My research paper

Za par dni mam odevzdavat tuto praci. Tak pokud nekdo najde odvahu a nebude mu lito mozna promarneneho casu, rad si vyslechnu pripominky...........

The Czechs in America

In 1633, Augustin Herman came to New Amsterdam in the employment of the West India Company. Most importantly, he was the first know immigrant from Bohemia (Czech). It did not take long and thousands of his follow countrymen came in his steps to the New World.

Their journey started in Czech, what at that time was part of Austria-hungry empire. The first of the immigrants were recruited from Moravia (part of the Czech lands). The first group of 118 immigrants began their journey on August 19, 1851 (Machann and Mendl 30). First, they had to take a train to Hamburg, a port in Germany. From Hamburg, they sailed to Liverpool, port in England. After they arrived in Liverpool, they found out that the ship, the Maria, was already overcrowded with Irish immigrants. Only seventy four of them were able to get on the ship. From Liverpool, they sailed to New Orleans, and finally to Galveston, their destination. It took them ten weeks. The conditions on the ship were horrible, and only thirty eight people survived (Machann and Merndl 32).

The truth is, that prior to the nineteenth century, few Czechs had come to the United States, and there is not much evidence of their presence during the colonial and revolutionary times. The first major wave of immigrants came in 1848 when the first bigger group of immigrants fled to the United States to escape political persecution by the Habsburgs, (the roller family of Austria-Hungary).  They are known as “the Czech Forty Eighters” (Czech Americans)

In the late 1850s there were some 10,000 Czechs living in the United States. The most popular location was Chicago, with its tie to the West by rail and it being more readily accessible for the immigrants. By the 1870s there were other cities with Czech concentrations such as Cleveland, Milwaukee, New York and St. Louis (Czech Americans)

When the new century came, the Czech immigrants were more likely to make their journey to the United States with all of their families, not as other immigrants from countries such as Germany, England, Slovakia or Poland, who often came to the United States individually. Most of the time, the head of the family made several trips over the ocean, bringing one or more children each time.

Many of those who came in the end of nineteenth century from Czech lands were of Moravian ancestry. The first immigrants settled in area with population of other ethnic groups for which they have a strong affinity such as Germans, Poles, Hungarians or Austrians.

In 1900 a widening gap between first and second generation is already in evidence. There were 199,939 American-born Czechs as opposed to 156,640 who had been born in Czech lands or somewhere else in Europe. In the reflection of the growing trend to an urbanized United States, two-thirds of Czech immigrants lived in that time in urban areas. The oldest significant colony in America was in New York. In 1850, it has about forty families (www.everyculture.com)

For the earliest immigrants it was common that they Americanized their last name. Same just translate their last names (e.g., Jablecnik – Appleton or Krejci - Taylor). In this time period, many of those who came to the United States were farmers or laborers. The specific were groups of immigrants who were specializing in a certain industry as those, who came from region of Kutna Hora which was preeminent in cigar trade. In the 1870s, ninety five percent of Czechs living in the New York at that time were working in the cigar industry.

The accumulation of the wealth by the first generation made it much easier for the second generation families to own property. In the beginning of twentieth century about sixty five percent Czechs living in Chicago owned their own dwellings, what was not common between immigrant communities. This was a high proportion at that time among all immigrants’ communities. Parents were sending children to the college who went frequently on to pursue professional vocations such as medicine, law or education.  The Czechs were also historically active in community live in markedly way. The most know organization is SOKOL (Falcon). It is gymnastic organization established in St. Louis in 1865 (Czech Americans)

The largest population with Czech heritage is in Texas. I has been estimated that about   five percent of the Texas population, or over 750,000 individuals are of Czech heritage (Machan and Mendl 3). In previous censes about nine million people said that they have Czech heritage.

Here are some names of famous people with Czech heritage. Actress Kim Novak, actor Tom Selleck, tennis players Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova, film director Milos Forman, George Halas whoo was founder and owner of Chicago Bears football team, Andy Warhol artist and filmmaker, James Lovell who was served on the Apollo 8 mission, Anton Josef Cermak who was  a mayor of Chicago, Ray Kroc a founder of McDonald’s restaurants,

Works Cited
Machann Clinton and. Mendl W. James. Krasna Amerika.Austin: Eakin Press, 1983. print
Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. “Czech Pioneers in Colonial America.” Ottův Slovník Naučný, Praha: J. Otto, 1890. vol. 3, pp. 618 -619. web
“České jazykové enklávy v zahraničí” http://kcjl.upol.cz . web
“Czech americans” http://www.everyculture.com . web