Songs of Immigration and Migration
As Europeans colonized North America, beginning with the Spanish and French in the 1500s and the British and Dutch in the early 1600s, colonists brought their cultural entertainments along with them. Songs brought to colonial America continued to be sung in their early forms, so that later scholars of songs and ballads, such as the British ethnomusicologist Cecil Sharp and American ballad scholar Francis James Child, looked to North America to find early versions of songs, and songs no longer sung in their country of origin.1 Ethnomusicologist Juan Rael documented folk dramas and passion plays -- sung performances -- that preserved early versions of Spanish religious songs in what had been the relatively isolated colony of New Mexico (modern New Mexico and western Colorado). With the development of sound recording, scholars attempted to record the earliest versions of songs that they could find, such as the ballads Child had identified. An example of a rare pre-industrial work song in this presentation is a Scottish song that women used when fulling cloth, called a "waulking" song. See "Fhillie duhinn s'tu ga m'dhi," sung by Mary MacPhee in 1939.
African Americans in Early America
Africans were brought to North America as Europeans first began to create settlements. The Spanish attempted to enslave American Indians in many of their efforts to establish trading ports and colonies, and brought slaves from Africa in a failed attempt to establish a colony on the southeastern coast in 1526, abandoning the slaves when they left. They also brought slaves to the colony of San Agustin in present day Florida in 1565. The British first brought Africans to the colonies in Virginia in 1619. In the early colonial period, Europeans paying for their passage by becoming indentured servants for a period of years provided much of the menial labor. As this source of labor diminished, more Africans were brought to the colonies, often imported from the Caribbean. The practice of slavery was not codified in the early colonial period. Africans in the Chesapeake region in the 1600s, for example, were often treated as indentured servants who could earn their freedom. Some slave owners in the South allowed slaves to own a small amount of property and cultivate their own gardens. By the latter part of the eighteenth century, more slaves were brought directly from Africa, and the institution had evolved into enslavement for life. The French imported slaves to work in Louisiana and Indiana territory beginning in 1719. Bahamian African Americans regularly visited the coast of Florida beginning in the 1700s and some eventually settled there.
Slaves brought with them songs from their own cultures and knowledge of musical instruments. African drums, gourd rattles, and the banjo were among the instruments African Americans made in the new world that are most recognizable today. The African banjo, with a body of wood or gourd, evolved into its present form and had a profound impact on the music of European American as well as African American music. West African cordophones, which consist of a bow with a single plucked string, sometimes attached to a gourd resonator, evolved into the American "diddley bow," a wire string attached to a wall or a board whose tone is both amplified and changed by sliding a bottle along its length as the string is plucked. This instrument is still used in African American blues music in the South today.
During the Colonial period and the early years of the Union, slave owners did not usually introduce their slaves to Christianity, and many discouraged religious gatherings of slaves. Slaves devised their own "camp" or "bush" meetings for worship. These combined ideas of Christianity with the religions brought from Africa. Early shouts and spirituals often drew on Old Testament stories as a source. "Ring shouts," a style of singing to a drum beat accompanied by a shuffling movement in a circle, became a common form of worship in the southeastern tidewater. After Nat Turner's rebellion, in 1831, slave owners decided to convert slaves to Christianity, hiring white ministers to preach to them on such topics as obedience. This practice introduced slaves to white styles of hymns and psalm-singing that they then blended with their own styles of religious songs.
Since African American songs and music were not well documented until after the Civil War, the content of songs during slavery days is largely based on that later documentation. During the 1930s, elderly slaves were sought out by scholars for their oral histories and some of these interviews included songs. Several of these are available in this collection. This presentation includes spirituals and work songs sung in styles that evolved during slavery. These include songs from the tidewater of South Carolina and Georgia where a dialect of English and West African languages called "Gullah" or "Sea Islands Creole Dialect" developed. This dialect is not spoken much today, but was documented by folksong collectors. For example, listen to H. Wyle sing "Come by Here," the song that came to be known as "Kumbayah." The word "yah" is Gullah for "here." Although Gorden's notes do not provide the location where this was recorded, census records of the era show that African Americans with the last name Wylie lived in South Carolina.
The songs and instrumentation developed during the slavery era not only became important in later African American musical forms, but were developed and used by many different American groups over time. The banjo developed into a uniquely American instrument used in many musical styles. African American religious and secular songs and the musical genres that they developed from them widely influenced the development of American music across ethnic groups and includes genres such as folk music, country music, blues, boogie woogie, ragtime, bluegrass, rockabilly, rock and roll, rythmn and blues, and jazz.
Songs of the Colonial Period
Settlers in the new colonies of Great Britain brought ballads and hymns with them, but new songs were also created to describe the experiences, hopes, and disappointments of the settlers. The ballad, "Springfield Mountain," describes the tragic death of Thomas Mirick in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, August 1761. A nineteenth century history of that period reprinted in The History of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, published in 1913, describes his death from a rattlesnake bite shortly before he married. It also records the lyrics of a ballad and the song in this presentation, "Young Johnny," a later version that is still recognizable, though it has simplified verses and gives the victim's name as Johnny.2
The settlers of the Russian colony in Alaska also sang ballads of their adventures. "Alaskan Promyshlenniki," sung by John Pannamarkoff, is a chronicle of the experience of the settlers' journey from Arkhangel'sk to western Alaska in 1808.
A number of Spanish colonies north of what is now Mexico were attempted by the Spanish before 1600, but, among the settlements that succeeded to the present day, was a colony in what is now southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, settled in about 1600. These settlers were relatively isolated from both the settlements in Mexico and from other European pioneers moving westward. This resulted in a distinctive culture. In 1940 folklorist Juan Bautista Rael documented the songs and sung folk dramas of the descendants of these settlers, who had preserved examples of early songs and singing styles over many generations.3
Early settlers of what came to be the United States came mainly from Spain, France, England, Scotland, Ulster (Scottish settlers in Ireland who later left for the colonies), the Netherlands, Germany, Wales, Poland, Sweden, and Russia. Both Christian and Jewish settlers from Europe immigrated, in many cases to find greater religious freedom. By the time of the American Revolution, twenty percent of the population of the colonies was of African descent. In some southern areas, such as the Chesapeake region, about half the population was Black. The census of 1790 records that about eight percent of the African American population was free.
Early colonies often kept particular ethnic and language groups together in one place. But as colonial populations came into contact with each other over time, the various songs and musical styles often influenced each other, sometimes developing into entirely new genres of song. Yet many song traditions of various ethnic groups were also preserved intact. When we hear folk or popular songs that sound "American" to us, it helps to remember the many traditions that contributed to the "Americanness" of our songs and music.
American Indians, Native Alaskans and Hawaiians During the Colonial Period
The settlement of North America had a profound impact on the indigenous peoples. American Indians and Native Alaskans were displaced, removed, and often brutally killed by European explorers and settlers. Many died of diseases brought by the Europeans and spread among the Indians through trade. Many tribes were decimated long before they had any contact with the Europeans who brought the illnesses, and so did not connect the illnesses with their source. For a variety of reasons, including western contact, some tribes, along with their languages and cultures, died out. "Konomihu lullaby," sung by Ellen Brazill in 1926, documents one of the last speakers of the Konomihu language (related to the Shasta languages of northern California).
European explorers and settlers were often seen as dangerous enemies, but also as opportunities for trade and a source of wonder. A Yup'ik song about a vision of a sailing ship in 1777, describes a Yup'ik holy man's vision of a large sailing ship one year before its arrival off the coast of western Alaska. The ship that would have been visible to the Yup'ik in summer of 1778 was Captain James Cook's Resolution, on an expedition to map the coast of Alaska. The Yup'ik had little further contact with Europeans until the latter part of the nineteeth century.
Hawaiian history was also being profoundly influenced by western contact by the late 1700s. Captain Cook's arrival in 1778 meant the introduction of diseases that Hawaiians had no resistance to, causing epidemics similar to those that affected American Indians. It was partly because of Western European influence, and the availability of Western weapons, that King Kamehameha I was able to unify the islands under one rule in 1810.
United States Expansion in the Early 1800s
As setters in the east moved westward, they entered into lands claimed by France and Spain, and inhabited by various Indian tribes. In 1803 the United States bought a large territory of the Mississippi watershed from France, the Louisiana Purchase. This included some land claimed by, but not settled by Spain. It also included French settlers in what is now Louisiana. Some of these were the Acadians, who were forced out of Canada by the British. A concert presented by Marce LaCoutoure, David Greely, and Kirsti Guillroy showcases some of the earliest songs of this ethnic group that are still sung today. The Louisiana Purchase also included the traditional lands of many Indian tribes. Some of these tribes are represented in this online presentation: The Omaha, the Sioux, the Blackfoot, the Kiowa.
Florida
The United States gradually moved into Florida, ignoring Spain's claims on the peninsula. Parts of west Florida had been claimed as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1810. American settlers resented Spanish rule and also claimed west Florida at this time. U.S. military forces invaded Florida frequently as a result of Seminole raids on Georgia, and to attempt to recapture runaway slaves who fled the United States. The Seminole assisted runaway slaves and allowed them to live near their villages, protecting them from being recaptured. This caused the first conflicts between the Seminole and the United States Army, led by General Andrew Jackson, even though the territory was claimed by Spain at the time. As the Seminole and the runaway slaves not only fought effectively, but also could retreat into the Florida Everglades, these incursions on their territory were largely unsuccessful. Florida was finally established as a United States territory in 1822.
The Kingdom of Hawai'i
The 1800s brought more Europeans to the Kingdom of Hawai'i. In 1815 Russia claimed the Island of Kaua'i, to establish a port of trade. A wave of Protestant missionaries to Hawai'i from Britain and the United States arrived as King Kamehameha II made changes to the existing religious system, abolishing the kapu system of taboos. French priests also arrived to bring Catholicism to the islands, but as a result of conflicts with the Protestant missionaries and native Hawaiians, they were seized and imprisoned, leading to a conflict with France. The British also attempted to claim the islands, overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy for a short period in 1843. The Hawaiians continued to assert their independence, but under increasing pressures from the countries who used their ports for trade.
Indian Tribes
As the United States grew and more settlers came, treaties formed with American Indians were broken and their lands taken. The Indian Removal Act signed by President Andrew Jackson in 1830 began the largest removal of tribes from the Southeast to locations west of the Mississippi. Tribes were removed during the years from 1831 to 1837 and included the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. The Seminoles of Florida were the only tribe to successfully resist, as they once again retreated into the Everglades where the army was not equipped to fight them. Even so, many Seminoles were captured and removed to Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma) in 1837. A song sung about the removal of the Seminole sung in Seminole by Katie Smith and Courtney Parker and was recorded by Carlita Doggett Corse and Robert Cornwall in 1940. Unfortunately the sound quality is poor, but the tune can be heard. The Cherokee removal in 1835 was especially devastating to the tribe as over four thousand died on the forced march westward. This tragic event came to be called "the trail of tears."
A consequence of European contact with American Indians was the first generation of children of European and Indian heritage. Many were children of French trappers, who became citizens of the United States at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. In many cases these children did not have a home in either of their parent's cultures. In the 1820s, the Omaha negotiated with the United States government for a special reservation to be set aside for "half breed" descendants of Europeans and the Iowa, Omaha, Oto, Santee Sioux and Yankton Sioux tribes. In 1830, the United States created the Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation in Indian Territory -- now Nebraska. A song sung by Omaha descendants of these "half breeds" was recorded at the 1983 Omaha Powwow. The song is attributed attributed to Louis Saunsoci, who was of Omaha and French ancestry. An interesting part of this reservation's history is that it became a safe haven on the Underground Railroad.4
The Underground Railroad
While slaves were sometimes able to escape and run to Spanish Florida or other safe havens from the time slaves were brought to North America, it was in the early nineteenth century that a network of escape routes and safe houses organized by Abolitionists, some of whom were former slaves, developed. The routes now known collectively as the Underground Railroad assisted slaves escaping north and west. While there were "conductors" who led slaves to freedom, such as Harriet Tubman, most runaway slaves found their way alone along these routes. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made it illegal to harbor runaway slaves even in states that outlawed slavery. At this time the traffic on the Underground Railroad was at its peak, and rather than stopping the effort, the Abolitionists helped slaves escape to Canada, where they could not be forced back into slavery. Canada had already become a destination for some slaves by 1835, as slavery had been abolished there in 1833. After 1850 a significant population of runaway slaves formed in areas of Ontario and British Columbia. After emancipation many returned to the United States, usually settling in northern cities. Though the migration of runaway slaves was relatively small, they helped to pave the way for later migrations of African Americans to the North and West.
There is great deal of debate about which African American spirituals may have been used as coded information related to the Underground Railroad. The organizers did use railroad terminology as a code for talking about the escape routes. Safe houses were "stations" and runaway slaves were "passengers" or "cargo," for example. So it has been speculated that spirituals about trains may have been used as part of this code. Because the Underground Railroad was secret and illegal, documentation of the use of songs as coded messages is sparse. Harriet Tubman, in her interviews with biographer Sarah H. Bradford, said that she would stand in a field adjacent to where slaves were working and sing the spiritual "Go Down, Moses" or a version of the hymn "Thorny Desert" as a way of signaling to slaves that she was in the area to help slaves flee to freedom.
American Indian tribes also participated in the Underground Railroad, providing safe havens first among the lands set aside for them by treaty, and later on reservations. These particularly involved tribes in the southeast, Florida, and tribes on the western shore of the Mississippi.4 In fact, this participation in the protection of runaway slaves was one of the reasons that President Jackson particularly targeted the southeastern tribes for removal to the west. In a webcast of Choctaw music and storytelling, Tim Tingle tells why there is a version of the spiritual "Bound for the Promised Land," in Choctaw, singing the song while telling of members of the Choctaw Nation asisting a fleeing family of slaves. The story may be somewhat fictionalized, but the background is based on historical fact, both of Choctaw assistance to fugitive slaves, and of the existence of this song.
Immigration in the Mid-1800s
As a consequence of the Industrial Revolution and changes in the economies of countries in Europe, many young Europeans could no longer support themselves. The prospect of owning land in new developing countries such as the United States made immigration a solution for many. The 1820s marked the beginning of a period of increased immigration from Europe that grew throughout the nineteenth century.
The immigrations of Irish to the United States were a result of the failure of potato crops leading to mass starvation in 1845. This period lasted until 1852. While some Irish settlers had come to the United States beginning in the colonial period, most settled in rural areas. This large migration in the mid nineteenth century brought many settlers to urban areas.
In 1847, pressured by persecution for their religious beliefs, Mormon pioneers began a western migration from a settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois, as well as other states, with smaller numbers from Iceland and some European countries. Their goal was to create a Mormon enclave on lands near the Great Salt Lake in what is now Utah. At the time this was an unsettled region of Mexican territory. The area had been chosen by an advance party in 1846, followed by pioneers, many of whom set out on foot without horses or mules, pulling handcarts filled with their belongings. A song from that journey, "The Handcart Song," is still remembered by descendants of these pioneers today. These settlers of Utah later participated in the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, building the last portion of the railroad thorough Utah. The song "Echo Canyon" is an example of the song sung by the workers building the railroad.
A large wave of German immigrants came to the United States in 1848, resulting from revolutions and conflicts of the various German states. These included political refugees, many of whom were well educated. They settled in cities, mainly Baltimore, Hoboken, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, New York, Omaha, and St. Louis, as well as several cities in Iowa. These immigrants brought skilled labor. They also opposed slavery and many fought for the Union during the Civil War. Another wave of German-speaking immigrants came from Russia. Under the reign of Catherine the Great, who was Prussian, Germans immigrated to western Russia. But in the 1800s, life for these immigrants became increasingly difficult. In the mid- 1800s the first wave of German Russians, came to the United States, many wishing to escape forced conscription in the Russian army. Songs of immigrants from Germany and of ethnicly German immigrants from Russia are available in this presentation.
In 1848 several major events took place leading to both increased migration and immigration. In January, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. In February the war between Mexico and the United States was settled, adding southwestern territories, including all of California, and confirming the addition of the Republic of Texas to the United Sates, which included present day Colorado, Wyoming, and parts of New Mexico. In August, what had been known as "Oregon Country" was divided between the United States and British Canada, including the present states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of western Montana and Wyoming. The addition of the territories coupled with the discovery of gold sent many Americans pioneering westward, with a wave of migrants arriving in California in 1849, so that they were called the Forty-Niners. Examples of songs of the California gold rush era are available in this presentation, such as "The Days of Forty-Nine." Some newly-arrived immigrants set out west in search of land that they could homestead, following in the footsteps of smaller numbers of migrants who had pioneered the territories before they were added to the US. For example, a wave of Basques immigrated to the northwestern territories, many working as sheep ranchers.
As the United States now spanned the continent, railroads were needed to connect distant cities for both travel and the transportation of goods. Chinese workers immigrated in order to build railroads and to work in service trades that supported the western gold and silver mines. As railroads were built and the mines required labor, many also went to work in the mines. Most of these were Cantonese speakers from southern China, often leaving China via the British port of Hong Kong, as the Chinese government restricted emigration. The vast majority were men, many of whom hoped to return to China or to earn enough money to bring their families to America at a later time. This presentation also includes some recordings of Cantonese songs made in the early 1900s by Victor, for the American Chinese market. The titles of these have not been translated, but select this link for the earliest of these, recorded in 1902.5 The Chinese immigrant's look, culture, and language led to fears, ridicule, and prejudice among European American pioneers and the development of many misconceptions about them. An example of this is found in the impersonation of the Chinese accent and misadventures in the song "Hop Sing."
Alaska Purchase
When the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, Russian settlers were treated as new citizens, but Native Alaskans were not. The agreement with Russia included language that the inhabitants of Alaska" with the exception of uncivilized native tribes, shall be admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States."
In 1875, a major eruption of the Askja volcano in Iceland hit a population already suffering from a series of cold winters and an economic depression. Farms and farmland in eastern Iceland were destroyed, causing widespread famine. The consequenses of this downturn affected Iceland for much of the latter nineteenth century. One group of prospective immigrants petitioned the United States government to settle in Alaska. An advance group was allowed to consider a possible site in Alaska, however the United States did not follow through with this plan. Some refugees of the volcanic eruption settled in Washington State and Michigan, where some of their countrymen had already settled. Many other emmigrated to Canada. Some of the Canadian Icelanders and their descendants later immigrated to the Northwestern United States.
Indian Reservations and Assimilation
Following policies of earlier reservations set up in states just west of the Mississippi, during the latter part of the 1800s, American Indians of the Plains and the West were forced onto reservations as well in order to open these lands to settlement by pioneers. The United States had prior treaties with the tribes, but broke those treaties. The slaughter of bison for their hides created starvation of the Plains tribes dependent on the buffalo for food, as well as shelter and clothing. Much of this was done by companies that sold hides to markets in Europe and the Eastern United States for industrial machine belts, as well as for souvenirs of America for railroad companies, western pioneers and tourists. The United States Army also was a major particiapant in this slaughter, as many felt that they were cutting the supply line of Plains tribes they saw as enemies. These circumstances brought about a period of wars with Indian tribes. The Sioux and Cheyenne fought efforts to force them onto reservations, leading up to an intervention led by George Armstrong Custer, who was defeated by a larger force of Indians in 1876. Warde Ford sings a popular ballad about this battle, "Custer's Last Charge," that casts Custer as a hero, the common European-American view at the time. This victory was short-lived and ultimately disastrous for many tribes, as efforts were redoubled to forcibly remove Indians to reservations.
Under the Dawes Act of 1887, Indians could become citizens if they broke all ties with their tribe and "adopted the habits of civilized life." Literacy tests were used to create barriers for Indians to become citizens and to vote. Beginning in 1879, boarding schools were set up to forcibly indoctrinate Indian children into western customs. In many of the schools the children were punished if they spoke their own languages, and were kept from seeing their parents for long periods. Indian customs on the reservations were also curtailed, with dances and drumming commonly outlawed. It was commonly assumed that Indian culture would naturally disappear. Ethnomusicologists, such as Frances Densmore, Alice Cunningham Fletcher, and Omaha tribal member Francis LaFlesche, recorded Indian songs, stories, and ceremonies for the Smithsonian Institution in order to preserve these for scholastic research. A selection of Omaha recordings and an example of a Menominee song, "Manabus Tells the Ducks to Shut Their Eyes," from this period, are available in this presentation.
Assimilation policies towards American Indians and Native Alaskans were less than successful, although some tribes did lose their languages as a result. Indians generally rebelled against efforts to destroy their culture. Also, the reality was that Indians, regardless of how well they spoke English and adopted European-American customs, were not accepted into White society. While in some areas some version of Indian boarding schools continued until the 1970s, some states began enrolling Indians in public school beginning in the early 1900s.
Growing out of the reservation system and the "civilizing" forces at work in the West, were the Wild West Shows, such as the one run by Buffalo Bill, that included cowboy stunts, music and songs, and "wild Indians" performing for audiences across the country. These continued into the early 1900s. A popular and romantic view of all things western were spread by such shows, along with confused popular ideas about Indians. Some of the more widely known versions of cowboy songs became known to easterners through popular cowboy performers.
Immigration 1880-1918
From the 1880s to about 1918 the United States saw the largest immigration of Europeans in its history. These included many European groups who had not immigrated to the United States in large numbers before this period. Immigrants came from Poland, Slavic countries, Italy, Greece, Hungary, and Finland, among others. Due to persecution of Jews in Russia, many immigrated first to western Europe, then to North America. Some of these new immigrants created city neighborhoods or whole towns of people who spoke the same language. An example is Tarpon Springs, Florida, settled by Greeks during this period. It remains today the city with the largest proportion of Greek inhabitants in the United States. Examples of songs and music of immigrants to Tarpon Springs are included in this presentation. This influx of people bringing cultures and languages different from previous settlers was not wholly welcomed by all Americans, leading eventually to strict immigration quotas after World War I.
For the music industry, this wave of new immigrants brought diverse cultures to cities, contributing an array of talent. Immigrants brought talent to collaboration to the vaudeville stage as well as songwriters and publishers to the developing popular music called Tin Pan Alley. Irish and Jewish immigrants were key players in this mix, often collaborating. As sound recording technology developed from rare curiosity to a fixture in American homes, the voices of performers reached a wider audience. Along with this ethnic mix, comic impersonations of ethnic groups also became part of the entertainment. Some artists of these ethnic groups participated, exaggerating their own accents for comic effect. A webcast of a lecture by folklorist Mick Molony, "If it Wasn't for the Irish and the Jews: Irish and Jewish Influences on the Music of Vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley," is available in this presentation.
Fears about Chinese immigrants and resulting cultural conflicts in the West prompted the Chinese Exclusion Act signed by Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, which banned new immigration from China. Most of the Chinese immigrants were men, and they were forbidden by law from seeking European American wives, so this placed a great hardship on the immigrants already in the United States. A few exceptions were made for family members who were "non-laborers," that is wives, "mail order brides," and dependent children. However, the enforcement of the regulations made it extremely difficult even for wives and children to be allowed into the country. For example, "non-laborers" had to show that they had the permission of the Chinese government to immigrate, which was extremely difficult to obtain. The "Drum Song of Fenyang" is an example of a Chinese folk song that was widely known, and, though sung in Mandarin, would have been known to Cantonese-speaking immigrants.
In the interest of sugar and rice plantations that had been set up in Hawai'i, an agreement with the Hawaiian government had given the United States the port of Pearl Harbor in 1875. But after a period of political unrest in Hawai'i, the economic desire to exploit Hawai'i as a port of trade among other business interests overcame more prudent efforts to respect Hawai'i's monarchy. In 1893, business interests from Britain and the United States pressed for a military intervention. The United States Army deposed Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani, and Hawai'i became a United States territory. Hawaiians petitioned against this action, and many Americans protested, most famously writer Mark Twain. One hundred years after the overthrow of the monarchy, President Clinton signed an official apology from the United States to the people of Hawai'i.
Japanese began immigrating to Hawai'i in 1885, initially to work in sugar cane fields and pineapple plantations. Earlier the government of Japan had opposed workers emigrating to Hawai'i, but the government of Hawai'i made efforts to assure the Japanese that workers would be well treated, and a positive diplomatic relationship between the two nations was fostered. By the 1920s the Japanese population would grow to make them the second largest ethnic group in Hawai'i.
Music from the new territory of Hawai'i had a great impact on American culture, thanks in part to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 coupled with the advent of commercial sound recordings. The ukulele became a popular instrument in American parlors. An Hawaiian innovation dating from about 1885 based on the western guitar was the Hawiian lap slide guitar, played with a slide of metal or glass. This new sound spread rapidly in America and influenced many later musical styles such as bluegrass, "sacred steel" Gospel, and rock and roll. Hawaiians also began migrating to the western United States, often working as entertainers playing these new instruments, particularly in Nevada and California. An example of Hawaiian performers from Nevada are Gary Haleamau and his band, recorded at the Library of Congress in 2008.
At the conclusion of the Spanish American War in 1898, the United States gained the territories of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans entered the United States in larger numbers after this, migrating to cities such as New York, and bringing with them a style of music and song different from the Mexican style most familiar to Americans. In the 1930s Sidney Robertson Cowell recorded Puerto Rican Americans who had settled in California. Puerto Rican songs are available in this presentation.
Alaska in the late 1800s saw two waves of fortune seekers. The Klondike gold rush led prospectors and entrepreneurs who hoped to make money selling them goods and services to the Yukon River through Alaska to the gold fields in Canada in 1897 and 1899. After that, the Nome Gold Rush of 1899-1909 brought more prospectors to Alaska. Unlike the California Gold Rush, most of these prospectors returned to the lower United States when they made their fortunes, or, more commonly, when their luck ran out. But some did stay to settle in Alaska. "Lament of the Old Sourdough" and "Buffalo Gals at Nome" are examples of songs related to the Nome Gold Rush.
The United States gradually secured islands in Samoa and, in 1911, these were organized into the territory of American Samoa. The United States also purchased the Virgin Islands from the Danish in 1917.
Immigration and Immigrants During and after World War I
During World War I, immigration from Europe was severely curtailed. After the war, the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924 continued to regulate immigration using strict quotas. The quotas were based on the percentage of the population of various ethnic groups in the United States, proportionately favoring western Europeans, but allowed immigration at far lower levels than prior to 1900. Asian immigration was reduced to nearly zero.
Because of the low level of European immigration during the war, there was a demand for inexpensive labor that prompted greater immigration from Mexico and other parts of Latin America to southwestern states. During the war, the government actively sought Latin American laborers as this work force helped to free Americans to join the military. Following the war, the United States attempted to curtail this flow of workers from its southern borders, while still severely restricting immigration from Europe. So the demand for unskilled labor caused by these policies led many Mexicans to continue to seek work in the United States despite the restrictions. Mexican Americans brought with them songs about Mexican history and Mexican life. An example is "Corrido villésta de la toma de Matamoros," a song concerning taking of the city Matamoros, Mexico (which is just across the Rio Grande river from Brownsville, Texas) by the revolutionaries in 1913 during the Mexican revolution.
Armenians were able to enter the United States despite the strict quotas, due to American sympathies with these refugees. Turkey had expelled and actively killed Armenians during World War I, taking the opportunity of war to persecute its own citizens. In some cases deportees were hunted down outside Turkey's borders, the fiction of deportation used to conceal the slaughter. Armenians were marched or taken by train into the Syrian desert Deir ez-Zor and left to die. United States newspapers condemned this as a "holocaust" and printed daily reports on the situation. There were efforts mounted to rescue the Armenians, but, for the most part, help arrived too late. Sidney Robertson Cowell recorded Armenian songs in California in the 1930s, including the song "Derzor chollerenda" about the deaths in the Syrian desert; "De le Yaman," a traditional love song of longing that, since World War I, has taken the meaning of longing for the homeland; and "Andouni," a song whose title translates as "homeless" that has come to be associated with the deportees and was arranged by the folksong collector and composer Komitas Vardapet.
Greeks living in Turkey faced on a similar fate to the Armenians. Many were killed outright, forced on death marches, or deported. While some of these refugees made their way to Greece and Macedonia, some immigrated to the United States before the strict quotas of the 1920s took effect. In many cases Greek men came in search of work, expecting to return home. The pending new immigration laws forced some to make the decision to send for their families and settle in America.
Ethnomusicologist Sidney Robertson Cowell realized that the greatly reduced level of immigration after the first World War impacted American ethnomusicologists' ability to study the music of first generation immigrants who could perform the music and songs learned in their native countries on instruments that they had brought with them. This was part of her motivation to record many different ethnic groups in central California during the 1930s as part of a project funded under the Works Progress Administration. She was able to record some groups, such as Armenians and Italians, who had immigrated during the war. In addition to first generation immigrants, she recorded second generation immigrants, Mexican Americans, singers of English-language ballads and songs, and surviving participants in the California Gold Rush. These recordings are available in this presentation.
Migration of African Americans After Reconstruction
After the Civil War, many African Americans migrated from southern states to the North, Midwest, and West, seeking a better life. Though northern and western states were certainly not free from discrimination, they provided far better opportunities for education and advancement than under the Jim Crow laws of southern states. Though this began in the late1860s, there was a steady increase in the number of migrants until well after the first World War. During World War I, immigration from Europe ceased, causing a shortage of inexpensive industrial labor and a demand for workers. Consequently many African Americans settled in cities, creating neighborhoods such as New York's Harlem and Chicago's South Side. Some of these migrants were aided by former slaves who had already settled in northern cities or who had recently returned to the United States after fleeing to Canada. Rural agricultural workers became urban dwellers, fashioning a very different life for themselves. What came to be called the "Great Migration" peaked in the 1920s when hundreds of thousands of African Americans left the South. The migration caused conflicts and a demand for civil rights. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded was founded in 1909, partly as a response to the consequences of the Great Migration.
From a musical point of view, this migration brought Gospel and blues music to a wider audience, and northern and western cities became a place for African American musical innovation. The search for a better life also led to changes in the way performers chose to present themselves. For example, singer Noble Sissle refused to perform in black face, which, at the time, was still common for African Americans. Marian Anderson, whose grandfather had migrated to Philadelphia shortly after emancipation, studied opera and, when she performed traditional spirituals, she did so in a trained vocal style. Composer Spencer Williams is an example of an African American who migrated from New Orleans to perform and live in Chicago and later New York during the Great Migration. Listen to his song, "I Ain't Got Nobody" performed by Hattie Ellis. Another wave of African Americans to the north and west occurred after World War II. An example is blues great Honeyboy Edwards, who left the Missisippi Delta to live and perform in Chicago in 1950. Listen to him sing "Sweet Home Chicago," a song believed to have been written by Robert Johnson.
The Dust Bowl Migrants
During the Great Depression, a series of droughts combined with non-sustainable agricultural practices led to devastating dust storms, famine, diseases, and deaths related to breathing dust. This caused the largest migration in American history. The Dust Bowl era lasted from 1930 to the early 1940s and impacted the Midwest, Southwest, and Mexico directly, but also had an impact on the states that affected populations migrated to--principally California and the Northwest. Migrants, most of whom had been farmers, went to pick crops in those states where crops would still grow. Displaced immigrants from Mexico competed with migrants from the United States for jobs. A federal study found that the migrants were spending all they earned on gasoline and housing, with nothing left to feed themselves or their children. The Roosevelt administration answered this by setting up camps to house migrants. The large number of workers resulted in low wages, which led to a series of strikes such as the 1939 Madera Cotton Strike (songs from this strike are included in the presentation). In 1941 ethnographers Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin documented the lives of migrant workers in California, recording songs, stories, poetry and camp meetings. Songs recorded in California by Todd and Sonkin are available in this presentation. Although the drought abated in the early 1940s, the loss of topsoil in the Midwest continued to have an impact on usable farmland through 1950, meaning that many people displaced by the Dust Bowl were never able to return to their farms.
Mexicans fleeing the consequences of drought in this era emigrated to the United States in large numbers. Displaced Mexican workers competed with Dust Bowl migrants in California. Mexicans were often blamed for the joblessness during the Depression. The United States enacted legislation aimed first at assisting their return with the Mexican Repatriation Act, then actively barred their entry and deported Mexicans in great numbers.
Immigration During and Following WWII
During World War II the United States began making some changes to its policy of immigration quotas, but generally on a case-by-case basis. In 1939 a well-publicized plight of Jewish refugees from Europe aboard the S.S. St. Louis first were refused permission to disembark in Cuba, then denied permission to emigrate to the United States. Because of strict immigration quotas in force at the time, Roosevelt had no choice but to refuse to accept these refugees and the ship was turned back to Europe. In 1944 President Franklin Roosevelt, under pressure from Congress and Jewish Americans, relaxed the quotas on Eastern European immigration to allow more Jews to immigrate and escape Nazi persecution. He also created a War Refugee Board to admit more refugees. Jewish immigrants after 1944 settled largely in cities, joining immigrants from the late nineteeth and early twentieth centuries. The musician, folk song collector, and singer Flory Jagoda came to the United States as a "war bride" after World War II. In a webcast recorded at the Library of Congress in 2007, she performs music and songs of the Sephardic diaspora.
As had happened during World War I, a demand for Mexican labor to replace U.S. laborers lost to the war effort brought about a new immigration of workers. Pressure from growers to maintain this inexpensive unskilled work force kept the policy of importing Mexican Labor in place even following the war. The United States government instituted the "Bracero Program" in 1942, which allowed workers to come into the country provided that they had a work contract and returned when the contract was up. At that point they could be hired on a new contract and return. But when legal immigrants came in insufficient numbers, growers actively sought illegal immigrants to harvest crops. So the United States began "Operation Wetback" in 1954, deporting approximately one million illegal immigrants. During the 1960s Chicano workers in the west, whether citizens or illegal workers, became frustrated with the push-pull of United States policy towards Mexican immigration. They united to launch a civil rights battle to raise awareness and to gain better treatment for themselves and their children. 6
In 1941, Russia began deporting Germans who had settled in parts of western Russia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some of these displaced German-speaking people immigrate to the United States to settle in the Midwest, joining a smaller wave of Russian-Germans who arrived in the 1870s.
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, enacted under the Roosevelt administration, was a law designed to return self-governance to Indian tribes and reduce losses of reservation and tribal lands. The law included Native Alaskans, but because of increased settlement of Alaska at this time and an economic desire to free land for settlers, some lawmakers continued to press for confinement of more Native Alaskan tribes on reservations. Native Alaskans fought these efforts in the courts, successfully delaying and ultimately preventing the loss of most of their tribal lands as had happened to Indians in the lower forty-eight states.
Immigration after 1965
Immigration up to 1965 had largely favored white Western Europeans. Due to pressures of the war in Southeast Asia, the United States needed to provide a safe haven for refugees of that war. On October 3, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, removing the previous national origins formula. Instead, the new law favored people with skills and education regardless of their race or country of origin. This has allowed more immigrants from Asia, the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa to enter the United States. Some examples of performers who took advantage of this new immigration policy to come to the US are available as webcasts in this presentation: Sreevidya Chandramouli, Balla Kouyate and World Vision, and the Lao Natasinh Dance Troupe of Iowa.
In the 1970s, Iranian students in the United States begin refusing to return to live under the repressive government of the Shah. Many protested, drawing attention to problems in Iran and the U.S. support of the Shah. Many of these protesters sought American citizenship, and in some cases asked for asylum, as they feared reprisal for their protests if forced to return to their country. An example of musical expressions of these Persian Americans available in this presentation as a webcast is The Sama Ensemble, a Sufi musical group that includes refugees and their relatives. Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam that advocates peace through the love of God.
In 1983 The People's Republic of China removed restrictions on emigration. This led to a new wave of immigration from China, particularly scholars, artists, and musicians. 7
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Notes
- See the essay, "Francis James Child and The English and Scottish Popular Ballads," by Stephen Winick, for more on the life and work of this scholar. [Return to text]
- The History of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, 1913, is available online via Cornell University Library. See pages 79-85 for an account of this story and two versions of the song. [Return to text]
- See the biography "Juan Bautista Rael (1900-1993)." [Return to text]
- Freeman, Darryl Omar 2012. The First Freedom Line: The Untold Story of American Indian Underground Railroad Activities During the Antebellum Period (Aiding Fugitive Enslaved African Americans Escape to Freedom in Canada 1820-1865). Dissertation, Washington State Iniversity. [Return to text]
- A Library of Congress presentation on the Chinese in California 1850-1925 is available online. [Return to text]
- See the article, "The Chicano Civil Rights Movement," for more information and links to recordings. [Return to text]
- Instrumental music performed at the Library of Congress by The Ann Yao Trio, musicians who came to the United States after this change in China's emigration policy, is available as a webcast in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. [Return to text]