Bradley Project 2008-Bradley Project On America_s National ...

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30 I The Bradley Project on america’s National identity I e pluribus unumrecently announced a new program beingsent to libraries and schools around thecountry: “Picturing America,” a presentationof forty dramatic images that tell thestory of our nation.Teachers and students can markWashington’s birthday by restoring hisportrait to a place of honor and celebratinghis character, leadership, and accomplishments.And families can scheduleat least one trip annually to a nationallandmark to feel and live the history thatis America.Families, schools and colleges, businessesand civic organizations, andgovernments at all levels should keepAmerican memory alive by treatingnational holidays and historic sites astouchstones of national identity andas educational opportunities.
The Bradley Project on america’s National identity I e pluribus unum I 31Chapter 4becoming americansEarly poets and writers celebrated America as a refuge, afresh start, and a land of freedom, opportunity and wealth.Among those who signed the Declarationof Independence were eight first-generationimmigrants; among those who ledAmericans in the Revolutionary War wereJohn Paul Jones, born in Scotland, andAlexander Hamilton, born in the West Indies.Americans welcomed immigrants—and immigrants came by the millions:before and after the Revolution, duringthe Irish Potato Famine and the Europeanrevolutions of 1848, during the period ofEuropean population growth in the late1800s, and when steamships shortenedthe passage to America. Immigrants builtthe Erie Canal and the TranscontinentalRailroad. They fought in Union armies. AHungarian immigrant, Joseph Pulitzer,founded the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; aScottish immigrant, Alexander GrahamBell, invented the telephone. FrancesCabrini came to America from Italy toorganize schools and orphanages and becamethe Catholic Church’s Patron Saintof Immigrants. From all over the world,America lured the ambitious, talented andenterprising. From the beginning, Americahas been, among other things, “a nationof immigrants,” and today the Statue ofLiberty and Ellis Island are some of ourmost cherished national symbols.This large-scale immigration was notwithout friction. New England Protestantsshunned Catholics and claimedimmigrants brought diseases and crime.Workers in California said the Chinesewere the wrong color and worked for lowwages. At the same time, some immigrantsfound it difficult to adjust to the normsand mores of their new home. Prejudiceand strife are clearly part of the historicalrecord. Equally important—and astonishingfrom an historical perspective—wasthat prejudice did not lead to ethnic wars,that toleration prevailed over bigotry,
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Bradley Project 2008-Bradley Project On America_s National ...

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