American Roots

Native AmericansAccording to Martin Gilbert's atlas in 1492, there were over a million Native Americans north of Mexico. (Gilbert Map #2) Within these tribes there were many different languages, traditions and ways of life. When the Native Americans met the colonists, who were just coming to their land, they had no idea of the events that were about to occur.

The Native Americans did not expect to be deported from their homeland. Through Gilbert's maps and exerts from journals that have been read in class, the slow destruction and reduction of the tribes can be seen. They were forced to move further and further to the west, were susceptible to many diseases that were brought over with the colonist, and were forced to go to war to protect their land, tribes and way of life. (Gilberts Maps #10) Their efforts were seen as feeble considering the colonists had guns and more knowledge of advanced warfare. Colonists were determined to have all the land to themselves despite the Native Americans attempts to retain their land. (Parrillo 244)

The colonists were cruel towards the Native Americans. Within their attempts to drive the Native Americans away, they slaughtered and torture many. A journal written by patron David Pieterz de Vries depicts the massacre of eighty Hackensack Indians by Dutch soldiers at Pavonia, which is modern day Jersey City, New Jersey. Soldiers, dressed as Natives from another tribe, attacked the Hackensack Indians as they slept, taking their infants and cutting them into pieces, and burning and drowning their children. Until this incident, the Native Americans had trusted them and even thought of them as their friends.

Currently there are almost 2 million Native Americans living in America according to the 1990 population census. Native Americans are still faced with many problems including unemployment, alcohol abuse, and education and housing problems. (Parillo 243-246)

Colonial People (Europeans and Enslaved Africans)

In New Jersey, just as in the other colonies, the colonists faced a lot of religious persecution. Protestant was the dominating religion. Majority of the Irish and German immigrants were Catholics. They began to form large communities, which brought forth hostility. Each new member to the colonies had to face problems and were not accepted nor given equal rights. Although the colonists dealt with hatred and indentured servitude, they still purchased African to work as slaves. (Gilbert #52)

The years between 1830 and 1860 brought a huge wave of German and Irish immigration to the United States. During this period, over 1.9 million Irish and 1.5 million Germans migrated to America. (Parillo 149)

The Irish exodus was largely the result of the "potato famine" of the mid-1840s. The famine reduced Ireland's population from around 8 million to only 5 million. Although much of this reduction was the result of emigration, around 1 million died from starvation or diseases, such as cholera, dysentery, scurvy, and typhus. Irish Catholic immigrants voyaged to America to find protection from Britain's oppressive rule that prohibited them from becoming successful in their homeland. The Irish Immigrants established residence in coastal cities, which due to impoverished conditions were called "Dublin Districts." Here with the poorly lighted, heated, and ventilated dwellings, many fatal disease were wide spread. Irish Immigrants were views as inferior people. ( Parrillo 150)

Germans left their homelands for more varied reasons. Although conditions in the German states were not as bad as in Ireland, crop failures, inheritance laws, high rents, high prices, and the effects of the industrial revolution led to widespread poverty and suffering. Relatives and friends who emigrated first would write back and encourage others to follow. This led to "chain migrations" and group settlements. Fairly well-to-do farmers who saw a bleak future, poor ones with no future, and paupers whom the authorities often paid to leave. (Gilbert #65, 66)

Experiences of African Americans from Reconstruction to present

With the protection of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, African Americans enjoyed a period when they were allowed to vote, actively participate in the political process, acquire the land of former owners, seek their own employment, and use public accommodations. Opponents of this progress, however, soon rallied against the former slaves' freedom and began to find means to annul much of their success.

The 1870s to the start of World War I, the period when African American educator Booker T. Washington was gaining prominence, was also a difficult time for African Americans. The vote proved intangible and civil rights began to vanish through court action. Lynching, racial violence, peonage and sharecropping arose as predicament toward freed African Americans becoming full citizens. After Reconstruction ended in 1877, the federal government ignored the needs of the African American population.

World War I roused the black community in their effort to make America truly democratic by ensuring full citizenship for its entire people. Black soldiers, who continued to serve in segregated units, were involved in protest against racial injustice on the home front and abroad.

Blacks and whites in the newly formed NAACP and other organizations led the onslaught against discrimination and segregation in the United States. Numerous NAACP files labeled "Soldier Troubles" document the efforts made to prevent mistreatment of African Americans in the military. The NAACP also pursued voting rights and worked to dismantle various forms of segregation through the courts.

After WWII, the GI Bill of Rights, the Veteran's Authority, and the Federal Housing Authority offered more opportunities for education, jobs and housing for the African Americans who fought. Resistance to racial segregation and discrimination with strategies such as civil disobedience, nonviolent resistance, marches, protests, boycotts, "freedom rides," and rallies received national attention as newspaper, radio, and television reporters and cameramen documented the struggle to end racial inequality. There were also continuing efforts to legally challenge segregation through the courts. On May 17, 1954 the US Supreme Court ruled that the separate but equal doctrine was unconstitutional and found ways to execute their ruling. Federal Courts were given the power to rule over any problems with desegregation. State bills were passed to stave off those opposed to desegregation. Through this time there were many court cases and actions, such as the bus boycott led by Rosa Parks, and the confrontation at Little Rock Central High School, taken to uphold that the Supreme Court decision to desegregate was upheld. (Parillo 373, Gilbert 108)

While there is more to achieve in ending discrimination, major milestones in civil rights laws have been accomplished, regulating equal access to public accommodations, equal justice before the law, and equal employment, education, and housing opportunities. African Americans have had extraordinary openings in many fields of learning and in the arts. The black struggle for civil rights also inspired other liberation and rights movements, including those of Native Americans, Latinos, and women. (Parrillo 379, Gilbert 106, 107)

1880's-1924 immigration of Eastern and Southern Europeans

At this time the frontier in America was rapidly disappearing. The lifestyle of America was changing as industrialization and urbanization were increasing. These immigrants did not have the same resources as the immigrants who came in the earlier wave. These immigrants lived in cities that had been ports of entry or inland cities along the railroad tracks. Overcrowding, disease, high mortality rates, crime, filth, and congestion were common problems. Unskilled workers found jobs in manual labor in factories, mines, and construction. They worked long hours for little money. However, immigrants worked hard and made sacrifices, and their new life was better than what they had left behind. (Gilbert 66, Parrillo 193)

The immigrant groups kept themselves socially segregated, and especially Jews and Italian were seen as outsiders, on un-Americans, due to their large numbers, residential clustering, religions, languages, appearance and traditional practices. There was a lot of racism at this time. Many people felt that the immigrants were unassimilable and unwanted. Jews and Italians were the target of much of the hostility. (Parrillo 200)

Ellis Island was the gateway through which more than 12 million immigrants passed between 1892 and 1954 in their search for freedom of speech and religion, and for economic opportunity in the United States. Each immigrant who arrived in Ellis Island then face thorough health tests looking for disease and disabilities. Entering New York put immigrants in a whole new world of many different cultures. Behind them were hard times of monarchs, famine, plague and despair. Very often immigrants came over at the urging of friends and loved ones who were already here. It was not uncommon for a man to leave his family and go to America to begin their new life and his family to eventually follow. American become more then just a place for people to be free of their problems that forced them to leave their homelands, America became a place where people found hope.

American Catholicism is unique from other forms of Catholicism in that its roots can be traced entirely to immigration, it is the hodge podge religion of the world. (Flanagan 2003) Catholics came from all over the world in different waves of immigration. From 1940 till 1960 many Irish Catholics fled from Ireland to American to escape the Potato Famine. After the Civil War, Germans came to be free of religious persecution and to find jobs; by 1920 5.5 million Germans had immigrated to America. For economic purposes during the 1880s, millions of Polish and Italian families also immigrated here. In the early 1900s, people immigrated here from Canada, Czech Slovakia, Mexico, and Lithuania, all hoping for a better life and bringing with them their culture, traditions and religion. (Flanagan 2003)

Catholicism is a type of Christianity. The actual religion, however, is Christianity. There are three major forms of Christianity: Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox. All forms of these religions however, offer a moral system for their followers, which are very helpful in hard times of desperation.

As the nation is currently in a state of war, the Catholic offer the following four major principles for considering going to war, only after all attempts at peace have been extinguished. First, damage inflicted by the aggressor must be vast, certain and grave. War cannot be pre-emptive. In current events, Operation Free Iraq is partly retaliation for the attacks on the World Trades Centers, which devastated America. The second major principle for war is that all other means must be shown to be impractical or exhausted. Third, there must be a serious prospect of success. Lastly, the war must not produce damage, greater evils, or disorder graver then the evil being eliminated. Finally, on the topic of war the Pope adds that it is not right to use nuclear arms due to the vast damage it would do. (Flanagan 2003)

Currently there are over one billion Muslims found throughout the world, but mostly in India and Pakistan. (American Muslim Council) Islam translates into "self-surrender to the Will of God." It is the main religion in the western part o the war. Followers of the Islamic religion are Muslim. The Deity in the Islamic religion is Allah. The religion tries to teach people to lice together in peace and harmony regardless of creed, color, or socioeconomic situation. (Amonat 2003)

Muslims rely on two major sources for their religious teachings, the Qur'an, the direct revelation of God to Muhammad, His last Prophet, and the Hadith, which is a collection of saying and declarations from the Prophet. Muhammad was God's messenger. Muslims also believe in Jesus, however they do not feel that He was the Messiah. They believe Jesus was a great messenger sent by God, and believe in His immaculate conception and in His return. (Amonat 2003)

There are many misinterpretations and stereotypes of Muslim people due to the War against Iraq. Many people view the Jihad as an adequate representation of Muslim people when in actuality Islam teaches compassion and that all beings are created by God and should be treated equally. (Amonat 2003)

There are four main traditions within Protestantism: Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Free/ Independent. Lutheran is the largest protestant party and started in 1517 in Germany. Reformed Protestants refers to Calvinistic, Presbyterian and Congregational. Anglican came from England in 1534 and went wherever British exploration went and eventually evolved into the Methodist branch of Protestantism. Free/ Independent Protestants are the Baptist and other minority or "street-corner" churched. (Macpherson 2003)

There were five major movements within the Protestant religion. The first was the Social Gospel, which began in the late 1800s and grew out of an American Piety movement. Followers realized that they weren't living the Gospel and need to work more toward service within the Church. Settlement houses, orphanages, soup kitchens, and etc. were opened to aid the poor. This sparked a similar movement within the Roman Catholic Church called the Catholic Workers Movement. (Macpherson 2003)

Next was the Fundamentalist movement, which began in 1920. During this movement, some people branched off and became fundamentalists. Fundamentalists interpret the scripture literally. Fundamentalists are mostly found in Southern Baptist. (Macpherson 2003)

The Pentecostal believe that God is doing many things we just cannot understand through the Holy Spirit, while it was the Ecumenical united all Christians. Ecumenical Protestants worked closely with the Roman Catholics in a large conference that led to the Vatican II documents. This also led to the Inter-faith protestants who work closely with other faith groups. (Macpherson 2003)

Judaism is a monotheistic religion founded by Abraham of the book of Genesis. It's holy text is what Christian's call the "Old Testament", and what Jews call the Tanakh, for Torah (1st five books), Prophets, and Writings. There is also a tradition of an Oral Torah, which was written down around the time of Christ as the Talmud.(Miller 2003)

There were three main waves of immigrants from different parts of Europe. Each group has distinct economic, social and religious traditions. The first wave was the twenty-three Sephardic Jews landed in New Amsterdam after the spread of the Inquisition to the New World. Next in the early 1900s German Jewry came with Catholics and Protestants. The final and largest wave was the Jews who were escaping restrictions and persecution from Poland and Russian. Most of these immigrants ended up in the Lower East Side of New York City. (Miller 2003)

Within Judaism there is a Trinity, which consists of God, Torah and Israel. God is the Omnipresence, or their Deity. The Torah is the word and is delivered both oral and written traditions. Finally Israel is the Holy Land of God's Chosen people. (Miller 2003)

The three major denominations in Judaism are Conservative Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, and Reform/Progressive Judaism. Outside of the United States and Israel, the distinction tends to be along Orthodox/Liberal lines. Outside of North America, the equivalent of North American Reform Judaism is called Progressive or Liberal Judaism. Outside of North America, the equivalent of North American Conservative Judaism is called "Reform", although there are differences in all cases from the North American versions. To be more specific, all synagogues associated with the movement in North and South America is called 'Conservative', all synagogues in Israel and England are called 'Masorti', and all synagogues in Hungary are called 'Neolog'. The Neolog movement developed independently of the rest of Conservative Judaism. (Miller 2003)

References

Amanat, Hamid. In-class speaker on Islam. March 6, 2003. College of St. Elizabeth

DeVries Journal Entry on the Attack at Pavonia.

Flanagan, Sr. Kathleen. In-class speaker on Catholicism. February 27, 2003. College of St. Elizabeth

Gilbert, M. (1995). Atlas of American History. New York: Routledge

Haley, A. (1976) . Roots. New York: Doubleday

Macpherson, Pastor Murdoch. In-class speaker on Protestants. February 24, 2003. College of St. Elizabeth.

Miller, Jason. In-class speaker on Judaism. March 4, 2003. College of St. Elizabeth

Mitros, D. (2002), Ed. Slave Records of Morris County, NJ: 1756- 1841. 2^nd Edition. Morristown, NJ: Morris County Heritage Commission.

Parrillo, V.N. (2000). Strangers to These Shores: Race and Ethnic Relations in the , 6^th Edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon

United StatesFrom the 1880s to the 1920s there was an explosion in immigration mostly due to the improvements in transportation to newer, quicker steamships. Life for the lower class in Europe was a difficult one. The ruling class and farmers were taking advantage of the common people. Children as young as the age of twelve were being drafted into the army. Poverty, unemployment, sickness and tyranny led people to begin to look for a new place to live. Letters from loved ones who had already immigrated to the United States encouraged these people in despair to take the long journey themselves. Jews from eastern and southern Europe, mostly from Russia, made a large percentage of the immigrants in this time period. (Gilbert 65, Parrillo 169-172)Reconstruction came after the Civil War when Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed all the African American slaves. However, shortly after the end of the Civil War President Lincoln was assassinated leaving Vice President Andrew Johnson to fill his role. The Freedmen's bureau distributed confiscated land and regulated labor contracts between the newly freed slaves and planters. It also sent missionaries and teachers to the South to set up schools and educate the freedmen. Colonists came here to escape British rule over basic decisions like jobs, choice of religion, and everything that is currently known as modern freedoms. The majority of the colonist who settled in New Jersey was Dutch and German. (Gilbert #10, 15) Although colonist left Europe to escape its own prejudices and sovereign control, they met other immigrants, such as the Irish and Italian, with a lot of hostility. (Parillo)The expulsion of the Native Americans began in 1830 when the forced signing of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek took place. The Choctaw of the Mississippi were the first to be forced westward. Of the 17,000 who were forced to go 2,000 died en route and another 3,500 died within the first few months of arrival from exposure, famine and disease. (Parrillo 234) The surviving Native Americans found themselves being segregated as they were forced to live in reservations. For the next hundred years numerous bills and acts were past regarding the rights and liberty of the Native American when finally in 1924 the Indian Citizenship Act granted U.S. citizenship to the Native Americans. (Parillo 234)