Adventure Economic Opportunity Family Ties Land Freedom Lifestyle Refuge

Reasons for Coming Many people coming to America began their journey as emigrants escaping poverty, economic disasters, restrictions on personal freedom in their homelands; seeking a better, freer life in America, the land of opportunity. Others began their trek to America as refugees fleeing nations where wars, political oppression, persecution, famine and epidemics, drove them to seek a better life elsewhere. And so they came, seeking security, prosperity, adventure, secure jobs, and arable land. Immigrants also wanted to be reunited with loved ones, family members who came to America before them. According to NDSU history professor, Dr. David Danbom, people didn't immigrate for just one reason. A person might leave a place to escape oppression, but the decision on where to go might be based on a combination of economic opportunity combined with family ties. A popular song of the 1860's, "To the West, To the West, To the Land of the Free" expressed the feelings of many Europeans who contemplated America: To the west, to the west, to the land of the free Where the mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea; Where a man is a man if he's willing to toil, And the humblest may gather the fruits of the soil. Where children are blessings and he who hath most Has aid for his fortune and riches to boast. Where the young may exult and the aged may rest, Away, far away, to the land of the west. The Emma Larzarus poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty also tells of America's immigrant heritage and encompasses many of the reasons people came: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Related Web Sites Lewis and Clark Pioneer Family Pioneer Trails Regional Museum Prairie Public The American West US Census