Poles in America

What really surprised me in this chapter is how prominent the Polish immigrants where in America. I have always heard about the Irish or the Jews, but never about the Poles. The Polish groups, the Polish National Alliance (PNA) and Polish Roman Catholic Union (PRCU), were interesting groups. Even though Poland was technically not a country, they fought each other on what Poland should be. Should it be a secular country or under a theocratic rule? They were surely happy when an independent Poland was finally made after WWI. A secular Poland came to be until its destruction during WWII and its rebirth as a communist state.

German Americans

It is strange that German Americans would be separate themselves to do conflicts. One would think that you would stick together in a new land when you immigrate but apparently that is not the case. The case of geography makes sense since technically there wasn't a unified Germany at the time. I suppose separating the Bavarians from the Prussians makes sense despite both being German. Separation due to religion is something that can be quite messy due to the many conflicts of different beliefs. The schism due to the Americanization of their beliefs can only drive them even more apart. These differences played a huge role in causing schisms in the German American communities.

Race Relations

It is not so surprising to hear about how terrible early Americans treated other races. This was merely the beginning of our long history of bad relations with those who weren't considered "American". Native Americans, Irish,Chinese... If you were different then you were not going to have a good time. Newly arrived immigrants had it bad as Americans did not want more "foreigners" in the country. An example of this is the Chinese Exclusion Act. There is no stopping this part of our history from continuing on into the future.

Early Slavery in America

It was interesting to find out about how people became indentured in order to come to the New World. Not only were there black servants, but also white servants. This completely changes what I thought of Colonial America. The readings on run away slaves were quite interesting as it went it to incredible detail on said person. Not only that but the quote that told of the indentured servants having to strip for their potential buyers was quite something, especially since this continued in black slavery. It is quite fascinating that many people chose this path of servitude in order to come to the New World. Perhaps it was because there were not many options for them as money would be scarce for immigrants. Perhaps the prospects of what the New world offered were worth their freedoms. Whatever the case, this detail in the history of Colonial America is very interesting and reveals a new part of this history that I did not know.