BASIC FEATURES OF AMERICANS

 American People is the product of

Immigration and Diversity
 Is USA a ‘melting pot’ or a nation with

a great variety of nationality?

 Positive Effects of Diversity

Parlindungan Pardede
Universitas Kristen Indonesia Jakarta
  34,000-30,000 BC: EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS: Asian intercontinental
wanderers (Indians’ ancestors) crossed Bering Strait before the ice melted.
 8,000 BC: Primitive Agriculture (Central Mexico
 3000 BC: Early irrigation (New Mexico)
 300 BC: First Sign of early village
 100 BC: Housing (pyramid-like moulds) in Phoenix, Arizona, and Mexico
 1492: Columbus ‘discovered’ America (Bahamas Islands); Indians= 1,500,000
 1600s: A great tide of immigrant from Europe :
1) To escape political oppression
2) To seek freedom for practicing religion
IMMIGRATION 3) To grasp adventure/opportunities/material comfort they couldn’t achieve
in Europe.
 1619-1809: Unwilling Immigrants →Africans brought as slaves
 1620-35: 14,000 Englishmen came to America due to Economic
difficulties triggered by industrial revolution
 1780: 75% Europeans living in America were of English & Irish
descent. English→ prevalent American language
 1892-1954: Ellis Island (New York) received 12 mil. Immigrants;
and now still receives 675,000 / year
BASIC FEATURES  Today there are about 5,000,000 illegal immigrants

OF AMERICANS

Nationality vs Citizenship
DIVERSITY Melting pot vs Diversity
EFFECTS:
• Enrich American Culture
• Increase Human Resources
• Enliven Volunteerism/risk-
taker for new things
• Highten independence &
optimism
 EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS

ICE AGE (34,000-30,000 BC):

Asian intercontinental
wanderers (Indians’ ancestors)
crossed Beringia, the land
bridge (± 1500 kms. wide)

In thousand years the wanderers continued their way through up to the present U.S.
NATIVE AMERICANS
 1492: Columbus ‘discovered’ America
(Bahamas Islands); Indians= 2-8 millions
 1920: Indians’ number decreased to
350,000 due to: (1) war with ‘newcomers’
from Europe (2) diseases brought by
Europeans, like smallpox.
 1900s: the government ‘forced’ Indians
to live in reservations.
 1990s: Indians = 2 million (0.8 % of the
total U.S. population), and only about
one-third of them still live on
reservations.
 Countless words in US are derived from
Indian’s language, including
Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan,
Mississippi, Missouri, and Idaho.
 Indians taught Europeans how to
cultivate crops that are now staples
throughout the world: corn, tomatoes,
potatoes, and tobacco.
 Canoes, snowshoes, and moccasins are
among the Indians’ many inventions.
 The Golden Door
• 1491: Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean
looking for a western route to Asia.
• 1497 a Venetian sailor, John Cabot arrived in
Newfoundland on a mission for the British king, which was
later made the basis for British claims to North America.
• In 1600s a great tide of emigration from Europe (of whom
English were dominant) to North America began. They
emigrated in order to:
 escape political oppression
 to seek the freedom to practice their religion
 to find opportunities denied them at home.
 THE LIBERTY STATUE

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
93 M
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-lost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
(Emma Lazzarus)
 Unwilling Immigrants
• In 1619 to 1808, about 500,000 Africans were brought
over as slaves into the U.S.
• The process of ending slavery began in 1861 with the
outbreak of the American Civil War between the free
states of the North and the 11 slave states of the
South which had left the Union.
• Slavery was abolished in the U.S. with the passage of
the Thirteen Amendment to the country’s Constitution Martin Luther King, Jr.
in 1865.
• In 1963, U.S. Congress passed laws prohibiting
discrimination in voting, education, employment,
housing, and public accommodations.
• Now, African Americans constitute 12.9 % of the total
U.S. population.
 U.S Ancestry
1790 (estimate) 2000

1790 2000
Ancestry group Number % of Ancestry group Number % of
total total
English 1,900,000 47.5 German 42,885,162 15.2
African American 750,000 19.0 African American 36,419,434 12.9
Scottish Irish 320,000 8.0 Irish 30,594,130 10.9
German 280,000 7.0 English 24,515,138 8.7
Irish 160,000 5.0 Mexican 20,640,711 7.3
Scottish 160,000 4.0 Italian 15,723,555 5.6
Welsh 120,000 3.0 French 10,846,018 3.9
Duth 100,000 2.5 Hispanic 10,017,244 3.6
French 80,000 2.0 Polish 8,977,444 3.2
Native American 50,000 1.0 Scottish 4,890,581 1.7
Spanish 20,000 0.5 Dutch 4,542,494 1.6
Swedish 20,000 0.5 Norwegian 4,477,725 1.6
British (Total) 2,500,000 56.5 Scottish- Irish 4,319,232 1.5
TOTAL 3,929,326 100.0 Native American 4,119,301 1.5
Swedish 3,998,310 1.4
 US Population by Age (1995)
>64 years,
33,489,664, 0-18 years,
13% 68,424,915,
45-64 26%
years,
51,019,410,
20%

19-44
years,
108,579,77
0, 41%

US Population by Race (1995)

American Hispanic
Origin, Black,
Indian, 12.6%
Eskimo, 10.1%
Asian,
Aleut, Pacific
0.8% Islander,
White, 3.7%
82.9%