Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields
- ISBN-10
- 0807887900
- ISBN-13
- 9780807887905
- Category
- Social Science
- Pages
- 408
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2009-06-01
- Publisher
- Univ of North Carolina Press
- Author
- Ronald L. Lewis
Description
In 1890, more than 100,000 Welsh-born immigrants resided in the United States. A majority of them were skilled laborers from the coal mines of Wales who had been recruited by American mining companies. Readily accepted by American society, Welsh immigrants experienced a unique process of acculturation. In the first history of this exceptional community, Ronald Lewis explores how Welsh immigrants made a significant contribution to the development of the American coal industry and how their rapid and successful assimilation affected Welsh American culture. Lewis describes how Welsh immigrants brought their national churches, fraternal orders and societies, love of literature and music, and, most important, their own language. Yet unlike eastern and southern Europeans and the Irish, the Welsh--even with their "foreign" ways--encountered no apparent hostility from the Americans. Often within a single generation, Welsh cultural institutions would begin to fade and a new "Welsh American" identity developed. True to the perspective of the Welsh themselves, Lewis's analysis adopts a transnational view of immigration, examining the maintenance of Welsh coal-mining culture in the United States and in Wales. By focusing on Welsh coal miners, Welsh Americans illuminates how Americanization occurred among a distinct group of skilled immigrants and demonstrates the diversity of the labor migrations to a rapidly industrializing America.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2008
- 409 pages
- Paperback
- Univ of North Carolina Press
Similar books
-
Wales, the Welsh and the Making of America
By Vivienne SandersPugh subsequently married the daughter of an Indian chief. Some Welshmen served in the US army and fought against Indians. Gregory Mahoney of Pontypool was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour for bravery in action against the ...
-
Wales in America: Scranton and the Welsh, 1860-1920
By William D. JonesBetween the years 1860 and 1920 around 80,000 Welsh immigrants settled in the United States. This volume focses on Scranton, the epicentre of Welsh America, and examines the wider issues...
-
Welsh in America
By ConwayWelsh in America
-
Welsh-Americans: The Manuscript Collection
By Historical Society of PennsylvaniaThis book represents a massive undertaking and a significant achievement in Welsh-American studies. Citing correspondence and other documents on religion, government, military matters, business, law, and medicine that are in...
-
150 Famous Welsh Americans
By W. Arvon RobertsBywgraffiadau byrion
-
Wales and the American Dream
By Robert Llewellyn TylerTyler, Robert Llewellyn, 'Occupational Mobility and Culture Maintenance: the Welsh in a Nineteenth Century Australian Gold Town', Immigrants and Minorities 24, 3 (2006). —. 'Gender Imbalance, Marriage Preference and Culture Maintenance: ...
-
The Moon-Eyed People: Folk Tales from Welsh America
By Peter StevensonHe threw the cane into the air and it formed a bridge of bright shining rock over the river. He crossed slowly over the bridge and when he reached the other side, it became a cane again. As he walked slowly towards the camp, ...
-
Memory Stones: A History of Welsh-Americans in Central New York and Their Churches
By Jay Gomer WilliamsMemory Stones: A History of Welsh-Americans in Central New York and Their Churches
-
America Discovered by the Welsh in 1170 A.D.
By Benjamin Franklin BowenAmerica Discovered by the Welsh in 1170 A. D by Benjamin Franklin Bowen, first published in 1876, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries...
-
Footprints of the Welsh Indians: Settlers in North America Before 1492
By William L. TraxelAnnotation 17th-19th c. memoirs cite meetings with "White" Indians, and linguistic, archeological, and anthropological evidence from Alabama to Kentucky suggest that Welshmen were among the first discoverers and settlers of America.