Our beginnings in Europe and America : how civilization grew in the Old World and came to the New

Preface

The history of the United States is a branch of the history of the world. Life in America is a transplanted European life. Its development here has been largely determined by new world conditions, but its origins were in Europe or even in that older world about the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. As civiHzation has been handed on from race to race during the ages, each people has added its own peculiar contribution to it. Primitive men who lived before the dawn of history, the earliest civihzed nations of the Old East, the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the early Teutons, and all the European nations whose sons had a hand in colonizing America were the makers of our civilization. Our life today cannot be fully understood without adding to a clear knowledge of its growth in America an appreciation of our debt to each of the races who were our cultural ancestors.

This book is an attempt to tell in a plain and simple way the story of the growth of our civilization from its earliest beginnings in prehistoric times, to point out the contribution to it made in turn by each of the great peoples of the Old World, and to show hovv in the fullness of time it was transferred from Europe to America. The sub-title of the book — How Civilization Grew in the Old World and Came to the New — exactly expresses its theme.

The epoch-making Report of the Committee of Eight to the American Historical Association upon The Study of History in the Elementary Schools recommends for the sixth grade the study of ''those features of ancient and mediaeval life which explain either important elements of

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iv PREFACE

our civilization or show how the movement for discovery and colonization originated." The same report suggests that in the seventh grade 'Hhe settlement and growth of the colonies be taken up with enough of the European background to explain events in America having their causes in England or Europe." The author of this book aims to follow these recommendations. He does not, however, adhere closely in all details to the syllabus offered in the report if by departing from it the general purpose of the book can be more fully reaHzed. He believes that this book provides a text for the sixth grade and for part of the work suggested for the seventh grade in harmony with the spirit and purpose of the Committee of Eight.

Just a few words to those who may study and teach this book. Parrot-like memorizing is the most serious fault in elementary history teaching. The poorest use to make of any textbook is to commit it to memory. The first thing to do m studying a history lesson is to read it. Reading is thinking the author's thought after him. To read intelligently one must understand the words and phrases in which the thought is expressed. In assigning the lesson the teacher may often help the pupils to grasp the thought of the printed page by explaining and illustrating the meaning of any words or statements that the children cannot get for themselves. Before the recitation begins, the children should be encouraged to ask the teacher the meaning of any words or expressions in the lesson which they did not fully understand when they studied it. It is hoped that the maps and numerous pictures in this book will also help to make its meaning clear. The correct pronunciation of the hard names is given in the index.

Every textbook in history ought to be supplemented with stories and explanations by the teacher and by collateral or illustrative reading by the pupils.. To make such supplementary work easier, short lists of selected books for the

PREFACE V

teacher and for the children are printed at the close of each chapter.

When a lesson has been read and supplemented in these ways as far as time and circumstances permit, the next thing to do is to think about it. Here is the great opportunity of the teacher through skillful questioning to stimulate and guide the thinking of the children. Many problems of inference, of discrimination, of comparison, and of judgment arise naturally out of the text. It is believed that the questions and suggestions inserted at the end of each chapter will prove useful in this connection.

When the teacher and the pupils thinking together have decided what facts in the lesson are really vital and worth remembering, those facts should be learned. But be sure to ''let memorizing be a by-product of thinking, not a substitute for it."

The study of history has many values. The knowledge of the past which it supplies helps us to understand the world in which we live. The arts, the institutions, and the ideas of our time can never be really understood or fully appreciated until we know something of their origin and growth. But history does far more than add to the sum total of our knowledge. It brings before us the struggling, upward striving men and women of our race. It quickens and broadens our sympathies with all men everywhere. It helps us to know ourselves and our work in th^ world. Best of all it inspires us to do that work. May the children who read this book gather a full measure of these values from it.

The author is grateful to many friends for helpful suggestions and criticism during the preparation of this book. He is under special obHgation for such assistance to Professor C. H. Fisher of the State Normal School at West Chester, Pennsylvania, to Dr. J. L. Barnard, Professor of History in the School of Pedagogy, Philadelphia, and to Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf of Philadelphia. , Smith Burnham.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER ^^^^

I. Our Homes in the Old World 1

Where Americans Came From 1

Chapter I Our Homes In The Old World

Where Americans Came From. — Are there any boys and girls in our school who were not born in America? How many of you have parents who were born in some other country? Many of us have grandparents and great-grandparents who are natives of the United States, but none of us can trace our family histories back for more than two or three hundred years without finding that our ancestors came to America from other lands.

We are a part of the American people. There are more than one hundred milhons of us now, but we are all the descendants of immigrants who came to the New World from beyond the Atlantic Ocean. A vast number of us look back to the pleasant fields I of England, to the hills of Scotland, or to the green shores of Ireland as '^Our Old Home." Germany is the beloved '^Fatherland" to many others. Busy little Holland, sunny Italy, and distant Russia have all sent their sons to help make our country. Most of our people came from European ancestors. About ten millions of them, however, who have black skins, are descended from negro slaves who were brought against their wills from the continent of Africa.

In many cases our family names suggest the countries from which our people came. The Browns and the Clarks, the Robinsons and the Taylors, as well as the Binghams and the Washingtons and all other families whose names end in ''ham" or ''ton" are from England. The Mackenzies and the Buchanans

are of Scotch descent.

The Kellys and the O'Connors once called Ireland their home.

Germany sent the Beckers and the Hoffmanns. The first Petersons and Carlsons came from Norway or Sweden. It is quite probable that the man who keeps the nearest fruit store has an Italian name and that you buy candy and ice cream from men who were born in Greece. But whatever our names or the lands of our ancestors, we are all Americans now.

Everywhere in our country are people whose forefathers came from the British Islands. The people with German names are also widely scattered. Such cities as Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati are full of them. New York, Philadelphia, and other large cities have many folks of Italian birth or parentage. Where there is much heavy work to be done.

Country Life HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW

Many of our ancestors once lived in modest European cottages like the one represented in the lower picture. Above is a typical small American house.

OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD as in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, the steel mills of Pittsburgh, or the meat-packing houses of Chicago, we find many newcomers from Austria and Russia. These recent immigrants are digging our sewers, building and repairing our railroads, and working in our mills and factories.

They and their children, as much as those whose ancestors have been long in the land, are the Americans of the future. We can all say, ''This is our country."

Why Europeans Came to America. — It is more than three hundred years since the first Europeans began to come to the country we

now call the United States covr.unaerwooa^^unaerwooa

of America. From the the statue of liberty

... , , This great statue which stands upon

begmnmg those who came an island in New York harbor is the

■ . . - gift of the people of France to the

have been Writme; back to united states it represents Liberty

'^ , enlightening the world.

their relatives and friends

about the opportunities in their new homes. In this way the few who came first have been enticing larger and larger numbers every year to come to America, the land of promise. The number of immigrants has continued to grow up to the present time. Recently, as many as a million new American settlers have landed on our shores in a single year. For a long time every one who came was welcomed. Now we have laws shutting out paupers, criminals, and those who have dangerous diseases. Chinese laborers are also excluded.

Nearly all the people who have come from Europe

The largest ship sailing the sea, over 900 feet long, 50,000 tons, with a crew of nearly 1,000, and room for 2,500 passengers.

to America, from its earliest history to the present time, came because they wanted to be free, or because they wanted a better chance to make a living than the Old World could give them. Some of them fled from the tyranny of wicked kings; others came to win the right to worship God in their own way; while ms-ny were driven out by the want and poverty in

OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 5

the overcrowded lands of their old homes. America has been the land of liberty and of opportunity to one and all from the earliest to the latest comer.

How Our Ancestors Crossed the Atlantic. — Many millions of the more recent immigrants to America came in large steamships like the one opposite. Their voyage lasted only a few days and was made without great hardship. It was not so with the earlier settlers who came to our country. Their passage across the Atlantic was a long and tedious one sometimes lasting many weeks. It was made in a small sailing vessel like the one pictured here. Often the passengers ^,„„, „,,,, ,, commer. suffered greatly because of crowded ^^^^^ quarters and poor food. Frequently This smaii sailing

, . ^ 1 . 1 1 1 vessel is a good example

disease broke out on shipboard and ^{ ^^e kind of ships in

^ which the earlier set-

many died. For example, about thTAtwic'''''irwl3 two hundred years ago a shipload """^^ ^^^ ^^^* ^°^^- of one hundred and fifty Germans started for America. One hundred of them died on the voyage. A little later there was another ship in which out of four hundred who sailed only one hundred and five lived to reach America.

The strong and the brave were the ones who survived the awful hardships of the old-time voyage from Europe to America. Of those who reached the new land, only the strongest and the bravest could long withstand the exposure, the diseases, and the Indian fighting which they faced as they cleared the land and built their new homes in the wilderness. The hardy and vigorous men and women who lived through the trying experiences of those early days were the ancestors of many of us who are the Americans of today. We may well sing of our country as — ^^The land of the free and the home of the brave."

What Americans Brought from the Old World. — The Europeans who came to be Americans were civilized people. They brought their manners, their customs, and their ideals with them. They planted the civilization of their home lands in America. Our American life and civilization have grown from what was thus planted.

Now ^' civilization" is a long, hard word, but we shall not find it difficult to understand what it means. By civilized people we mean people who have laws and a government that enforces obedience to these laws; who cultivate the soil; who carry on commerce; who have houses and roads and ships; who have schools and books and pictures and music; in a word, people who live very much as we do now.

The settlers in America brought with them from their old homes in Europe the knowledge how to make a living and of how to enjoy life. They brought with them, too, many ideas and beliefs about right and wrong and about their duties to other men and their duty to God. These ideas and beliefs were also a part of their civilization.

The ways of doing things and the popular ideas of comfort, convenience, and progress which make up what we call civilization, have changed much in America, and many of them have been wonderfully developed and improved. But the sources of our civilization are in Europe.

OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 7

The earliest men that we know anything about had none of these things that make up civiUzation. It had taken men many thousands of years to learn what they knew when they first began to come from Europe to America three or four hundred years ago. The story of the way civilized ideas of living grew up in the Old World is as much a part of our history as the story of the way the European peoples first brought these ideas to the shores of America. We are to read both of these stories in this book.

1. Locate upon the map of Europe all the countries named in this chapter.

2. What is your own mother country in Europe?

3. Why did your ancestors come to America?

4. Find out all you can about how your ancestors lived in their Old World homes.

5. Talk with some recent immigrant about his journey to America.

6. Ask him how America differs from his home land in Europe.

7. Ought we to further restrict immigration to the United States?

8. What can we do to help the new comers in our country to become Americans?

E. A. Ross: The Old World in the New.

J. R. Commons: Races and Immigrants in America.

T. J. Warne: The Tide of Immigration.

Jenks and Lauck: The Immigration Problem.

E. A. Steiner: The Immigrant Tide; On the Trail of the Immigrant.

Mary Antin, The Promised Land.