David J. Coss
John Brockett was hired to design the plan of the colony. Looking at this copy of his map, how would you describe his design?
Why is the center square left mostly empty? What building was placed there?
The settlers had plenty of land yet they chose to live close to one another. Why?
Based on this map where do you believe the wealthiest people lived?
The Poorest?
Now compare this map to a modern map of New Haven. Can you still find the original nine squares? How have they changed over the past three hundred years? How haven't they changed in over three hundred years?
The Regicides in New Haven
One of the best ways to teach students about the regicides in by bringing them up to Judge's Cave on West Rock. Students are fascinated by the idea that criminals actually hid in this cave. The residents of New Haven embraced these fugitives and conspired to help conceal them from the King's men.
After having the students visit the site, have them write a diary of several days length in which they take on the role of Dixwell, Whalley, Goffe or Governor Leete. The students should describe the characters thoughts and feelings, what is like living in this cave, and what are their plans? Governor Leete is a unique character for he is not one of the regicides yet he uses his power as Governor of the Colony to distract the King's men and help hide these fugitives. Ask the students to decide whether or not it is appropriate for us to honor the memories of these men by naming three of our busiest streets after them.
"Resistance to Tyrants is obedience to God" are the words engraved over the cave. How does this statement explain the feelings of the people of New Haven toward their king Charles II?
From Seaport Colony to Industrial City
The eighteenth century witnessed a period in which New Haven dramatically evolved from a failed independent colony into an economic success. During the 18th century New Haveners learned to master the shortcomings of their shallow harbor by extending the land out into the deeper water. This "long wharf" enabled men such as Roger Sherman, Benedict Arnold, and Thomas Painter to make their fortunes outfitting ships and cargo for the lucrative West Indies trade. New Haven harbor established the city as a successful and prosperous seaport. Immigrants who settled at this time brought their skills as sailmakers, ropemakers and oyster fisherman.
By 1808 President Jefferson's Embargo Act had taken a toll on New Haven's maritime industries. Although immigration would continue to dwindle, the Embargo and subsequent War of 1812 turned a new page in New Haven's history. The harbor would take a backseat to the industries which would dominate 19th century New Haven and attract thousands of new immigrants.
While most residents of New Haven were cursing Jefferson for destroying their maritime profits, a few began to seek new markets and new industries that would be immune to the never ending disputes which threatened shipping in the Atlantic. The shift of emphasis from agriculture to manufacturing had far-reaching results: the bank replaced the country merchant as money lender. Insurance companies sprang up; Yankee inventive genius emerged to meet new challenges; methods of transportation and distribution improved. Demands for better schools arose, and a laboring class began to appear in the towns.7 Beginning in 1812, men such as Brewster, Newhall, and Pardee began manufacturing carriages using workers displaced from maritime industries. Throughout the 19th century New Haven earned the reputation for making the most luxurious and highest quality carriages in the nation. Whole sections of our city took on the namesake of carriage manufacturers such as Newhallville. The collateral industries that accompanied such a prosperous venture demanded skilled labor. Hardware manufacturers such as Sargent, C. Cowles & Co., and Bassett advertised overseas to attract Irish, Polish, German, and Italian workers to
New Haven.
By 1840 New Haven had blossomed into a thriving city. A journey through Patten's New Haven Directory of 1840 illustrates the diversity of New Haven's job market. Many students have not had the opportunity to use a city directory to conduct research. The New Haven Historical Society has a remarkable collection of city directories from which you can photo copy pages. These insightful resources function much like a modern phone book, with names, addresses, and job information about the inhabitants of New Haven from the year you choose. Below is a sample exercise from the 1840 city directory.
Occupations in New Haven, 1840 From Patten's New Haven Directory
How many occupations found in New Haven in 1840 can you find
in this word puzzle?
How many occupations not found in the puzzle can you think of?
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@Text:The Irish in New Haven
Another by-product of Jefferson's Embargo Act was the need to develop a transportation system that could operate despite a British blockade. Such was the impetus behind the New Haven and Northampton Canal. This man-made waterway was dug entirely by hand and mostly by Irish Immigrants who had just completed the Erie Canal. There were few Irish in New Haven before the late 1840's, those had arrived as skilled and unskilled labor took part in the city's economic boom after 1825. It seems those early arrivals caused little concern among the locals, for they provided cheap labor for fulfilling the economic aspirations of the entrepreneurs.8 The famine of 1848 in Ireland drove many poor Irish from their homes and across the ocean to port cities like Boston and New Haven.
Despite this substantial migration, the Irish in 1860 accounted for just 27% of New Haven's population, and although their numbers would increase over the next several decades, they at no time made up more than one-third of the city's total. Protestant New Haven could "accommodate this useful, if unsettling minority, without tarnishing its Puritan self-image."9
Not all greeted the incoming Irish with open arms. When in 1887 a visiting priest from the Diocese of New York requested permission to use a Protestant chapel to say mass, he was refused with the bitter words, "we have no Popery in New Haven and we don't want any"10 As the competition for jobs and housing increased in New Haven, so did the attacks on immigrants. This hostile climate demanded solidarity on the part of the immigrants and they often banded together in neighborhoods where they could practice their faith and live in relative peace. Physical violence was a possibility for any Irishman who would venture beyond the corner of Quinnipiac and Grand Avenues into Yankee territory. The outbreak of the Civil War provided another avenue for Irish unity as New Haven's "Irish Ninth" brought together Irishmen from around the Elm City.
Politically, the Irish flocked to the Democratic party for "the Irish had learned from hard experience that political power was critical to survival in a Protestant world".11 By 1899 Cornelius Driscoll became the first Irish Catholic mayor of New Haven defeating a Republican industrialist. The Democratic party was now in the hands of the Irish, and every Democratic mayoral candidate for the next seventy years would be Irish Catholic.
In medicine too, the Irish sought to break down the barriers of discrimination. Because non-Protestant doctors were not permitted to practice medicine at the Yale controlled New Haven Hospital, Catholics often received inadequate medical care. To remedy this a group of Catholic physicians joined with church officials in incorporating the Hospital of St. Raphael in 1906.12 Although their struggle would continue, the Irish had established a political and economic toehold, defined neighborhoods, and developed unique benevolent institutions in a relatively short period of time.
Northern and Eastern Europeans
Following the Civil War other European groups faced religious and economic circumstances which prompted their immigration to New Haven. Although there had been a handful of Venetian Jews in New Haven prior to the Revolutionary War, a recognizable Jewish community did not appear until 1840, when a group of Jews arrived from Bavaria to take up permanent residence and establish Congregation Mishkan Israel.13 Beginning in the 1840s the Bavarians were joined by thousands of Russian Jews who fled the Czarist pogroms and later the Bolshevik uprisings. Most settled in the Oak Street neighborhood, although a sizeable minority made their homes in the Irish sections in Fair Haven. This new wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe began to arrive in the early eighties but did not reach substantial numbers until around 1896. By 1900 New Haven's Jewish population had increased to approximately 8,000. German Jews were more westernized and found themselves embraced by New Haven's population. The Russian Jews, dressed in traditional garb and spoke with a heavy accent. Few major employers would hire them with the exception of the Jewish dominated cigar and corset industries. Hundreds of Jews made a living by street peddling. Those who were more fortunate opened small shops, transforming Oak Street into a major trading center for food, clothes and hardware.
This economic isolation also led to political isolation. The opportunity for Russian Jews to participate in mainstream politics came in 1899, when control of the Republican Party was won by two brothers, Louis and Issac Ullman, sons of Bavarian Jewish Immigrants. Both men were co-owners of the Strouse-Adler corset factory.14 The Ullmans represented the ideal conduit for Jews to gain political power. They were accepted as successful businessmen by the Yankee establishment, and as the sons of immigrants, they had influence within the Russian Jewish community. The result was a dramatic increase in Jewish Membership within the Republican Party.
Italians in New Haven
There were only ten Italians in New Haven in 1870.15 That year J. B. Sargent, of hardware fame, watched Italians laboring in the streets and fields outside his villa in Southern Italy. He believed that they would be and excellent source of labor for his hardware and lock factory. Soon Sargents vision became reality as thousands poured into Eastern cities seeking work, and many would find work at Sargent Hardware. Italians identified themselves with their home city or province and thus establish neighborhoods in New Haven which reflected their origins. The largest, located in Wooster Square, was made up of Southern Italians from Amalfi. They found work at the Candee Rubber Boot Company, Sargents, and at Strouse Adler. The necessity of living near one's work help transform Wooster Square into an almost exclusively Italian neighborhood by 1900.16 The second largest was just below the Hill around Oak Street which by the 1880s was already one of the most rundown districts. A survey of the Oak Street neighborhood conducted by Lowell House in 1901 revealed that most Italians were living in crowded conditions, in dilapidated tenements and were often lacking in nutritious food, warm clothing and fresh air.17 The same survey describes the rents as being, "7$ to 13$ a month for 2 to 4 rooms, one toilet for six families, the house behind is only 8 feet away, and the center hall is 140 ft. long, narrow and poorly lighted."18
Census Lesson
One of the best ways to illustrate the dynamic, diverse nature of New Haven at this time, is to have the students examine census documents. I like to use the year 1920 for it was near the peak of New Haven's population growth, and by this time immigrants had become settled in various neighborhoods. Copies of the census documents can be obtained at the New Haven Historical Society.
I suggest you choose four or five popular streets that the students are familiar with to focus upon. This way they will have a good idea of the current ethnic make-up of these areas. Then acquire photocopies of the 1920 census of that street and have the students work in groups to complete the worksheet below. I have performed this lesson many times and find that it leads to wonderful discussions about the census, immigration, and the diversity of New Haven.
WORKSHEET FOR 1920 NEW HAVEN CENSUS PROJECT
Look at the 1920 Census for New Haven AND the 1919 Map of New Haven.
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What street is listed on your census?_____________________________________________
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What ward number is given?________
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Name the area of town where your census sheet comes from.
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What is the racial make-up of this street?__________________________________________
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What countries or different states did the people on this street come from?
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Do many of them speak English?_______
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What other languages are spoken? _____________________________________________
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What kind of jobs do they have? List a few. ______________________________________
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Pick out one family listed on your census. Fill out the information:
Family's name (mother, father, children, relatives): _______________________________________
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Ages of family members: _____________________________________________________________
Race: ______________________ What country/state did they come from? ___________________
What year did they come to the U.S.? _______________
What job does the father or other family members have? __________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Are there other people on the same street who come from the same country/state and work in the same type of job? __________________________________________________________________
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@Text:John Davenport invisioned the adoption and creation of institutions that would help New Haven become a pious and prosperous colony. His wish of expanding the influence of the New Haven Colony may have fallen short, but a humble Italian immigrant named Frank Pepe introduced a simple food that certainly achieved that effect. When Frank Pepe arrived in 1890 he carried with him a recipe that would bring fame and fortune to himself and his new city. The "tomato pie" was a portable, inexpensive fingerfood which Pepe transported via wagon to the factories and fed the throngs at lunch and dinner breaks. Thanks to his industriousness and tenacity, the pizza has evolved into a New Haven institution.
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Other New Haven immigrants have contributed ideas and inventions that have helped our city and our country to grow. Some of them are:
Bernard Shoniger - Pianos
Lewis Osterweis - Cigars
Many students have no idea what a corset is or why women were compelled to wear one. The Strouse Adler company is one of New Haven's oldest companies still in exhistance. Although the corset is no longer in fashion, a field trip to the factory on Olive Street will provide an amusing and informative lesson on how the science of underwear helped New Haven to grow! Other innovations and inventions can be the basis of lessons. Below is a sample worksheet of inventions contributed by New Haven immigrants.
Immigration Worksheet - Innovations
Match the industry with its New Haven Pioneer
Write a brief description of each item.
Which of these items are still made in New Haven today?
Can you imagine a time when pizza didn't exist? Imagine you are a newspaper reporter in 1895 and Frank Pepe is about to sell his first pizza. Describe for your readers how it is made, what it looks like, tastes like, and whether or not you think it will be popular.
@Text: Following World War II New Haven endured terrific gains and losses. Due to the hard work and political savvy of Richard Lee, New Haven received tremendous amounts of federal aid to build schools, eliminate slums, and bring the highway to New Haven. This dramatic transformation saved neighborhoods, such as Wooster Square, and eliminated others like Oak Street. Lee saw to the construction of modern low-imcome housing projects while ignoring the crucial flight of the middle class out of New Haven. Many would argue that the same highway Lee fought for provided an escape route out of the city for many of the sons and daughters of immigrants. Their exodus left opportunities for new immigrants such as Hispanics, Asians and Portuguese.
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Today New Haven's industrial base is dead. Service oriented industries such as healthcare and utilities provide the jobs for our modern immigrants. While many things have changed over the past three hundred and fifty years, much remains the same. The harbor is still a major part of New Haven, and the original nine squares are still intact. On any given afternoon students can walk in the steps of Davenport, Pepe or any other immigrant whose hopes and vision shaped the Elm city. Students who make their homes here should know the story of those who came before them. Through my unit, "Those Who Built New Haven", students will become familiar with the diverse peoples who defined New Haven over the centuries. Hopefully they will develop a perspective that will allow them to make the decisions that will lead this city to its next renaissance.
