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One of the points I dislike the most about the current political climate is immigration...
Let's just take a little look at USA History...and how we became...
WE the PEOPLE
Signed in convention September 17, 1787. Ratified June 21, 1788
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| oldnewgreenredo |
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The above words are from the Preamble for the Constitution
from Constitution Center
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| oldnewgreenredo |
None of these institutions of government, created or recognized by the Constitution, is superior to the Constitution itself. None is superior to the ultimate power of the people to adopt, amend, and interpret what is, after all, the Constitution ordained and established by “We the People of the United States.”
from Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law.
This is why three branches of government protect and defend the WE.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
James Madison, one of the leading architects of the Constitution, put it best in The Federalist No. 49: The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived . . . . Constitution Center
So who are WE THE PEOPLE?
In..."1492: Christopher Columbus landed on a Caribbean Island after three months of traveling. Believing at first that he had reached the East Indies, Columbus describes the natives he meets as “Indians.” On his first day, he orders six natives to be seized as servants." Native American History
"There are three main sources of controversy involving Columbus’s interactions with the indigenous people he labeled “Indians”: the use of violence and slavery, forced conversion of native peoples to Christianity , and the introduction of a host of new diseases that would have dramatic long-term effects on native peoples in the Americas." Columbus Controversy
The above sites gives every American a condensed version with many links to our ancestors and the abominable treatment of the indigenous peoples inhabiting this FREE? land. Today the 570 tribes still existing under our 'spacious skies' are truly members of WE THE PEOPLE.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
"O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!...
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!...
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| oldnewgreenredo |
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!"
We the People...
and more and more, We came....
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| oldnewgreenredo |
From sea to shining sea, or Lake Michigan
WE came on journeys long and hard.
America's first waves of immigration during the 16th to 18th centuries were from the British Isles. WE came for economic opportunities and religious freedom, most often as Protestants. WE were well-to-do with land grants, organized communities, and indentured servants.
The Spanish settled Florida, which is now our Southern border, and the Western Coast, the French up the Mississippi River and it's tributaries, and while trappers explored the 'Purple Mountain Majesties of the Rocky Mountains.
Later, during the 1840-50's huge European populations fled famine, religious persecution. and the ever changing maps of political conflicts.
And still, WE came... the Irish, German, Scandinavians and more with many Catholics. So many were from poorer backgrounds and less skilled.
WE arrived with the clothes on our backs,
calloused hands, and souls' full of dreams.
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| oldnewgreenredo 1870s |
My husband's great-great-great grandparents arrived from Bohemia/Czechslovakia/today it's the Czech Republic in 1851. In the photo above are the sons and daughters of his family grown and their spouses.
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| oldnewgreenredo 1870's |
Political turmoil in Czechoslovakia, the Austrian Hungarian Empire and war was most likely the reason for leaving. Hubby's family (both sides) became farmers in Wisconsin. My husband's parents both descended from this Joseph's Father who appears in both family trees 5 generations back.
Arable lands in Europe were worn out from centuries of cultivation. Inheritance laws left lands and property only to the oldest male---leaving the rest to find other ways to feed their families.
The opportunity to farm in the America was more than attractive.
Starting a new life was a necessity.
And, so WE came to this new country needing all sorts of skills and determination in all fields of labor, finance, and manufacturing.
But, WE were also SLAVE LABOR.
"Slavery in America started in 1619, when a Dutch ship brought 20 African slaves ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. See Black History and Slavery.
Slavery in Georgia.
Throughout the 17th century, European settlers in North America turned to African slaves as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than indentured servants, who were mostly poor Europeans and would be freed after 7 years. Though it is impossible to give accurate figures, some historians have estimated that 6 to 7 million black slaves were imported to the New World during the 18th century alone,...."
WE fought a long and bloody Civil War
to abolish this abomination.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
from a 1911 print once in my position.
On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation, and on January 1, 1863, he made it official that “slaves within any State, or designated part of a State…in rebellion,…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
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| oldnewgreenredo |
In the name of WE THE PEOPLE,
Congress adopted the
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| oldnewgreenredo |
...13th Amendment on December 18, 1865, and officially abolished slavery. But freed blacks’ status in the post-war South remained precarious, and significant challenges awaited during the Reconstruction period.
If you know little about reconstruction, please click the link.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
WE moved on,
and a new Patchwork of our Nation sewed the
colors from old homeland flags, blood and tears from war, and now
combined with the shades of
OUR skins.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Laborers were still needed for our growing nation.
Chinese came to work on the railroads, Hispanics from below our southern borders for farming and ranching, followed by more and more Western, Eastern Europeans from every corner of the continent to build our cities, dig our canals, build our roads, man our mills, and dig deep into our mines.
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| Free source |
The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
"“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,...
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
How many of YOUR ancestors passed through Ellis Island?
My parents' families came from Lithuania and Denmark,
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| oldnewgreenredo 1890's |
escaping fishing villages skipped by railroads on the North Sea and the devastated by war the farmlands of Lithuania. Constant European wars continually changed the maps causing upheavals and economic chaos.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Half of all my great-grandparents' extended family left Denmark for the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. The same for the Lithuanian side swallowed by the Polish empire and then the Soviet in the late 1890's.
Our last contact with my father's family was in 1953 when the Iron Curtain tightly choked Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Letters ended and churches had been stifled, and records removed during the Soviet regime. So dead end there.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
My Danish Great-Grandfather on the right moved back and forth several times, but finally settling in Wisconsin and fishing the Great Lakes. He and Grandfather (left) opened a Fishmarket in 1921specializing in smoking fish and carrying 'old country' foods.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
My grandfather at age 14 had a photo taken to look older. He wore a larger suit with layers under it, and the cigar. The sailor's hat, and expression denied the fact he had just been confirmed,
when he lied about his age and joined the
Merchant Marines.
George was over six-foot and definitely a character.
WWI loomed, since not yet a citizen, he wanted to see the world and be a part of the conflict.
He became naturalized and a member of
WE the PEOPLE
in Portland Oregon in 1919 aged 21 between sailings.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
My father enlisted in January 1940 at age 18.
WE were still in the Depression and despite a partial scholarship to a state college, he could not afford to go. My hubby's dad also served in the South Pacific and fought at Okinawa for WE the People.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
After almost six years in the Army, stationed in the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia with a Medical Surgical Unit, Dad came home the first time, without a fanfare or welcome in 1945.
He was proud to be an American and to serve and WE of him, and all the generations who served in our military to keep us free.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Honor Flight and Welcome HOME!
RIP Staff Sargent
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| oldnewgreenredo |
WE...
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| oldnewgreenredo |
WE FLY our Flag!
WE
Children of Immigrants...
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| oldnewgreenredo |
or immigrants ourselves. I have two foreign born daughter-in-laws, bless them. They are my true heart loves and will be added to the
WE
of our United States.
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WE come from every religious expression,
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| oldnewgreenredo |
and every corner of this earth..
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Tightly stitched and woven into this
PATCHWORK OF HUMANITY and
PROUD TO BE
WE THE PEOPLE.
If you comment please list your ancestors' homelands and when they arrived on our shores if you can.
I think it would be interesting to see how diverse we are, this collective of WE.
Thank you for your cooperation,
Sandi
Sandi
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