FREE ESSAY ON IMMIGRANT VOICES

IMMIGRANT VOICES

The Book Immigrant Voices by Thomas Dublin is focused on giving readers a close view of
what things were like for immigrants between the years of 1773-1986. It contains diaries,
letters, autobiographies, and interviews of actual immigrants during this time period.
The book tells many facts about immigration to America and the harsh realities people
faced.
The first immigrant I read about was John Harrower. Harrower was from the Shetland
Islands and was forced to leave in 1773 due to poverty and despair. Harrower left his
wife and children in order to find work in America. Harrower signed away his freedom in
order to cross the ocean. On the journey to America Harrower delt with his own sickness
and watched others die. Harrower watched men that he knew, friends, who had died of
illness get tossed overboard and thrown into the ocean. 
Harrower was a smart man, therefore, when he reached America he became a tutor. John
instructed the children of the man of which he was serving. After being there for nearly
four years Harrower had saved up almost enough money to bring his family over to America.
John Harrower died of an unknown illness before he could bring his wife and children to
their new home.
Some of the letters that I spoke if were those of William and Sophie Frank Seyffard to
their families. William and Sophie were Germans who came from well off families. William
and Sophie were married and they were happy together. William Seyffard bought a farm
where he and Sophie would live. They had children and were happy in America for the most
part, until their mill burnt down and they lost practically everything they had. They
owed mortgages and creditors. They moved off of their own farm and all of their children
got ill with scarlet fever. The one by the name of Ernst died. 
Another instance of a heartbreaking story of an immigrant is that of Rosa Cassettari. She
was an Italian who was forced to America to be married. She had to leave her child and
mother in Italy, also her first love. Rosa went to America and married a man named
Santino. She cooked for twelve people. She did not love Santino. He was cross and beat
her. Rosa had gone into labor multiple times with no one there ot help her. She had to
cut her own ambilocal cord. Santino would not even get her water when she was to weak to
leave her bed. Cassettari left Santino and slept in a freezing alley with her children.
Rosa did find a new love in America. His name was Gionin. This autobiography isn't so
upsetting when it ends, for Gionin takes care of Rosa and her children.
One of the autobiographies I find most intrieguing is one of Rosa Gollup. Rosa was an
eleven year old Russian girl who came to America to live with her father whom she hadn't
seen in years. She left her family in Russia to leave with her aunt to help make money to
bring the rest of her family to America as well. She was smuggled accross the border and
lay under hay pretending to be bags of flour. She got deathly ill on the ship bound for
America. She would've died if it weren't for a crew member helping her. The girl, Rose,
or Rahel was forced to change her name to that of an American. They called her Ruth. Rose
was also forced to watch her father be brutally beaten because of his nationality. She
got a job stitching coats in a mill. Her boss was rather cruel to her. The girl would
stitch and stitch until her hands were bleeding. It was hardly a place for a young girl.
Therefore, Rose Gollup joined the union. But since not many girls or women joined the
union it was soon broken up. 
Nest was Suzuko Itoi. She was a young girl of Japanese heritage yet born in the United
States and was therefore a U.S. citizen. She and her family lived in Seattle during World
War II and the depression. Suzuko didn't even know she was Japanese until her mother told
her when she was six years old. Suzuko began to realize and regret her heritage shortly
after. She and her mother went looking to rent a summer home and were refused because
they were Japanese. Some people politely refused them and lied about having no openings.
Others were cruelly honest and said They didn't want Japs around.
After Suzuko and her family found a place to live the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Soon
after the Federal Bureau of Investigation started taking all of the Japanese away. They
were thought to be dangerous, U.S. citizens or not. Suzuko and her family were forced to
burn their personal belongings just to feel safe. They burned things that were very dear
to them, things they had for years. Finally the Itois were taken away from their home.
They were taken to camps where their apartment was the size of a living room, cold, and
empty. The camp was surrounded by a wire fence. There were 24 hour watch guards who
watched the camps and held tommy guns. This is truly a tragic thing for a young girl to
experience. She was not a Japanese citizen and her American citizenship suddenly meant
nothing. 
Another story is of a Puerto Rican boy named Piri Thomas. He lived in Harlem with his
family. They were strucken by poverty and lived in a freezing cold apartment because the
landlord wouldn't turn up the heat. Piri had dark skin and resembled a negro. The Italian
boys on Piri's street would degrade him and call him awful names. When Piri tried to
defend himself the Italians would beat him up. The Italian adults would watch this happen
to Piri, smile, and do nothing. This caused Piri to think that he was lower than the
Italians. It also caused him to hate them. Later on Piri and his family moved to Long
Island. Piri went to a dance at his new school and made the mistake of asking a white
girl to dance with him. She politely said her boyfriend would get jealous and that she
just couldn't. When she and her friends thought that Piri couldn't hear them they called
him a dirty nigger, among other things. This autobiography ends with Piri full of hatred,
thinking everyone was better than him, and him saying he'll never go back to school. 
One Vietnamese quote from ths book states I can remember things about the war, when we
left Vietnam. It was hard... terrible. Men were fighting, pushing women and children to
the ground, so that they could get a place on the plane. People were panicking ot get out
of the country, there was shooting. My parents said Follow us, we have to go. I didn't
realize that we were going to a new country. I cannot imagine the pain that these people
must have felt not knowing what was going to happen to them and their families.
In conclusion the book Immigrant Voices lets the reader know, in detail, what it was like
to be an immigrant. Immigrance in America caused much suffering to many people. Because
of this we now have a very multiracial and multicultural society today.