About: History of Poles in the United States

An Entity of Type: ethnic group, from Named Graph: http://dbpedia.org, within Data Space: dbpedia.org:8891

The history of Poles in the United States dates to the American Colonial era. Poles have lived in present-day United States territories for over 400 years—since 1608. There are 10 million Americans of Polish descent in the U.S. today, making it the largest diaspora of Poles in the world. Polish Americans have always been the largest group of Slavic origin in the United States.

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  • The history of Poles in the United States dates to the American Colonial era. Poles have lived in present-day United States territories for over 400 years—since 1608. There are 10 million Americans of Polish descent in the U.S. today, making it the largest diaspora of Poles in the world. Polish Americans have always been the largest group of Slavic origin in the United States. Historians divide Polish American immigration into three "waves", the largest from 1870 to 1914, a second after World War II, and a third after Poland's independence in 1989. Most Polish Americans are descended from the first wave, when millions of Poles fled Polish districts of Germany, Russia, and Austria. This group is often called the za chlebem (for bread) immigrants because most were peasants in Poland who did not own land and lacked basic subsistence. Austrian Poles were from Galicia, unarguably the most destitute region in Europe at the time. Up to a third of Poles living in the United States returned to Poland after a few years, but the majority stayed. Substantial research and sociological works such as The Polish Peasant in Europe and America found that many Polish immigrants shared a common objective of someday owning land in the U.S. or back in Poland. Anti-Slavic legislation cut Polish immigration from 1921 to World War II, but opened up after World War II to include many displaced persons from the Holocaust. A third wave, much smaller, came in 1989 when Poland was freed from Communist rule. Immigrants in all three waves were attracted by the high wages and ample job opportunities for unskilled manual labor in the United States, and were driven to jobs in American mining, meatpacking, construction, steelwork, and heavy industry—in many cases dominating these fields until the mid-20th century. Over 90% of Poles arrived and settled in communities with other Polish immigrants. These communities are called Polonia and the largest such community historically was in Chicago, Illinois. A key feature of Polish life in the Old World had been religion, and in the United States, Catholicism often became an integral part of Polish identity. In the United States, Polish immigrants created communities centered on Catholic religious services, and built hundreds of churches and parish schools in the 20th century. The Polish today are well assimilated into American society. Average incomes have increased from well below average to above average today, and Poles continue to expand into white-collar professional and managerial roles. Poles are still well represented in blue collar construction and industrial trades, and many live in or near urban cities. They are well dispersed throughout the United States, intermarry at high levels, and have a very low rate of language fluency (less than 5% can speak Polish). (en)
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  • 2016-06-06 (xsd:date)
dbp:agency
  • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (en)
  • Library of Congress (en)
  • United States Census Bureau (en)
  • United States Department of Agriculture (en)
  • U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (en)
dbp:archiveDate
  • 2009-03-21 (xsd:date)
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  • 0001-07-01 (xsd:gMonthDay)
dbp:author
  • F.P. Wierzbicki (en)
  • Theresita Polzin (en)
dbp:caption
  • Walerian Sulakowski, exiled after the 1848 uprising, he was an organizer and officer of the Polish Brigade in New Orleans. (en)
  • Alexander Bielaski, exiled after the 1831 uprising, he served as a military engineer and captain in the Union Army (en)
  • Albin Schoepf, a Pole exiled from Austria in 1848, he became a general in the Union Army. (en)
  • Jan Tyssowski, the Dictator of Poland during the 1846 uprising, became a Polonia activist in New York City (en)
  • Joseph Kargé, exiled after the 1848 uprising, he once led a cavalry battle that defeated Nathan Bedford Forrest (en)
dbp:chapter
  • Table 2. Languages spoken at home: 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2007 (en)
  • He does not believe in Prohibition (en)
  • Polish immigration to the United States (en)
dbp:chapterUrl
  • http://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2010/acs/acs-12/Table2.xls|title=Language use in the United States: 2007 (en)
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  • 1999 (xsd:integer)
  • 1999-03-09 (xsd:date)
  • 2014-02-26 (xsd:date)
  • 2014-09-30 (xsd:date)
  • 2016-01-20 (xsd:date)
  • February 2016 (en)
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  • mdy-all (en)
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  • Emily (en)
  • Campbell (en)
  • Alice (en)
  • J. (en)
  • Ralph (en)
  • Robert A. (en)
  • Ramiro (en)
  • Felix T. (en)
  • Hyon B. (en)
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  • addlarchives (en)
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  • Polish political exiles, 19th Century (en)
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  • LC-USF33-T01-001361-M4 (en)
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  • ACS-12 (en)
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  • Gibson (en)
  • Molina (en)
  • Lennon (en)
  • Shin (en)
  • Wroblewski (en)
  • Boberg (en)
  • Gortych (en)
  • Kominski (en)
  • Seroczynski (en)
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  • Washington, DC (en)
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  • Photograph (en)
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  • Photographed by Vachon, John (en)
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  • 265 (xsd:integer)
dbp:policy
  • https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/071_fsab.html|date=May 1939 (en)
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  • 76 (xsd:integer)
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  • 2011-10-31 (xsd:date)
dbp:publisher
  • Library of Congress (en)
  • National Cooperative Soil Survey (en)
  • U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division (en)
  • Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (en)
dbp:reason
  • Not specific to only Polish (en)
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  • 2006 (xsd:integer)
  • 2010 (xsd:integer)
  • American Community Survey Reports (en)
  • U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection (en)
  • California as I saw it: first-person narratives of California's early years, 1849-1900 (en)
dbp:sign
  • U.S. Senate (en)
  • Marcella Sembrich (en)
  • Not a Race Question (en)
  • Stefan Nesterowicz (en)
dbp:source
  • " published in (en)
  • '' . (en)
  • Milwaukee Sentinel, 11 Sept. 1901 (en)
  • The Polish Americans. (en)
  • Travel Notes, 1910. (en)
  • translation of ''" (en)
  • On Learning to Sing, Kansas City Journal, Oct. 22, 1899. (en)
  • Presented by Mr. Dillingham. Dec. 10, 1909 to U.S. Senate 61 Congress, 2nd session, Doc. 196. p. 11 (en)
dbp:talk
  • Coal Age remittances (en)
dbp:text
  • Her earnings may be large—ten times as much in this country as in eastern Europe. She may at times earn in one day from two to four times as much as her washerwoman can earn in a week, but of these earnings she generally gets practically nothing; if she is docile and beautiful and makes herself a favorite with the madam, she may occasionally be allowed to ride in the parks handsomely dressed; she may wear jewelry to attract a customer; but of her earnings the madam will take one-half; she must pay twice as much for board as she would pay elsewhere; she pays three or four times the regular price for clothes that are furnished her; and when these tolls have been taken by the madam, little or nothing is left. She is usually kept heavily in debt in order that she may not escape; and besides that, her exploiters keep the books and often cheat her out of her rightful dues, even under the system of extortion which she recognizes. Frequently she is not allowed to leave the house except in company with those who will watch her; she is deprived of all street clothing; she is forced to receive any visitor who chooses her to gratify his desires, however vile or unnatural; she often contracts loathsome and dangerous diseases and lives hopelessly on, looking forward to an early death. (en)
  • When I finished there was a moment of absolute stillness. Then came such an outburst as I have never seen in my life. I seized my husband's arm and stood waiting to see... (en)
  • You also have the oyster workers who return with a cargo of a few hundred barrels. Then the calculation starts, forty cents for a barrel of oysters. From the price the company takes a share to cover the costs of the boat, tools, and captain's pay. One-third is divided among those who caught the oysters. In exceptional cases one gets ten to twelve dollars for a hard week's work, most often though it is five to seven dollars." (en)
  • Here one is free to fight for the Fatherland; Here the cruelty of tyrants will not reach us, Here the scars inflicted on us will fade. (en)
  • Czolgosz is not a Pole. He is an American citizen, born, bred and educated in this country. His Polish name and extraction have nothing whatever to do with his crime, or with the motives which impelled him to it. The apparent notion, therefore, of Polish-Americans that it is incumbent on them to show in some special and distinctive way their abhorrence of Czolgosz and his deed, while creditable to them as a sentiment, is not founded in reason. Responsibility for Czolgosz' crime is a question not of race but of doctrine. Anarchism knows no country, no fatherland. It is a cancer eating into the breast of society at large. (en)
  • The Poles were the last to come in large numbers before World War I and the Quota Act which choked off immigration. Consequently they were subjected to far more than their share of prejudice and discrimination bred usually not by malice, but by fear—chiefly economic insecurity of the minorities already settled in the areas to which they came. Since other groups did not succeed them in large numbers, they remained for longer than the usual period at the lowest level occupationally and residentially, since others did not "push them up." (en)
  • "Men depart by boat to the water where they stay one to two weeks. Because oysters are scarce, the net yields at best fifteen percent of the expected catch when pulled up to the deck. The rest are shells and slime. This work is hard beyond words. A person not used to cranking up the net gives up from exhaustion. (en)
  • "...children who speak Polish on the streets of Vilna are punished and performances of any kind in the Polish language are forbidden. Polish is not allowed anywhere, and the police are still as strict as ever in trying to prevent its use. The first night I sang at Vilna I was wild to sing in Polish. I spoke to the manager about it and he implored me on his knees not to think of such a thing. But I was determined to do it if I could, so at the end of the performance, when the audience kept demanding encores, I prepared for it by singing a song in Russian. Then I sang one of Chopin's songs in Polish. (en)
  • If fog appears during the catch, the oysters open up and most of them die when the sun starts shining. In such cases it becomes the worker's loss. (en)
  • ...I had to sign a paper saying that I would never sing in Polish again in Vilna, and at my second concert I left out the Chopin songs. Every year I have come to Vilna and every time the chief of police comes to me with the same paper to sign, and every time I have to sign the promise that I will not sing in Polish." (en)
dbp:title
  • 1.57788E8
  • Importing Women for Immoral Purposes. (en)
  • Not a Race Question (en)
  • On Learning to Sing (en)
  • Soil survey of Karnes County, Texas (en)
  • Travel Notes (en)
  • Table 6. Mother tongue of the foreign-born population: 1910 to 1940, 1960, and 1970 (en)
  • Rhino Energy WV will pay $62,500 to settle EEOC national origin discrimination and retaliation suit: mining company fired Polish-American foreman because he complained about slurs and graffiti, federal agency charged (en)
  • EEOC Sues Rhino Eastern for national origin discrimination and retaliation (en)
  • Sign in English, German, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Czech, and Polish, Kempton, West Virginia (en)
  • California as it is & as it may be; or, A guide to the gold region (en)
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  • live (en)
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  • census.gov (en)
  • memory.loc.gov (en)
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  • Poles in the United States (en)
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  • 1976 (xsd:integer)
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  • The history of Poles in the United States dates to the American Colonial era. Poles have lived in present-day United States territories for over 400 years—since 1608. There are 10 million Americans of Polish descent in the U.S. today, making it the largest diaspora of Poles in the world. Polish Americans have always been the largest group of Slavic origin in the United States. (en)
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  • History of Poles in the United States (en)
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  • Polish political exiles, 19th Century (en)
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