that was run by northern Italy.
That abandonment led to a lawlessness, libertarian type society where in the absence of democratic elections and a functioning government entered a mafia that rose to power by elevating the most violent, vindictive, and ruthless psychopaths to lead the region.
That reign of terror is the #1 reason why many people tried to escape and much to their chagrin were in some cases followed by the same oppressors they faced back in Italy.
Italian people came and have done well ❤️
My great grandparents and grandparents came here from Norway - poor & almost starving and ready for hard work. Thank god no one forced them into a bus that took them to a faraway state that they had not planned on going to where they knew no one.
The Bank of America (along with many Italian American Credit Unions), Delmonte foods, Ghridelli chocolate operation, control of waste management and the eastern docks when they were excluded from entry.
Iam from Norway 🇳🇴
Norway is richer than America now 😊
@@GhyuRtyu Remember Mama -- great old movie about early Norwegian immigrants in San Francisco
Don't have to look at this video I congratulate your honesty,courage and forthrightness to elucidate this reality
Thanks for the nice comment, John!
Thank you very much for this moving immigration history video. I can feel the desperation of the new immigrants when they realized they had been swindled and there was no passage to Argintina. This could be the story of many immigrants to America. I will view your other videos.
Thank you for your nice comments on my project!
Thanks for the detailed Origin of the immigration waves…most glossed over these facts..👍
Nice comments like yours have made all the research for this project worth it...thank you!
my ancestors came through West Virginia to work the coal mines ...god bless all these great men and women that built up this nation
some of mine too .The Monongah mine disaster led to changes in labor laws .There is also a memorial in Italy
@@5Antvin do you know where in Italy the memorial is ?
@@5Antvin there’s a book you might be interested in called Italians in West Virginia by Judy Prozzillo Byers ..
@@forzajuve4845 San Giovanni in Fiore ,Cosenza a beautiful mountain town -The Sila region
@@5Antvin thanksssss for the info
The work was hard and dangerous but primary industries like fishing, mining and forestry were entry level jobs for every group of immigrants. Later it was railroads, hydro dams and road building. There were no unions until mass production factories spawned them in the 20's. The pay and food were good for the time and certainly the best opportunity for new immigrants who didnt speak the language to get ahead at the time. Until recently young men of all nationalities were drawn to such industries to get work, learn a trade and save money to start their own businesses later.
Wonderful job is bringing history alive in a beautiful documentary.
Thank you very much for your nice comment!
Great documentary. It was through a hard way that the Italians succeeded in their life.
would have been nice to acknowledge the names of the eleven Italians that were hung in new Orleans
The Mafia guys? Really? .....
As you asked:
The following people were lynched In the 1891 New Orleans riot. Remember- lynching is the crime of forcibly pulling someone out of jail or police custody. Subsequently killing them is called murder.
List by name, occupation and legal status:
Antonio Bagnetto, fruit peddler: Tried and acquitted.
James Caruso, stevedore: Not tried.
Loreto Comitis, tinsmith: Not tried.
Rocco Geraci, stevedore: Not tried.
Joseph Macheca, American-born former blockade runner, fruit importer, and political boss of the New Orleans Italian-American community for the Regular Democratic Organization: Tried and acquitted.
Antonio Marchesi, fruit peddler: Tried and acquitted.
Pietro Monasterio, cobbler: Mistrial.
Emmanuele Polizzi, street vendor: Mistrial.
Frank Romero, ward heeler for the Regular Democratic Organization: Not tried.
Antonio Scaffidi, fruit peddler: Mistrial.
Charles Traina, rice plantation laborer: Not tried.
The following people managed to escape lynching by hiding inside the prison:
John Caruso, stevedore: Not tried.
Bastian Incardona, laborer: Tried and acquitted.
Gaspare Marchesi, 14, son of Antonio Marchesi: Tried and acquitted.
Charles Mantranga, labor manager: Tried and acquitted.
Peter Natali, laborer: Not tried.
Charles Pietza (or Pietzo), grocer: Not tried.
Charles Patorno, merchant: Not tried.
Salvatore Sinceri, stevedore: Not tried.
Only one of the lynching victims, Polizzi, had a police record in the U.S., having reportedly cut a man with a knife in Austin, Texas, several years earlier.
@@experidigm447mafia guys? Really? They were innocent sicilian immigrants, they hadnt done nothing... anyway, south italians get revenge with the mafia the followed years, rightly so
Yes. Roosevelt gave us Columbus day because of those Italians that were wrongly accused and lynched by the towns people..and the cancel culture liberals wanna take it away.
Isn’t it something how history repeats itself
Rochas isn't an Italian name of family. It is french. The French Archives confirm my suspicions. They are French emigration agents based in the port of Le Havre (1856/1895).
Fiche descriptive
Agents d'émigration. Intitulé :
1856-1895. Dates extrêmes :
répertoire numérique détaillé.
Niveau de description FR - AN - F/12/4880 à 4887.
Référence :
Archives nationales, Paris.
Italians names always end in a vowel
Interessante documento anche dal punto di vista italiano
Gil Italian I Hannover suffered immensely on arrival
My great grandfather came here but he went back to Italy. My grandfather came around 1900. He had a farm in western New Castle, Pennsylvania,
My grandfather and his brother came from Abruzzi to Jefferson County, Pennsylvania in 1901. Both brothers worked in the coal mines and, when his brother was killed in a mining accident in 1925 my grandfather moved his family to New Castle and bought a farm in Neshannock Township. I wonder if we are related!
That’s an amazing story just goes to show how true Grit really stands out and I am proud to be an Italian 👏👏
Thanks for your nice comment!
Very happy the Italians came here. Most beautiful women.❤
Both sides of my family came from Italy. They faced discrimination and hostility. With hard work, determination and family values, they succeeded and got ahead. The only things holding people back are the limitations they set for themselves and constantly looking back to the harsh past.
Very informative!!! Grazie!
Thank you very much!
@@ItalianAmericanHistory I think the one point I disagree with ,you called them peasants, a peasant is a person of low social and cultural status,so then it depends on how you measure social status,and lack of money is not my measure, good work ethics they seemed to had,also comradery family values humility courage and respect for others and themselves.not peasants they way I see it.
Hi Ben - The words in my script, including the word “peasant,” were taken from contemporary newspaper articles describing the swindled Italians. Here’s an example, from the December 16, 1872 edition of the New York Herald:
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1872-12-16/ed-1/seq-10/
At the top of the third column is an article titled “Italian Immigrants.” The sixth paragraph is titled “They Are Ignorant Peasants.” In the next paragraph, the editor referred to the Italian immigrants as “ignorant peasants.”
There are many more newspaper articles from November 1872 through January 1873 referring to the swindled Italian immigrants as “peasants.”
@@ItalianAmericanHistory you did not quote the term as a dicription by a newspaper,you used the description and neither did you condemn such a term.,just because it was used in a paper it does not make it so. Sitting on the fence promotes such damming bullshit...
@@benluchini7500damn bro chill lol
You do know those beloved Italians donated their precious silver dimes to rebuild the US Constitution when the call went out for help for America. Thanks Italy 🇮🇹 God bless you 😊
Undoubtedly the swindlers were a major factor in getting Italians on the boats, but the root cause of the migration was the mismanagement of the economy and the wretched poverty that Italians of that era endured. More generally, the years between the Civil War and World War I saw one of the greatest migrations in human history to America's shores, and also an enormous creation of wealth and prosperity for this country. By thinking in terms of producing abundantly rather than managing scarcity, the country over the long term provided a better life both for the incumbent population that was already here and for those who immigrated.
You are absolutely correct! The terrible economic conditions in Italy in the 1860s and 1870s induced tens of thousands to leave the country. The swindlers simply took advantage of their countrymen's situation.
This is not entirely accurate, and not by a longshot. Too long of a story to detail here, but the situation in places like Italy at that time was a legacy of fuedalism, and ultimately power in few hands and held by those few by force. Kind of like today..that dynamic doesn't change in industrial societies. Furthermore, centering economies around perpetual increase of production and consumption in itself is finally a recipe for disaster. How's that working out today? Human society may destroy itself this century in large part due to this.
The dynamics illustrated here with swindlers is just the tip of the iceberg and indicative of entire capitalist systems which which may give ypu things temporarily but which are ultimately convincing ypu to give up rights, dignity, the ability of control over ypur own work and free association, amongst much else.
@@Luke43168To answer your question of "How's that working out today?", I defer to this paragraph of Jonah Goldberg's review of Piketty's last book:
Thanks to capitalism, we have seen the single largest alleviation of poverty in human history. In 1981, 52 percent of humanity lived in “extreme poverty.” They could not provide for themselves and for their families such basic needs as housing and food. According to a recent study by Yale and the Brookings Institution, by the end of 2011, that number had fallen to 15 percent. They credit globalization, capitalism, and better economic governance (i.e., the abandonment of Marxism and similar ideologies). Even for economic nationalists, how is that not a staggering triumph for the ethical superiority of capitalism?
Very informative, grazie
Thank you very much!
A very interesting and informative video. Italian immigrants faced widespread discrimination and persecution in Canada as well. I’m well aware of the discrimination perpetrated against my two grandfathers and their families. 🇮🇹🇨🇦
Thanks, Phil.
My Italian grandparents came from Southern Italy to Ellis Island in 1905. For many of promises of a better life, my great grandparents sent all of their children on ships to Ellis Island. Hard to comprehend as a father and a grandfather what that must have been like. They did it to survive, and they worked hard and created families who are still contributing to the USA today in a variety of ways and love this country. Nice what legal immigration can do.
My family has a long history in concrete. They are well known throughout the city as the best concrete workers in the city! Proud to be a Sicilian American!
They came ,they saw, they concreted
3 of my 4 grandparents were born in Italy.one was born here.
I grew up speaking Italian as my first language
This was also true in the stone quarries in coastal Maine. That's how my family got here in 1900.
Bravo, Love This!
Thank you!
Proud to say my Italian Great Grandfather and Grandmother came thru Ellis Island in 1912. He worked in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and Ohio while she kept the home.
I'm now made up of mixed nationalities as my ancestors assimilated into the melting pot of America.
Do you know where they came from? Cheers from Italy
@@Cacciatore_Raccoglitore Massa-Carrara Marble mines.
I’m learning more about my great grandparents. They came here in 1902.
My mother's parents left the place i.e., Barga. that their families had lived in for hundreds of years to come to America in the late 19th century.
I saw a documentary about Barga last year, it is called the most Scottish town around Lucca, because many natives went to Scotland for work as well in 19th century, and then came back and brought some Scottish customs with them!
@@tessp.l1284 Yup, but my mother's parents went to RI. The Duke of Lucca once tore down the walls of Barga. Ciao.
Dang..those scammers screwed them going & coming by making them put up their estates as bonds in exchange for the price of passage
They developed the food distribution centers, trucking, construction. Skilled engineers, wine makers, pattern makers, hospitals
My Sicilian great grandfather and family moved to Romania c.1900 there was mining and stone cutting work Italy was not a good place to be poor during those times this is why so many left I doubt there was any swindle besides the failure of the Italian state to provide good jobs for the people remember Italy was different states before 1860s
Italians emigrated from all regions after national unity. In the beginning, from 1861 until 1900, more Italians emigrated from the North than from the South (therefore, the assumption that the North plundered the South is bullshit). Only the Italians from the North went to France, Argentina, Brazil and the rest of Latin America. Much less than the USA. Southerners, on the other hand, went mostly to the USA, so many there think that only Sicilians and Neapolitans emigrated.
You can find regional data looking for: "Emigrazione Italiana" in wikipedia
Not an either/or. Swindles yes, and were indicative of much larger and deeper capitalist exploitation.. Ultimately poverty and immigration was the result of power in very few hands, held by force, in govts and the economy, convincing people to give up all they had for material things.
Sounds like today.
They had 10-20 kids per family .... of course there was no jobs for all
@@experidigm447 5-10 kids is more credible.
@@experidigm447 It's more realistic 5-10.
My grandparents came from Northern Italy through Ellis Island and landed in West Virginia because it was very similar to their homeland. My grandfather worked as a stone mason and helped build some of the blue ridge parkway.
Ottimo documento. Grazie
Thank you very much!
" Mamma Mia dami cento lire chi in America Voglio Andar ..."
Honor to My Italian Nonni e Nonnas !
" Giancarlo you steal 1 Penny or you steal Millions ...you are still a Thief ! ".
Work Hard - Be Honest - Thanks and Pray to God .
First Lieutenant / Airline Captain ( Ret .)
Air Force of Chile
USAF Trained .
Half my family went to n.y.the rest went to Argentina
I'm curious to know what happened to all of the properties of the people that were swindled once they left Italy.
Many were so poor they had to mortgage their properties to the swindlers in order to obtain passage across the Atlantic.
To read more about the challenges the Italians had both in the departure of their beloved country and the challenges of their life in America read: La Storia ; 500 years of Italian/American History. You will gasp, cry and kiss their ground.
Sounds gawdawfully familiar 🤔 and modern !!!!
And the cycle continues, nothing is ever new, it's just recycled.
You know, with maybe 7 words searched and replaced, you could pick a few contemporary countries and every word would still be true.
What Garibaldi and The House of Savoy destroyed the bread and butter of italy. The South
Teach The Youth The Truth. I wonder if Governor Desantis knows about this History. Side eye
🎯
Desantis lives in the present and is dealing with current situations, not stuck in the past with his ancestors. He is not hyphenated, he 8s American. Thats what happens over time. All the mongrels become molded into one construct. No different from any ppl thruout time in antiquity of the world.
This story does not tell of those who came to America by way of New Orleans. Their saga begs to be told.
Hi Tony - thanks for your comment. This video focused on what happened to the nearly 3,000 Italians who were scammed in the closing weeks of 1872. It was never meant to be a comprehensive history of all Italian immigration to the U.S. But you are right; the saga of Italian immigration to cities like New Orleans was no less eventful.
They treated us like crap. They thought we'd go back home after getting their projects completed. My grandfather left an agrarian community to come here. Now I live in a small agrarian community in Florida. We still get treated like crap to this day by "Americans".
Lived decades in Florida never a problem, nor any of my relatives nor have I heard that from any Italian, what are you talking about?
Plus, grandparents arrived in America as early as the 1920's, not once did I hear a story of hardship/discrimination by any of them. This exaggerated nonsense must stop. This happened to EVERY immigrant class, and it was worse for some particularly the Irish and blacks.
@@charliesargent6225 My experience; not yours.
@@kathleenpapaleo253 Don't believe it.
@@charliesargent6225 You do n't have to.
who made the painting shown at 16:09?
It is a drawing made by Miss G. A. Davis, and it appeared on the cover of the July 14, 1892 edition of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly.
We came here from Palermo
excellent documentary on our ancestry and the lies they were told just to be used and abused when they arrived in America!! today they welcome illegal criminals to be allowed in through the open border as they did on the italian ships in the 1870's history repeats...mille grazie for your hard work joe and your research team!! ...ciao tutti
Thanks for your comment!
After the 2 war italians were swindled into immigration in to Australia for Slavery work ⛓️🔗 very sad journeys
These men were hard working men and not banditis as they claim. Maybe a rotten apple slipped through but that's no reason to claim that these immigrants as a whole were criminal. The criminal element is everywhere, in all walks of life, in all races are psychos, that rise to the ranks to become dictators. Blaming all for one is not good
Illegal criminals? These people are coming to work. They are doing the shittiest jobs for less money than us Americans will work for. They are being used today against other ethnic immigrants on the job to prevent unions. They are used as temp labor to keep labor costs down. They are being used as much as the Italians were used.
There is no open border. It is just extremely difficult to patrol as it is over 1950 miles of hostile terrain. No administration has succeeded in doing much about it but has instead allowed the heat, wild animals and long distance do a lot of the deterrence while the administration picks up the stragglers.
Some will get through, and they have done this for 200 years. But it is entirely political to say the border is open and that they welcome illegals. If that were true there would be no CBP because CBP would be superfluous.
This happened also to the Irish who spoke only Irish Gaelic. They were often swindled by their own people! After arriving in America, the Irish crooks promised their compatriots jobs & a place to live only to end up penniless in overcrowded tenements.
Didn't know this but I personally know Greeks who entered the United States through Canada some 40 years ago and some 30 years ago. They got jobs in Greek restaurants in southern California for poverty wages. NEVER made enough money to save to build a better life. Often if they asked for more money the Greek owner would call immigration and have them deported. Some of the restaurant owners live in Greece half the year and these men run their restaurants while they're in Greece working 16 hours a day. I have listened to their stories and helped one become a US citizen in the 1990s.
@@christinanielsen1917goes to show there are slime in every nationality and race.
Very interesting story but it was very truthful and sadness but time took care of there Dreams and Hope . God Bless the hard working Immigrants they had a lot to over come for there families and grandchildren understand what they did to make it a better world for them.
Thank you for your nice comments
There was a Depression in 1873. Hard to understand why this brief history omitted that fact.
This wasn't meant to be an all-inclusive history; its focus was the immigrant scam of 1872-73 and the fate of the defrauded Italians.
I didn't know that WOP stood for With Out Passport.
("WithOutPapers")
@@None-zc5vg I read where people in Sicily and southern Italy were so mistreated from Rome that they didn't issue passports.
Well passports weren’t globally enforced until after WW1 so no one during the great immigration had passports. So no that’s just a legend
The word comes from "guappo," meaning "good looking in a snooty, bragging kind of way."
IT DOES NOT, Sparky. It derives from "guappo", a term used in Naples to indicate "cool dude." Why do you believe Anglo bigots!?
This was a disgraceful , shameful and an abominable part of American history. America went across the ocean to hire poor men from an entire other continent who were unskilled and did not speak English when it already had millions of men of African descent who not only spoke and understood English, who unquestionably knew what hard work was all about and who were also highly skilled at many crafts and willing to work for modest salaries.. Absolutely unforgettable!
Poor immigrants and native blacks were pitted against each other…another example of racism and they way it has been used to keep wages low for all. Same thing with the Mexicans and Filipinos in the southwest.
This is pure spin and you are making assumptions and assertions that you aren't backing up with facts. Many blacks established their own businesses with help from their community, like every other minority group. Your propaganda and accusing others is what is shameful.
My family didn't get the memo... we're here, lol
Another layer in the Italian immigrant story is that they brought their Catholic values. They contributed to the Catholic landscape with their patron Saints from their home towns. God bless the Italians!
They had to establish their own Catholic congregations because they Irish wouldn't let them join theirs (they thought the Italian saint cults were too extreme). So for this we are blessed with the beautiful Italian Catholic churches with their Italian statuary.
Does anyone know where to get the full article at 20:05? I’m researching it for a paper
Hi Elio - I have the entire article, and I can send you a .jpeg copy of it, if you're willing to post your email address. Or, if you're on Facebook, can I find you there and send it to you that way? I found five people with your name on Facebook...
thank you so much for this
You are welcome.
A similar fate awaited many Polish and Russian Jews fleeing adversity 'at home'.
They purchased tickets to America and were unloaded in various Ports in the UK being told that this was the Promised Land.
Not speaking and reading English most woke up when it was too late...the ships had sailed to pick up more easy targets.
😢 big mistake my grandparents made coming to this country..
Apply for Italian citizenship and move back not a joke lots of affordable housing in Italy today
@@alienvampirebusterswhoyoug8257 i have italian citizenship. We have a house there
@@petersclafani4370 I’m Romanian American but I’m getting a place in Italy soon did college in Florence and lived in Rome for a year as a kid before moving to New York in 86
@@petersclafani4370 I know the feeling all to well. 🇲🇽🇮🇹🇮🇪
@@petersclafani4370
then why not move back?
Ultimately, the Europeans in Italy pulled a fast one on their own in a remarkably similar way as we would see the Europeans and Americans mistreat American Indian people.
Preying on vulnerable populations, manufacturing consent from people who could be tricked into a predatory deal . The Great Swindle in Italy reminds me of the treaties signed by the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee, ceding lands and personal property in exchange for certain protections and provisions which were then, not honoured for a very long time.
your story line ignores the fact that after the unification of Italy, the south was decimated by the king's boot on their neck. Education of the south was outlawed and 25,000 leaders, clergy and academics were imprisioned in Turin to die over the next 3 years. The south went from a center of enlightenment to abject poverty. Naples and the former Kingdom of two sicilies had lead the world in transportation, education and business before unification, and only declined over unification.
We had to leave out a lot of history, otherwise our 25-minute project would have been a two or three hour documentary. Besides, the swindle was the focus of this project.
You have read propaganda of bad journalism or neo-borbonic books? I'm descendant of a coal miner of WV: he came from Apulia, but I don't like the crybabies. I don't like people who whine. If we look at the officialls numbers of emigrants from Italy, broken down by region, from 1861 to 1900, we see that more people emigrated from the North than from the South. The fact is that people from the North, generally, did not go to the USA.
Certainly, the Venetians in Brazil were not treated better than the Sicilians in the USA nor the Tuscans who were brought by a Piedmontese to work on the Australian plantations, where they replaced the Kanaka. Not even the Piedmontese in Argentina found the red carpet.
Dreams of a bright South are a thing of today and the reality of yesterday was very different.
Not to mention that in Turin there were no prison cells for 25,000 people 🙂
My grandfather went to Brazil to log he made enough money to buy land back in Italy and returned.
Bullcrap
Everything is fine and fair if only we forget the suffering and desappearing of the native Americans
The Eastern Tribes forgot the suffering and disappearing of the Western Tribes, long before they died out from smallpox.
That was caused primarily by racist Anglos.
@@Stratus6 died out of small pox ?!? ISIS could have used this weapon of mass destruction against yazidis
Would have been better with a narrator who could properly pronounce Italian names and words.
I agree. However, I can't afford professional narrators and a sound stage. The narrations I used were computer-generated and were very affordable; it was a financial trade-off I had to make.
Like "goog-lee-oh"! Haha!
@@ItalianAmericanHistory if it helps, your name is pronounced (toocha ro nay)
Ho sentito di peggio! 😊
I wish it was that easy to capture the scammers
Swindled Italians out of thier Italian citizenship to keep them in the United States.
Some of my italian ancestors had their land in Italy taken from them by the church. All my Italian ancestors that came to the USA died as home owners with savings to pass on
my grandpa came over in the 20s
Slavery has been omitted from memory
Prejudice against Italians has been ignored by the Woke.
@@lucianomezzetta4332ignored by no one just not taught because american schooling is garb
V interesting, my grandparents generation really hated Italians . Respect when you hear their story
❤ MY GRANDMOTHER LIVED TO BE 100 YEARS OLD IN THE UKRAINE☦️🇺🇲🕊️🥂⚕️🦭🌠☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️🫀
I enjoyed this documentary very much. It shines a light on the very earliest period of Italian immigration to the USA. One criticism... it would be nice if the narrator could pronounce Italian names and words correctly. Every Italian word is pronounced incorrectly. Italian is a phonetic language and not very hard to pronounce if you know the rules. I think you would be showing a little more respect for the subject matter. Otherwise, very well done.
Thank you for your nice comment. Regarding the pronunciations: the narrations were all done using computer software. It was an inexpensive way ($100) to get the job done: live narrators (in a recording studio) would have cost about ten thousand dollars. Unfortunately, there was no way to make the computer voices pronounce the Italian names and words accurately.
@@ItalianAmericanHistory Thank you for the clarification. Well, in that case, it was $100 very well spent, because I thought that was a real person!
I agree; it was a bargain! The "AI" (artificial intelligence) software is very affordable, but it was developed for use with the English language.
The same problem plagues South Asia today 🧐
It all started with an Italian, Columbus.
0:44 0:57 I GUESS WE'RE ALL HUMANS
Absolutely massacred the Pronunciation of the Italian names.What does it take to do a bit of research.
Creating these videos with real narrators and studio rentals would have costed thousands of dollars. So, the narrations were all done (inexpensively) with an artificial intelligence application.Unfortunately, that put the pronunciations beyond my control. It was this, or nothing.
It seems to me that they need it cheap labor and brought them with the excuse “Oh you are stranded here” and sold all your properties and belongings back in Italy 😮 oh my oh my Oh ok here’s a shovel 😂😂😂
Yes.
If I read yet another explanation that the derogatory term "wop" come from with out papers, I will barf. Look up "guappo" . Per l'amore del cielo!
CASTLE GARDEN MAKE THE MOWERS
You are welcome to "move back" to a country where your ancestors were born 150 years ago, especially since things aren't as awful as they were when your ancestors came here to keep from starving to death.
You go first and set an example for the rest of us descendants of Europeans. Your ancestors were from the British Isles.
What enticement existed for a move Argentina that did not exist for America. Or was it bloodlines.
Well possibly it might have been easier for an Italian to learn Spanish since they are both Romance languages versus English which is Germanic
Posters were put up in small towns by cruise lines bragging about the easy money in Brazil and Argentina.
How many Italian descendants will be willing to pick at a farm now?? Nothing have changed.