The Second Migration

The Great Migration was a massive movement of African Americans from the South to the North from 1863 to 1960. The largest spike in this migration occurred from about 1910 to 1920.

The migration of European settlers and culture to North America is an often examined area. One aspect of this, however, is worthy of deeper analysis. The conquest of North America by Europeans and American settlers from the 16th to 19th centuries had a profound effect on the indigenous political landscape by defining a new relationship dynamic between natives and settlers, by upsetting existing native political, economic and military structures, and by establishing a paradigm where the indigenous peoples felt they had to resist the European and American incursions. The engaging and brilliant works of Andres Rensendez and Steve Inskeep, entitled respectively “A Land So Strange” and “Jacksonland”, provide excellent insights and aide to this analysis.

The South was a complete mess after the Civil War. The early part of the 20th century brought many changes for African Americans. There was a difficult challenge of helping newly free African American slaves assimilate among their white counterparts. They suffered from crop failures, economic hardships, and the early failures of Reconstruction in the south. So as result many Southern African Americans migrated to northern cities in search of employment and a chance at a better life. However, Southern African Americans migrating to northern cities quickly discovered that they were not able to enjoy the same social and economic mobility experienced by their European immigrant counterparts arriving around the same time. There were many

The Great Migration was a huge relocation of African Americans from the Southern states of the United States to northern and Midwestern cities. This occurred between the years of 1910 and 1970. Over 6 million African Americans traveled to Northern cities during the migration. Some northern city destinations were Richmond, D.C, Baltimore, New York, and Newark. Western and Midwestern destinations were those such as Los Angelos, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit. During this time period and previous years, Jim Crow laws in the South were greatly in affect and causing African Americans a rough time due to the racism they faced. After Reconstruction had ended, white supremacy had taken it's toll in the South and Jim Crow had

After the post-Civil War reconstruction era in 1879, white supremacy was at an all-time high. There was economic deprivation as the boll weevil and flooding exterminated cash crops like cotton, resulting in poor crop yields and an uncertain economy(Clark); threats from the supposedly subdued Ku Klux Klan, the need for better jobs, and segregation due to the Jim Crow Laws were some reasons why African Americans decided to flee the South. By 1919, one million African Americans had left the South by train, boat, bus, cars, and even horse drawn carts (Great Migration). This massive migration with little space in the North led the African Americans to make their own city with their own cultures.

During the years between 1915 and 1970, some six million black southerners left their homelands in the South to move to the northern and western states looking for a better life.( The Reason why this i so significant to me is during this time period the great moving from one place to another was in effect and during this time period 6 million African Americans from the away from cities South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from 1916 to 1970, affected a lot city based life in the United States. Driven from their homes by unsatisfactory money based opportunities and marsh separating people by race, religion, etc.ist laws, many blacks headed north, where they took advantage of the need for industrial workers that first rose up during

We see the migration to industrial towns in the 20th century and all the challenges it presented. We see characters as Citizen Barlow who arrives in Pittsburgh looking for better opportunities and better living conditions. The African-American migrated in masses to the industrialized towns in the United States during the 20th century (retrieved from GloriousEssays.com on August 1st). As the cities started to grow there was a need for more unskilled laborers and those actually came from underdeveloped states. Those positions were filled by immigrants and African-Americans who continue to do all the heavy manual labor, those who received in return little or even no pay at

For blacks that did not want to return to Africa there were very few options for them if they choose to stay. The first main problem was should they stay in the South or go somewhere else to find shelter and a job. The next problem was to find a job. To replace the slaves plantation owner implemented share cropping. Share cropping was a form of paid slavery that gave the families that choose to work on the plantation as share croppers a plot of land to farm and a place to live. The share croppers would give a large portion of what they had farmed to the owner of the land and they would get to keep a small amount of what they had harvested for themselves to live off of. For those who had joined the Union army during the Civil War, they had to try to get what they were promised which was forty acres of land and a mule to plow it. Though promise was rarely met this was an option for some freedmen who choose to stay in the U.S. To help freedmen get what they needed such a job, food, or education the Freedmen’s Bureau was started. This bureau was started to help get recently freed slaves on their feet after the Civil War. Former slaves had a hard time finding jobs but they did it anyway.

The different ways of living developed between the 1830s and 1860s (Schultz, 2009). The South’s way of life was considerably dissimilar from that of the North. Cotton played a major role in the south, because they realized with a successful cotton production there was an increased potential to become very rich. However, cotton production required slaves and land resulting in no talks of gradual emancipation. Moreover, because the South lacked cities and jobs to offer immigrants, very few migrated south. Surprisingly, the majority of white southerners did not own slaves. Most were yeoman farmers who sought to be independent. In addition, the slaveowners that did own slaves actually owned very few. Furthermore, the majority of slaves

A black women by the name of Isabel Wilkerson, once stated some very influential words of wisdom to express her feelings toward the Great Migration. She stated,

The wave of immigrants from all over the world were coming to the United States. They wanted freedom that they did not have from their different countries. They also moved for freedom of religion. Some countries came to the west because of years of famine. So they moved west into the new land that was used by Native Americans.

Since the beginning, the United States` government, racial slavery had conquered various American identities. “Racism sprung early colonial times due the slavery riot incidence misinterpretations, leading full men, women, and children racial slavery of all different ethnic backgrounds” (Hooker 1). African-Americans held a life long work and Caribbean island shipment originating and affective progression to American colonies. “An importation of 4,000,000 Negroes were held in bondage by Southern planters” (Webstine).Advanced time went, and Northern states nurtured a rapid industrial revolution; Factory introduction, machines, and hired workers replaced any agricultural need of existing slaves. Southern states, however, maintained

From Germany to Texas, with almost a two-century stay in Ferdinand, this preservation story proves the pride in the past still perseveres today. Years ago a young German crossed the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of improving his life and the life of his future family. A founding member of the Saint Ferdinand Parish (1 Wagner 1), this pivotal man had a permanent influence on the growing town. His home acts as lasting evidence of endurance, representing the strength of Ferdinand’s forefathers’ dedication to creating a thriving community. Serving as a tangible reminder of over 177 years of preserved family history in southern Indiana, the Wagner home’s phenomenal journey includes the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction.

What is migration? Why do people migrate? And more importantly, what factors influence where people choose to settle? Migration is a familiar term describing the act of leaving a person’s country of birth in favour of another, and is influenced by factors called a “push” or ‘pull’ factor. A push factor is any factor that causes someone to leave a country, while a pull factor is a factor that attracts someone to a particular country. The reasons for immigration can be put into four basic categories: Economic, social, political, and environmental. In the eyes of many immigrants, Canada is packed to the brim with opportunity for a better life. For those who come from third-world countries, Canada provides superior living conditions, better job opportunities for a chance at financial stability, and an environment in which they can feel safe and free to express themselves. Despite the many reasons for immigration, everyone who makes the decision to leave their country of origin, and part with everything they were ever familiar with, do so in search of one thing: A better life.

My understanding of human migration was stretched in that I learned a lot about factors that lead to migration and how immigrants are affected by migration. This course taught me that people immigrate to other countries, not because they want to leave their homes, but because they have no other choice. Immigrants are forced to leave behind everything in order to save their lives as they escape from war, violence, poverty, and in search of a better life. Currently in America, whenever people talk about immigration, they often refer to it in terms of a political issue, especially those people in support of Trump 's immigration policy. However, from reading Daniel Groody’s article