Introduction
The development of the American community has a convoluted history. Some communities evolved without a systematic plan, while others were the results of deliberate efforts to create structured, and at times, ideal communities.
In order to understand the make-up of the present day communities, it is imperative to know the historical antecedents. An analysis of the values, traditions, and other forces that have shaped American communities reveals that there are commonalities characteristic of all communities, as well as very specific features of particular communities.
There is clearly a conceptual framework evident in the American residential patterns. Applied concepts categorize communities along socio-economic, ethnic, racial, age, and other lines. There even exists, communities conceptualized on the basis of a mixture of concepts, designed to create ‘model’ communities, but sometimes resulting in highly skewed communities. As American continues to chart a path to development based on the proverbial American character, the role of the community in which character is nurtured, plays an even more vital role. Students need to learn more about their community in order to develop the positive attributes needed to be successful. The American community can promote an appreciation for the homogeneity and diversity, characteristic of American society.
The idea of studying the community has been an integral part of social studies. John Dewey wrote extensively on the role of the community in the educational process. Ralph Tyler (1949) stated that the community should be a source for the selection of subject matter and in the formulation of curriculum objectives. Hilda Taba (1962) developed a cyclical social studies curriculum model that begins with the local community on the lower grades and enlarges to include the global community on the high school level.
This lesson focuses on the New Haven community. There are many nationalities who have contributed in the development in New Haven. In this lesson, students will explore the development of two communities one based on ethnicity, voluntary emigration, and the other based on race and the desire to be free from enslavement.
The three phases of this lesson are designed to give student insight into the process of community development.
Major Concept:
History
Secondary Concepts:
Group cohesiveness
,
Development
Curriculum
Objectives:
-
1. To
understand
the origins of communities.
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2. To
know
the reasons why groups and individuals settled in the New Haven area.
-
3. To
examine
the differences and similarities of the different groups.
-
4. To
acquire
insight into the problems faced by the individuals and the group.
-
5. To
recognize
the process of community development.
Instructional Objectives:
-
1. To
define
vocabulary words.
-
2. To
analyze
the factors involved in immigration.
-
3. To
identify
key figures who contributed to the development of selected communities.
-
4. To
locate
the countries from which many New Haven immigrate from.
-
5. To
empathize
with the experiences of early settlers on an individual and group level.
-
6. To
compare
the number of immigrants from various countries.
Italians Arrived Early and Kept on Arriving
The first person of Italian descent in New Haven seems to have been a well-to-do merchant named William Diodate. Diodate came from an Italian family that had emigrated to Switzerland in the early 1600s and then on to London.
He arrived in New Haven about 1717 for on April 23 of that year his name first appears in the town records showing that a parcel of land was deeded to him. Two years later, he purchased a half acre of land at Elm and Church streets.
In January 1720, he married Sarah Dunbar and later that same year he purchased for 100 pounds a parcel of land with a house and barn on State Street.
He made his profession of faith in 1735, according to the records of the First Church, and in that year he also purchased several tracts of land on the outskirts of the community.
Diodate apparently was a broker of gold and silver for when he died in 1751, the inventory of his estate shows that he had a considerable amount of silverplate, gold and silver coin and bonds for gold and silver.
His estate also included a large library of 76 volumes, many of them theological works. One of the books was entitled “Mr. Diodate’s Annotations,” suggesting that William may have been a relative of John Diodati, a famous minister of Geneva, Switzerland, during the time of the Reformation.
It is likely that other ltalians came to New Haven from time to time during the next century, but it wasn’t until the latter years of the 19th century that Italians in large numbers began to settle in New Haven.
In 1861, the birth of Giannetto Corsa to Giovanni and Maria Corsa of 2 Chestnut St. was noted in town records and several years later the birth of Antonio DiBello, son of Lorenzo DiBello, was recorded.
In 1872, Paul Russo, who was later to become the first Italian immigrant to receive a law degree from Yale, arrived with his father, a virtuoso violin player. A year later, Anthony DeMatty established a shoemaking shop on Grand Avenue while two Italian gentlemen named Castagnetti and Caputo opened a fruit store at Grand Avenue and State Street.
At about the same time, Francesco Conforti and Vincenzo Riccio were hired by the Candee Rubber Co., becoming the first of hundreds and then thousands of Italians who found work in New Haven’s bustling factories.
Italian immigrants also found work in railroad construction. In 1885, for example, more than 500 Italians, mostly from the province of Benevento, were employed by the New Haven Railroad during construction of the New London and Boston line.
The arrival of large numbers of immigrants in the 1880s and 1890s was followed by the organization of immigrant aid organizations such as the Fratellanza, the Garibaldi, the Marineria, S. Antonio, Concordia and St. Michele societies. In 1889, the city’s first Italian parish, St. Michael’s, was established.
New Haven became such a center of Italian immigration, in fact, that in August 1900 a consular office was established on Chapel Street to assist newcomers.
Also helping the immigrants was a group of Catholic nuns, the Apostolic Sisters of the Sacred Heart. In 1906, the sisters opened a day nursery for Italian youngsters on Greene Street, and soon found that there was so much demand that another nursery was opened on Prince Street.
“It is impossible to calculate the advantage that day nurseries are to the community,” commented the New Haven Union, “and the benefit they are to the homes of the poor, especially is this true where mothers find the necessity of going out to work as to help contribute to the support of the family. Very often the mother is the only support and in such cases the nurseries really keep the home and family together.”
ITALIANS ARRIVED EARLY AND KEPT ON ARRIVING
VOCABULARY
Find each word in the article and attempt to determine the meaning in the context in which the word is used. Compare your responses with dictionary definitions.
EMIGRATE
IMMIGRATE
BROKER
DEEDED
VIRTUOSO
CONSULAR
POINTS TO PONDER
Discuss each point in small groups before sharing responses with the whole class.
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1. What evidence supports the view that William Diodate was the first person of Italian descent to arrive in New Haven?
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2. What was the purpose of immigrants organizations in the 1880’s and 1890’s?
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3. What is a consular office? Why was one established in August 1900 for Italian immigrants?
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4. Does the reading give a clue to the religious denominations of Italians?
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5. What is meant by ‘Outskirts of the Community’?
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6. Do immigrant services exist today and do they serve the same purpose as the ones founded in the 19th century?
MAP-LOCATIONS
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1. Locate Italy, Switzerland and England on a map of Europe.
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2. Locate Greene, Chestnut, Prince and Chapel Streets on a map of New Haven.
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3. Where is the Italian community in New Haven?
City Opened Doors to Fugitive Slaves
In the years before the Civil War, New Haven became the major entry point in Connecticut for blacks fleeing slavery along the underground railroad.
Fugitives arrived in the city on ships direct from Southern ports or from New York City where they had previously landed.
One of the latter was William Grimes, a slave born in Virginia in 1784. Grimes escaped from Savannah, Ga., on the brig Casket, with the help of some Yankee sailors who left a hiding place among bales of cotton lashed to the ship’s decks.
Grimes landed in New York City, but was given a thorough fright when he ran into one of his former masters on Broadway. That encounter convinced Grimes that he would be better off in the country and, he later wrote, “The next morning, after purchasing a loaf of bread and a small piece of meat, I started on foot for New Haven. . . . every carriage or person I saw coming behind me, I fancied was in pursuit of me.”
Hitching rides as best he could with passing farmers and walking when he had to, Grimes arrived in New Haven in three days. He found work in the livery stable of a New Haven black man, Able Landson and remained there until he met Stephen Bullock, a white Southerner who had been in charge of his master’s office.
Again, he was forced to flee, this time to Southington where he went to work for a farmer. Later, Grimes returned to New Haven and worked as a utility man at Yale and as a barber.
There was in New Haven a network of blacks and whites ready to help escaped slaves. One of the leaders was the black clergyman Amos Gerry Beman, paster of the Temple Street Church. In his writings, Beman referred, sometimes cryptically, to some of the fugitives who came to New Haven to settle or who passed through on their way northward to Canada.
In January 1851, he wrote, “We had the pleasure of receiving and sending on her way an interesting passenger from the land of chains and whips by the underground railroad.”
Other New Haveners who aided the fugitive slaves were the Rev. Simeon S. J. Jocelyn, his brother Nathaniel Jocelyn, Amos Townsend, the Rev. Henry Ludlow and the Rev. Samuel W. S. Dutton.
Fugitives who arrived in New Haven often were instructed to proceed to Dutton’s home at 113 College St. and to knock a certain
way on the door to be admitted. After being given a bath and a meal, the fugitives were taken to the attic where they slept all
day before resuming their northward journey the next night.
A number of routes were provided out of New Haven for the runaway slaves. One road led eastward to Deep River and Chester where several families were involved in the underground railroad.
Another led northward to Southington where lived a farmer named Carlos Curtiss who was always ready to bring his wagon into New Haven and return with a slave or two hidden in the hay.
CITY OPENS DOORS TO FUGITIVE SLAVES
VOCABULARY
Define each term before using the word in a sentence.
1. Fugitive
2. Network
3. Cryptical
4. Prosperity
5. Underground Railroad
POINTS TO PONDER
Write a brief response to each question.
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1. How do you think the underground railroad operated?
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2. Explain why the network to help fugitive slaves consisted of blacks and whites?
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3. How do you think William Grimes felt when he ran into his former master?
MAP-LOCATIONS
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1. Locate the southern parts of the U.S. that the fugitive slaves escaped from.
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2. Trace the slavery route, beginning with Africa.
ORIGIN OF NEW HAVEN IMMIGRANTS
-
|
Year Canada Germany Ireland Italy
|
Russia
|
Sweden
|
United Kingdom
|
-
|
1870
|
344
|
2423
|
9601
|
10
|
6
|
64
|
1462
|
|
1890
|
931
|
4427
|
10574
|
1876
|
1160
|
777
|
2316
|
|
1910
|
1316
|
4414
|
9004
|
13159
|
7980
|
1446
|
2659
|
|
1930
|
1502
|
2182
|
5575
|
14510
|
5987
|
1021
|
2374
|
|
1950
|
968
|
1143
|
2725
|
9843
|
4062
|
471
|
1316
|
|
1970
|
485
|
571
|
871
|
3866
|
1701
|
130
|
778
|
POINTS TO PONDER
Look at the chart and answer the following questions.
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1. How many more people came from U.K. than from Ireland in 1870?
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2. Which country had the greatest population increase from 1870 to 1890?
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3. What country had the least number of immigrants from 1870 to 1970?
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4. What country’s population remained virtually unchanged from 1870 to 1950?
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5. What year were most immigrants born in New Haven and what country were they from?
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6. What two countries had about the same amount of immigrants born in New Haven?
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7. In 1870, what was the ratio of Swedish to Italians? Compare different groups of immigrants who were born in New Haven in 1870.
