Italians In Early America

A couple of posts down I discussed Italians have been part of the Canadian experience since the 15th century first as explorers, traders and even settlers just prior to Confederation. In this one I offer a very brief American version.

I haven't looked into it too much but like the Canadian story, explorers like Verrazzano (Vespucci and Columbus visited the Caribbean and South America) were the first Italians.

By the time the birth of America came, Italians played their part. There was Francis Vigo who fought in the American Revolutionary War as well as Pascal de Angelis.

Italians featured prominently during the Civil War through The Garibaldi Guard founded by Francesco Casale. From Civilwarhome.com:

"....Luigi Tinelli, a former consul to Portugal and an industrialist, had experience as a militia commander; Francesco Spinola recruited four regiments in New York, and was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to be their general; and Count Luigi Palma di Cesnola, a veteran of the Crimean War, established a military academy in New York City, where many young Italians learned the art of war and later served in the Union army. Their stories are fascinating and colorful. Cesnola, for instance, was left wounded and pinned under his horse after fighting JEB Stuart's cavalry at Aldie, Virginia, in June 1863; while a prisoner of war, he agitated for better treatment for prisoners, to the point that his captors put him in charge of the prison commissary at Belle Isle. Spinola, finding his men of the Spinola Empire Brigade outnumbered six to one in a battle, ordered them to fix bayonets-and they charged, scattering the amazed Southerners before them in disorder."

Then there was the interesting story of one Dr. Fillipo Mazzei who was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson. A man often given credit for contributing to the Declaration of Independence. From his wiki entry: 

"This contribution was acknowledged by John F. Kennedy in his book A Nation of Immigrants, in which he states that:

The great doctrine 'All men are created equal' and incorporated into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, was paraphrased from the writing of Philip Mazzei, an Italian-born patriot and pamphleteer, who was a close friend of Jefferson. A few alleged scholars try to discredit Mazzei as the creator of this statement and idea, saying that "there is no mention of it anywhere until after the Declaration was published". This phrase appears in Italian in Mazzei's own hand, written in Italian, several years prior to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Mazzei and Jefferson often exchanged ideas about true liberty and freedom. No one man can take complete credit for the ideals of American democracy."

Full scale Italian immigration took place throughout the 1800s and into the 20th century.

Italians in North America have been explorers, merchants and traders, soldiers and settlers and immigrants from the day it was discovered by Europeans.

The majority of those who built this continent in its formative years were from England and France. Ireland and Scotland. Holland and Germany. But the Italians, though not in great numbers, were part of the process. By the time the 19th century came, Italians were kicking into high gear in greater numbers.

It's something not often acknowledged in 'official' history books (like in Canada, interned Italians during WWII are barely ever mentioned) but this blog brings to light.