Anton Simina

Conversie Engleza, an 2
1. Who were the image-makers? What was their role in the formation of America?
The image-makers were people who established themselves in America and who were
trying to attract and to convince Europeans to move to America. There were different
types of image-makers. Some of them were promoters who earned a lot of money and
privileges because of their job. This group included agents from immigration companies,
speculators who invested a lot of money in real estate, workers from state and territorial
agencies. Others were employees of the “Emigrant Newspapers” who published articles
feeding the European curiosity for America. Others were reformers who wanted to
describe the United States, Canada and Australia as heaven on earth, or travelers and
immigrants who were successful in America and wrote about their experiences and
successful lives. The role of these image-makers was to make continuous propaganda
regarding the richness and happiness of America in order to convince the Europeans to
move to America, where the image-makers would make high profits on their behalf. Thus,
many Europeans were easily convinced and bought western land, where they moved
eventually.

2. What were ''the America letters"? Explain their role.

“The America letters” were letters written by immigrants describing America as the
Land of Promise, a place of wealth and well-being in order to convince Europeans to
move to America as well. The letters told the stories of millions of immigrants who had
a happy and successful life in the western land and who were boasting their luck so that
they would attract other people to America. However, the number of letters arriving to
Europe was so large due to the fact that the addressers were scared of feeling deported
from their homeland and most of them wanted to feel better than those who remained
home, albeit they were far from being as successful as they claimed in their letters.
Their role was the “rediscovery of America” by the commoners who had the chance to
see it as it is was. They provided important information regarding price of land, the
type of soil, the salaries, the work opportunities and so on.