Many were farmers who came to America because they could get land for nothing. They could build new farms for themselves in the rich land of the American west.
LEO SCULLY: One of the best-liked songs in Britain then was a song about the better life in America. Its name: "To The West." Its words helped many men decide to make the move to America.
"To the West, to the West, to the land of the free
Where mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea;
Where a man is a man if he's willing to toil.
And the poorest may harvest the fruits of the soil.
Where the young may exult and the aged may rest,
Away, far away, to the land of the west."
MAURICE JOYCE: To another group of immigrants, America was the last hope. Ireland in the eighteen forties suffered one crop failure after another. Hungry men had to leave. In eighteen fifty alone, more than one hundred seventeen thousand people came to the United States from Ireland. Most had no money and little education. To those men and women, America was a magic name.
LEO SCULLY: Throughout Europe, when times were hard, people talked of going to America. In some countries, organizations were formed to help people emigrate to the United States. A Polish farmer wrote to such an organization in Warsaw:
"I want to go to America. But I have no money. I have nothing but the ten fingers of my hands, a wife, and nine children. I have no work at all, although I am strong and healthy and only forty-five years old. I have been to many towns and cities in Poland, wherever I could go. Nowhere could I earn much money. I wish to work. But what can I do. I will not steal, and I have no work. So, I beg you to accept me for a journey to America."
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25