Immigrant Voices

A detailed Summary of 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.

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.

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.

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

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Approximate Word count = 1375
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History