Two Years Before The Mast

Richard Henry Dana
The story of a young man's adventure sailing from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast is a riveting, insightful account of life at sea (and the best surviving account of what it was like in 1834), replete with fascinating historical detail on California before the California Gold Rush. Two Years before the Mast appeared in 1840, while its author was still a law student. Though at the time it created no great stir in the United States, it was most favorably received in England, where it paved the way for many pleasant and valuable acquaintanceships. The following year, Dana produced a small volume on seamanship, entitled The Seaman's Friend. This, and a short account of a trip to Cuba in 1859, constitute the sole additions to his early venture. He was a copious letter-writer and kept full journals of his various travels; but he never elaborated them for publication. Yet, long before his death, he had seen the narrative of his sailor days recognized as an American classic.

Joanne Weisman Deitch
Compelling firsthand accounts and primary source documents underpin the introduction to U.S. history in History Compass'' popular Research American History series. Personal memoirs and photos on immigration from the mid-1800s to the early years of the 20th century bring to life the story shared by many Americans.

This anthology includes historic photos from Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, and others as well as poetry and songs.

A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Immigrant & Ethnic Ancestors: How to Find and Record Your Unique Heritage

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack "Discovering your Ancestors" series provides clear, step-by-step instruction aimed at making this task easier. Each of these books starts by teaching the basics of sound genealogical research, then provides time-saving strategies for researching a particular ethnic group. There are tips on locating records both here and abroad, deciphering original documents, planning a research trip, and putting an ancestor's records in historical context.

The Great Migrations: From the Earliest Humans to the Age of Globalization

Quercus
From the movement of homo erectus out of Africa one million years ago to the Aboriginal settlement of Australia around 50,000 BC; and from the barbarian invasions of early medieval Europe to the diaspora of African slaves in the early modern period, the migration of peoples has been a critical motor of change throughout human history. The Wanderers brings together 50 epic accounts of the mass movement of peoples. Each account not only describes the migration itself, but also examines in detail its causes, and its short- and long-term consequences. The Wanderers tells a multiplicity of stories - of the discovery of new worlds, of flight from persecution, of nation-building, of colonization, and of human courage and resourcefulness.

The author describes the preparations made for the trip, onboard provisions, and activities for the passengers such as types, quantity, and quality of food and drink; forms of entertainment; religious observances and the marking of national and state holidays and special occasions. He also records the challenges and discomforts inflicted by alternating hot and cold temperatures and frequent storms; disputes among passengers, crew members, and members of joint stock companies; and problems with vermin, theft, drunkenness, sickness, and death.

The book is very successful. No book rivals its descriptive depth about the experiences of the forty-niners at sea." ~ Mariner's Museum

University of South Carolina Press

Charles R. Schultz
Forty-Niners 'round the Horn recounts the thrilling and at times harrowing adventure of fortune hunters who sailed from the east coast around Cape Horn to California during the gold rush of 1849. Charles R. Schultz paints a vivid picture of the eighteen-thousand-mile odyssey through several climatic zones. Drawing upon more than one hundred unpublished diaries, Schultz profiles the individuals who embarked on such journeys and demonstrates how markedly the gold rush voyages differed from general commercial trading and whaling ventures.

Incorporating excerpts from logbooks and journals, Schultz allows seamen and passengers to recount much of the experience in their own words. Of particular interest, he includes passages about their hopes upon embarkment, perceptions of such ports as Rio de Janeiro and Lima, and impressions of California.

The gold seekers, most of whom were men in their twenties, had never been away from home, much less on a lengthy voyage. They traveled in vessels of all sizes, with the number of passengers ranging from as few as ten to as many as two hundred. The voyages lasted between four and eight months, with most vessels making one or two stops for fresh provisions but a handful making no stops.

Cruise of the Dashing Wave: Rounding Cape Horn in 1860

(New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology)

Philip Hichborn, William H. Thiesen, james C. Bradford
Voyage to the edge of mutiny and murder. "Cruise of the Dashing Wave" recounts a harrowing 1860 clipper ship passage from Boston to San Francisco by way of Cape Horn, as recorded by Philip Hichborn, ship's carpenter, in his journal. On board the Dashing Wave, even the disagreeable food was a blessing as it distracted the crew from the oppressive cruelty of the elements. The weather and heavy seas of Cape Horn pushed the sailors to their physical limits.

Coming to America:
A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life

Roger Daniels

A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life New - Illustrated with numerous period photos and prints, this authoritative history of American immigration is a tribute to the men and women from diverse cultures who have helped shape the American character."Encyclopedic in scope, yet lively and provocative." "--San Francisco Chronicle" "A valuable contribution to the growing field of historical research on immigration...concentrating on the demographics and everyday lives of immigrants to America

Chinese Immigrants, African Americans, and Racial Anxiety in the United States, 1848-82 (Asian American Experience)

Najia Aarim-Heriot, University of Illinois Press
The first detailed examination of the link between the "Chinese question" and the "Negro problem" in nineteenth-century America, this work forcefully and convincingly demonstrates that the anti-Chinese sentiment that led up to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 is inseparable from the racial double standards applied by mainstream white society toward white and nonwhite groups during the same period.

This book highlights striking similarities in the ways the Chinese and African American populations were disenfranchised during the mid-1800s, including nearly identical negative stereotypes, shrill rhetoric, and crippling exclusionary laws. Removing Chinese American history from the vacuum in which it has been traditionally studied, this book stands as a holistic examination of the causes and effects of American Sinophobia and the racialization of national immigration policies. Publication of this book was supported by the Research Foundation and the Division of Arts and Humanities of the State University of New York at Fredonia.

A.E. Housman:
A Shropshire Lad, Complete in Verse and Song

Housman's Shropshire Lad has remained a mainstay of English-speaking culture for nearly a century. Poetry and music.

Star of the Sea

(Also available for Audio Library)

In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of refugees, Among them are a maid with a devastating secret; the bankrupt Lord Merridith and his family; and a killer hungry for vengeance. On this journey passionate loves are tenderly recalled, shirked responsibilities regretted, and profound relationships shockingly revealed. The farther the ship sails toward the Promised Land--America--the more her passengers seem moored to a past that will never let them go. This ompassionate novel builds with the pace of a thriller to a stunning conclusion.

The Irish Collection (3 CD Box-Set feat. The Dubliners, Paddy O'Connor, Susan McCann, Joseph Locke a.m.m.)

African American Migration
(Primary Sources of Immigration and Migration in America)

Each book in Primary Sources of Immigration and Migration in America paints a vivid picture for students of the varied histories of the people that make up the United States of America. These books take a unique approach on telling the history of the United States from the global perspective of the different immigrant groups that came here. What events were the catalysis for them to come? What impact did they have on the events that were unfolding in America once they got here? All of these questions and more will be answered through primary source imagery, documents, and clear, engaging text. Tracing the history of black Africans in America, this title is packed with wonderful primary source art and documentation. It starts by outlining the beginnings of the transatlantic slave trade and touches upon some of the injustices that black slaves had in endure. Readers can learn about the abolition of slavery, Reconstruction, and black civil rights, and are brought into the predominantly black neighborhoods of New York City and Chicago.

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience

Journey of Hope: The Back-to-Africa Movement in Arkansas in the Late 1800s (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)

Art in the Lives of Immigrant Communities in the United States

This book provides a comprehensive and lively analysis of the contributions of artists who have recently immigrated from Africa, the Middle East, China, India, Southeast Asia, Central America, and Mexico. Adding significantly to our understanding of both the arts and immigration, multidisciplinary scholars explore tensions that artists face in forging careers and navigating between their home communities and the larger society. They show how poets, musicians, playwrights, and visual artists adapt traditional forms to new environments; and consider the ways in which the communities' young people integrate their own traditions and concerns into contemporary expression.

Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World (Harvard Historical Studies, 133)

England's 17th-century colonial empire in North America and the Caribbean was created by migration. The quickening pace of this essential migration is captured in the London port register of 1635, the largest extant port register for any single year in the colonial period and unique in its record of migration to America and to the European continent. Games analyzes the 7,500 people who traveled from London in that year, recreating individual careers and exploring colonial societies at a time of emerging viability.England's seventeenth-century colonial empire in North America and the Caribbean was created by migration. The quickening pace of this essential migration is captured in the London port register of 1635, the largest extant port register for any single year in the colonial period and unique in its record of migration to America and to the European continent. Alison Games analyzes the 7,500 people who traveled from London in that year, recreating individual careers, exploring colonial societies at a time of emerging viability, and delineating a world sustained and defined by migration. The colonial travelers were bound for the major regions of English settlement -- New England, the Chesapeake, the West Indies, and Bermuda-and included ministers, governors, soldiers, planters, merchants, and members of some major colonial dynasties -- Winthrops, Saltonstalls, and Eliots. Many of these passengers were indentured servants. Games shows that however much they tried, the travelers from London were unable to recreate England in their overseas outposts.

They dwelled in chaotic, precarious, and hybrid societies where New World exigencies overpowered the force of custom. Patterns of repeat and return migration cemented these inchoate colonial outposts into a larger Atlantic community. Together, the migrants' stories offer a new social history of the seventeenth century. For the origins and integration of the English Atlantic world, Games illustrates the primary importance of the first half of the seventeenth century.