John Sundman wrote:
This country now spits on people like those who came here in the
condition of my forebears and built the damn place.
It spit on them then, too. Probably more literally than today.
I wonder how many truly poor people ever emigrated to the Americas.
Aside from those who were imported to penal colonies (not a long-lived
phenomenon) or imported as slaves, people had to pay their passage to
the New World. This was an expensive enough proposition in the 17th
century that some of my ancestors indentured themselves for a decade or
so to pay for the trip across the ocean.
People might arrive in the New World penniless (although the records I
have seen indicate that there were often means tests for immigrants --
the truly penniless might find themselves on the return ship along with
those who failed the medical examinations).
You will note that in Emma Lazarus' poem, there is no mention of
treating those poor like royalty once they had landed on these shores.
There was work a-plenty, in fields and factories, building railroads and
canals, scrubbing floors and digging ditches. Menial work that paid
almost nothing, for the most part. The teeming masses were welcomed
largely because they suppressed the wages of the native underclass and
prevented them from getting too big for their britches.
This is pretty much the current case with H1-B workers now. They are
welcome largely because they keep wages down and accustom the growing
American underclass to a bigger boot on the back of our necks.
It's so much more convenient for the aristocracy when the American
underclass directs their discontent at the latest starving group
imported to keep wages down rather than taking action that might rock
the banana boat.
--hmm
