USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 4 > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
3,629
Twenty-second, Belgium
2,238
Twenty-third, Czecho Slovakia
2,238
Twenty-fourth, Netherlands
2,071
All other countries
15,228
The migration of English aliens to Massachusetts has been a small but steady stream. The figures of the Federal Immi- gration Bureau show 2,928 destined to Massachusetts in 1899. The highest figure of the gradual increase was reached in 1910 with 7,405. The figures decrease gradually again until 1919. Since that time there has been a decided increase. The figure of 16,026 for 1924 is the largest ever shown for Eng- lish destined to Massachusetts. The two years succeeding the Quota Law show numbers of 8,476 and 7,740. Many of the English immigrants are destined to New Bedford, which has always been a great center for that race.
The figure shown as born in Poland, 69,157, is subject to the same modification in regard to racial components as the figure for Russia, a large number of those listed as born in Poland being of the Jewish race.
The estimate of the number of Poles resident in Massachu- setts according to the Polish National Alliance Calendar for 1910 was 240,000, a number much in excess of the Federal census of 1920.
The bulk of Polish migration to the United States came in the fifteen years prior to the World War. The figures of the Federal Immigration Bureau show 1913 to have had the largest number for any one year-13,627.
PORTUGUESE
The Portuguese in the Massachusetts foreign-born popula- tion number 43,545-25,230 being Portuguese from the Atlantic Islands. For the most part, the migration of Portu- guese to the United States has been comparatively recent and has gone either to California or New England. A very
163
PORTUGUESE
thorough study of the Portuguese settlers was made by Donald R. Taft in one of the Columbia University Studies in History, and Economics, called Two Portuguese Communi- ties in New England. A quotation from it gives some histori- cal data as follows :
"Isolated cases of Portuguese settlers are reported as early as the seventeenth century, but it was not until the thirties and forties of the nineteenth century that they began coming in any numbers, and the great rush has been since 1890. Probably the first groups came as sailors aboard the whaling ships which used to land at Fayal and bring back natives as part of their crews, to New Bedford and Cape Cod. In 1765, we are told, restrictions were put on fishing by the Governor of Labrador and in the following year he decreed that any vessels in the Gulf of St. Lawrence coming from the Planta- tions and found to have any fish but whale aboard should be confiscated. This action drove the fleet from these seas and they pursued their calling along the edge of the Gulf Stream, Western Islands, Cape de Verdes and Brazil Banks. Com- mercial intercourse between New Bedford and the Azores began about 1830 and immigration with it. That a number may have come on the whaling ships is evident when we remember the size of the whaling industry in New Bedford. At its height in 1857 the New Bedford fleet numbered 329 ships and employed 10,000 seamen. By 1867 the Portuguese of New Bedford became sufficiently numerous to warrant the sending of a priest to care for them, and two years later they are said to have numbered eight hundred. As late as 1889, however, they are not specially mentioned as cotton mill hands along with the English, Scotch, Irish and French Canadians, although they doubtless are included under the caption 'a few of other nationalities.' They must have entered the cotton mills not long after this, for in 1899 Mr. Borden wrote: 'The nationality of the operatives [of New Bedford] has undergone radical changes . . Portuguese and French Canadians predominating.' Today there are perhaps 30,000 Portuguese or people of Portuguese descent in New Bedford.
"The Portuguese immigration to Fall River, however, has
164
THE IMMIGRANTS
been much more recent, practically all having come within the last thirty-five years. Despite their late arrival they have increased rapidly in numbers until now they are only less numerous there than in the New Bedford colony, and make up about a fifth of the population.
"The first contacts of the Azores with America were, as we have seen, through whaling ships which stopped at the port of Horta in the island of Fayal. It is natural, therefore, that the early comers to New England and California as well were from that island and others of the more westerly group. The large immigration of recent years to Fall River and vicinity, at least, has been from the more easterly islands of St. Michael's and St. Mary's. Mrs. Caswell, writing in the seven- ties of work among the Portuguese of Boston, is apparently referring to Fayalese women when she says that a Portu- guese woman 'abhors dirt and rags. Her home is tidy, how- ever poor.'
"Turning to the region of our special interest we find the Portuguese of New England very largely in south-eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In 1870 the early comers were found distributed chiefly in the following counties of Massachusetts listed in order of importance: Bristol, Suffolk, Barnstable, Essex, Middlesex, and Norfolk. This shows the importance of the early settlements in and near New Bedford, Boston and on the Cape. Today the order of importance is : Bristol, Middlesex, Plymouth, Essex, Barnstable, Suffolk, Hampden, with less than 500 each in any of the other counties. The relative importance of Bristol County has increased due to continued growth of the settlement in New Bedford and the rise of the only less important group in Fall River. Despite many Portuguese on the farms this growth has fol- lowed the development of industrial cities and has been especially marked in the cotton mill centers."
SCANDINAVIANS
Immigration from the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark totals 47,122 in the 1920 census-the
165
GERMANS
largest group being the Swedes. This immigration is small in proportion to the migration of these races to the Western States; and most of it has come since 1880, when the total Scandinavian population was 5,971.
Of the remaining races enumerated, the Lithuanians and Finns each show a considerable number. The larger migra- tions of these races are in other States, however. Since 1914, because of a combination of local conditions and restric- tive laws, the Lithuanian migration has been at a practical standstill. Not 500 Lithuanians have come in any one year since 1915.
GERMANS
Both the Scotch and the German elements of the foreign- born population of the Commonwealth are immigrants of the so-called older group. For both races, however, there are still a considerable number arriving each year. The German migration in 1924, 1,847, was larger than for any single year recorded since 1899.
The beginnings of gymnastic work in America were made by German immigrants. Three German scholars, exiles from the fatherland because of their political activities, Carl Beck, Carl Follen, and Francis Lieber, entering America in the early nineteenth century at a time when there was a growing inter- change of educational impetus between Germany and America, had a dominant effect on American educational life. Two of them, Carl Beck and Carl Follen, arrived in the United States on Christmas Day in 1824. Both went immediately to teach at the Round Hill School at Northampton where under the direction of Carl Beck the Round Hill Gymnasium, prob- ably the first of its kind in the United States, was instituted. Carl Follen, after teaching at Round Hill for a short time was called to Harvard as professor of German. His first German class, started in 1825 at Harvard, consisted of eight pupils. There were no German textbooks available and Pro- fessor Follen wrote his own textbook, stressing in it the pro- gressive German thought of his day. He was a master of English, a brilliant orator and a keen philosopher, lecturing at Harvard in philosophy and ethics as well as acting as profes-
166
THE IMMIGRANTS
sor of German. He founded the gymnasium at Harvard and instituted the "Turnerei" or German gymnastic exercises there. He was in Harvard from 1824 to 1826 and subsequently became a Unitarian minister located at Lexington. The third of this famous trio, Francis Lieber, began his career in America in 1827. He organized his famous swimming school in Boston and when Dr. Warren, a professor at the Harvard Medical School founded the Tremont Gymnasium in Boston he was called to it as director. His influence in the intellec- tual circles in Boston was important as he numbered among his intimate frends Charles Sumner, George Ticknor the pub- lisher, and the poet Longfellow. Other later professors at Harvard have continued in the tradition of Professor Follen. Among the notable professors of German birth have been Professor Münsterberg, one of the leading psychologists of his day; Professor Hanus who has been professor of Edu- cation from 1891; Professor Kuno Francke whose work in Germanic literature is noteworthy.
The effect of German thought on educational institutions was not confined to collegiate work as the kindergarten move- ment emanating from Germany under Froebel had a wide development in the United States. The first kindergarten in this country was opened at Watertown in 1855 by Marghareta Meyer (Mrs. Carl Schurz).
The first prominent orchestra in the United States founded in 1815, the Handel and Haydn Society, was instigated largely by a German immigrant in Boston, Gottlieb Graupner. Carl Zerrahn; another German, served as its conductor for forty years beginning his work in 1854.
The intellectual effect, therefore, of the German immigra- tion has been exceedingly vital in the educational life of Massachusetts."
RACES FROM THE EASTERN END OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
Greeks, Armenians, and Syrians are not so important numerically as components of the foreign-born population of the State, but they have their largest numbers in the United States within this State.
167
DISTRIBUTION
Out of a total of 55,057 Armenians who have come to the United States since 1899, 17,391 gave their permanent desti- nation as New York State, 14,192 as Massachusetts, making this State the second in popularity for Armenian stock. The Armenians in America lists as cities in Massachusetts having an Armenian "colony" of more than 100 Boston, Worcester, Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Hopedale, Middleboro, Malden, Newton Upper Falls, Newburyport, Whitinsville, Watertown, Chelsea, Brockton, Bridgewater, Salem, Somer- ville, Springfield, Peabody, Cambridge, Fitchburg and Frank- lin. Syrians also chose Massachusetts as the State of their destination, the Commonwealth ranking second in the Union for the number of Syrian residents. The first year of the Federal immigration records, 1899, shows that 502 of a total of 3,708 gave their destination as Massachusetts. The largest number in any one year came in 1913, when 1,692 were re- corded.
The cities in which Syrians are settled are Boston, Worces- ter, Fall River, Lawrence, and Springfield. The Syrians are natural merchants. Only in a few mill cities have Syrians gone into factory work in any number. Lawrence, Fall River, Lowell, New Bedford, and Worcester number them among their mill operatives. The Greeks estimate their own number at a higher figure than that indicated by the Federal Census. Undoubtedly, some members of the Greek race are recorded at natives of Turkey. They estimate 45,000 to 50,000 Greeks resident in Massachusetts, making the Greek population of this State not far from one-seventh of the entire country.
DISTRIBUTION BY RACES
The 1920 census indicates that the largest number of the foreign-born in the State are what is called "old immigration" -there being 656,747 from countries of the old-immigration groups, as follows :
Scotland Ireland -
England Canada Newfoundland
English-speaking countries 459,035
168
THE IMMIGRANTS
Austria Belgium Canada (French) France
Northern Europe or Canada 197,712
Germany
Netherlands
Scandinavian
Other countries
The larger proportion is English-speaking. The remaining 420,787 of the new immigration stock come from Italy, Poland, Greece, Armenia, Syria, Russia, Finland, Portugal, and divers other countries.
EFFECTS OF THE PRESENT IMMIGRATION LAWS
The days of mass immigration, similar to that of 1907 and 1913, are probably forever ended. The new period in immi- gration legislation was begun by the Immigration Act of 1917, which by its literacy test caused a serious drop in the immigra- tion figures from southern and south-eastern Europe, countries backward educationally. The war itself checked immigration for some years. Postwar conditions in Europe indicated that an exodus similar in numbers to the years of maximum immigration was impending. To prevent this influx, the first percentage immigration act was passed as a temporary measure in May, 1921, and with certain minor changes was extended until July 1, 1924.
The present law, which went into effect July 1, 1924, is even more stringent in its rulings than the law of 1921. It allows to enter the United States a quota of immigrants from each European country. The law makes a drastic cut in num- ber admitted from Europe. It still allows Canadians, Mexi- cans, and natives of South and Central America to enter outside the quota. Under this present law, 307,255 immi- grants entered the United States in the year ending June 30, 1928. Of these 20,461 gave their permanent destination as Massachusetts.
To indicate the restriction which the law has placed on certain nationalities, let us compare the figures of those arriv-
1
PRESENT IMMIGRATION LAWS
169
ing in the State of the given race for the past year with the year 1913, the peak year for Massachusetts.
Armenian
2,367
192
Finnish
2,239
47
German
938
689
Greek
5,919
251
Hebrew
6,109
364
Irish
6,607
4,934
Italian
23,769
1,074
Lithuanian
3,957
28
Polish
13,627
200
Portuguese
9,002
202
Russian
5,266
38
Scandinavian
2,374
681
Scotch
3,090
2,861
Syrian
1,692
52
It is evident that the new law has affected most seriously the races coming from central Europe, southern Europe, and the Near East.
For the year ending June 30, 1928, the four races sending the largest number to Massachusetts are English, with 5,458; Irish, with 4,934; French (mainly French Canadians) with 2,957; Scotch, with 2,861. Italians come in the next group with 1,074; Germans follow with 689; Scandinavians with 681 and no other nationality has more than 500 persons for this year. The law practically limits immigration to northern Europe.
This short history of immigration in Massachusetts shows that, with the ever-changing tide of human affairs, a great and conservative State can keep her standards and her some- what conservative individuality and yet absorb great numbers of different races; and with the present careful selection and the elimination of dangerous elements, it is safe to believe that Massachusetts will be in the future as she has in the past the standard bearer of high ideals, fine traditions, and the deepest loyalty to the Union.
1913
1928
English
6,541
5,458
170
THE IMMIGRANTS
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABBOTT, EDITH .- Historical Aspects of the Immigration Problem (Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1926)-See Section III for comment on early Irish migration.
ABBOTT, EDITH .- Immigration; Select Documents and Case Records (Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1924)-Excellent source material on early immigration conditions and legislation.
ABBOTT, GRACE .- The Immigrant and the Community (N. Y., Century, 1917)-This book is based partly on the seven months' investigation made by Miss Abbott for the Massachusetts Commission on Immigra- tion.
BREWER, DANIEL CHAUNCEY .- The Conquest of New England by the Im- migrant (N. Y., Putnam's, 1926)-An interesting viewpoint, stressing immigration dangers.
CARPENTER, NILES .- Immigrants and Their Children, 1920 (Census Mono- graphs VII, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.)-A study based on census statistics relative to the foreign-born and native- white of foreign or mixed parentage.
CULLEN, JAMES BERNARD .- The Story of the Irish in Boston (Boston, Cullen, Boston, 1889)-Particularly interesting on early records of assimilation difficulties.
FAUST, ALBERT BERNARD .- The German Element in the United States (2 vols., Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1909)-An exhaustive treatise on the German contribution to American life.
GAVIT, JOHN PALMER .- Americans by Choice (N. Y., Harper, 1922)-An illuminating study of the naturalization process and how it affects the different racial groups.
HALE, EDWARD EVERETT .- Letters on Irish Emigration (Boston, Phillips, Sampson, 1852)-The viewpoint of a philanthropist and scholar toward racial prejudice as manifested in the 'fifties.
HITTI, PHILIP KHURI .- The Syrians in America (N. Y., Doran, 1924)- Gives a brief summary of placement of the race in Massachusetts.
LUNT, EDWARD CLARK .- Key to the Publications of the United States Census, 1790-1887, with Occasional References to Old Statistical Works (Boston, 1888).
MAGUIRE, JOHN FRANCIS .- Irish in America (London, Longmans, Green, 1868)-The story of the early migrations of famine years.
MASSACHUSETTS : BUREAU OF STATISTICS OF LABOR .- Annual Reports (Boston, 1870 and later years)-See Thirteenth Annual Report (1882), Part I, pp. 1-92, for a report of a legislative investigation of French- Canadian migration.
MASSACHUSETTS : COMMISSION ON IMMIGRATION .- Report on the Problem of Immigration in Massachusetts (Boston, 1914)-An exhaustive study of immigration conditions in Massachusetts just prior to the World War.
PROPER, EMBERSON EDWARD .- Colonial Immigration Laws (Columbia Stud- ies in History, Economics, and Public Law, Vol. XII, no. 2, N. Y., Columbia Univ. Press, 1900)-A study of the regulation of immigra- tion by the English colonies in America.
SULLIVAN, WILLIAM BALDWIN .- "Celtic Danvers" (Danvers Historical Society, Historical Collections, Vol. I, pp. 74-86, Danvers, Mass., 1913).
TAFT, DONALD REED .- Two Portuguese Communities in New England (Columbia Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, Vol. CVII, No. 1, whole no. 241, N. Y., 1923)-A thoughtful survey of the Por- tuguese colonies in New England.
171
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
UNITED STATES : BUREAU OF THE CENSUS .- A Century of Population Growth from 1790-1900 (Washington, 1909).
UNITED STATES : BUREAU OF THE CENSUS .- Fourteenth Census: State Compendium of Massachusetts (Washington, D. C., 1924)-This gives not only statistics of population in 1920, but also makes comparisons with earlier periods.
UNITED STATES : IMMIGRATION COMMISSION .- Reports (42 vols., Washing- ton D. C., 1911)-See Vol. VII for a statistical review of immigration, 1820-1910, and the distribution of immigrants, 1850-1900.
UNITED STATES : IMMIGRATION COMMISSION .- Reports (42 vols., Washing- ton, D. C., 1911)-See Vol. XXII, pp. 292-335, for a study of Poles in agriculture in Sunderland, Mass., tobacco and onion growers. See pp. 539-554 for a study of Bravas, or black Portuguese, cranberry pickers on Cape Cod.
WOODS, ROBERT ARCHEY, editor .- Americans in Process (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1902)-A settlement study by residents and associates of the South End House. A survey of the north and west ends of Boston, describing the immigrant population as it existed in the first years of the twentieth century.
CHAPTER VI
EDUCATION (1820-1890)
BY ALBERT E. WINSHIP Editor of The Journal of Education
EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS (1820)
History is the most fascinating phase of human nature. Education creates history because it is responsible for human nature.
Civilization is history that has ripened and been harvested and marketed.
Civilization is always alive; and history is the most vitally alive functioning of human nature.
Educational history is the story of the creation of all history.
The New World is so young that it is possible to appre- ciate the action of education upon every heart throb of its history.
Massachusetts has been so vitally related to every significant feature of progress in the New World that the educational history of the State reveals the secret of its dominant in- fluence especially in the three-score years and ten from 1820 to 1890.
Educational history deals with complex conditions, defying solution. This problem must be solved by some command- ing group of personalities under dominant leadership, and must result in significant institutional creation.
Massachusetts in 1820 presented a civic, social, and in- dustrial condition demanding wise, heroic, and immediate educational attention.
There was no public-school spirit. There was no emergen- cy spirit, demanding change in the peaceful order of things. There was no illiteracy, and no lack of general intelligence.
The common school, twelve weeks in the year, with a teacher. in whom the public had confidence, was adequate for
172
173
FAVORABLE INFLUENCES
universal ability to read, write, and use numbers as much as was needed in that day. Even geography was regarded as superfluous. A very moderate schoolhouse was adequate for the limited use to which it was put.
Public sentiment made it impossible for any family to neg- lect a common-school education for all of the children.
An academy was available for every boy who had excep- tional ability. The expense was very light, and every community had some young people in an academy every year.
The academy toned up the manners of every community through the young people, who brought back from the acad- emy the ideas of good language, respectability in dress, and general culture.
Attendance for a time at an academy was absolutely nec- essary for any civic, social, or religious prestige. There was a community aristocracy which distinguished, with autocratic severity, young people whose language, dress, and manners testified to an appreciation of the influence, direct or indirect, of the academies.
Every academy was affiliated with some church organiza- tion, and every young man who would be a credit to the church was sure to have it made possible for him to go to the academy of his family church connection.
Neighborhood conditions produced a self-satisfied state of public mind, so that there had been no successful appeal for public taxation for public schools.
INFLUENCES FAVORING EDUCATION (1820-1840)
There had been industrial and commercial forces at work which culminated in 1820. Community centers had been developing. Seaports had always been thrifty community cen- ters, where stores were common, more or less of a whole- sale nature, dealing in West India goods, especially rum and spices. In the thirty years following the Revolutionary War, flour and some other foods were commercialized, and cloth, yarns, and threads were manufactured, so that mills and fac- tories were established. This tended to create centers of population, so that by 1820 every seaport was thrifty and places like Worcester, Springfield, and villages on streams that
174
EDUCATION
had water power came to be important social and commercial centers.
All this promoted better farming. There was a market for milk, butter, and eggs, for vegetables and fruits, so that by 1820 Massachusetts was decidedly different from what it had been even a few years before. It was bringing into the com- munity centers a different class of people ; not many of any one class in any one community, but the change was attracting attention.
There were circumstances which made a public-school spirit desirable and ultimately inevitable. The condition was ideal for the discovery of this public-school spirit. All that was needed was a group of men of influence, with a leader around whom they would rally. Human nature is as sure to respond to such a need as fruit buds to blossom when the season favors.
HORACE MANN
In 1826, at thirty years of age, Horace Mann, who had been equipping himself for just such responsibility, came to Ded- ham, Massachusetts. He was a man of brilliant talent, who had never been a part of any community. He had come to that community to establish himself in the profession of law, had come to sell himself to that community; and on the first opportunity, with his first public address, he captured the com- munity completely. He was immediately elected to the legis- lature, and his initial speech made him the legislative leader of Massachusetts.
The public-school spirit was not dependable; but there was a public spirit that would be responsible to a specific appeal, and there was in Massachusetts a group of men intensely in earnest to relieve suffering humanity. Horace Mann ap- pealed to the legislators to "open the eyes of the blind," and a State school for the blind was easily secured.
Then came his brilliant appeal to "unstop the ears of the deaf and loosen the tongue of the dumb," and a school for the deaf and dumb was speedily voted.
Then he made an irresistible appeal for those whose minds were unbalanced, and an institution for the insane was created.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.