U.S immigration before 1965 By mmariannn 1500 First Europeans established settlements : Spanish and French 1607 English founded their first settlement, Virginia Colony 1619 First black slaves from West Africa (20) 1620 Group of 100 Pilgrims, Plymouth, Massachusetts -> fled religious persecution in Europe Period: 1630 to 1640 Group of 20,000 Puritans, same reason Period: 1680 to 1790 7,000 -> 700,000 African slaves in the American colonies 1808 Slavery outlawed by the Congress but the practice continued Period: 1815 to 1865 2nd major wave of immigration 1840 Half of the American’s immigrants were from Ireland 1850 Asians -> significant number of them settlements, 25,000 of Chinese 1856 anti-immigrants, anti-Catholic American party tried to severely immigration during the president election Period: 1861 to 1865 The U.S civil war -> emancipation of 4 million salves 1870 Depression -> immigration slowed down 1882 Chinese exclusion act -> 1st significant piece of federal legislation aimed at restricting immigration 1890 600,000 Italian immigrants + central, eastern and southern europeans = majority arrivals 1890 The President Benjamin Harrison designated Ellis Island as a federal immigration station 1907 Peak Year -> 1.3 million people entered the country illegally Period: 1914 to 1918 World War One -> decline in immigration 1917 Congress enacted legislation requiring immigrants over 16 to pass a literacy test Period: 1920 to 1925 Quotas established 1924 Immigration Act created a quota system that restricted entity to 2% of the total number of people of each nationality in America Period: 1930 to 1950 America’s foreign-born -> population decreased from 14.2 -> 10.3 million Period: 1939 to 1945 World War two plummeted immigration 1946 Congress -> after the war they passed a legislation enabling refugees from Europe + Soviet union to enter the U.S 1956 Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act 1959 Communist Revolution in Cuba -> hundreds of thousands of refugees from that island nation gained admittance to the U.S 1965 Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act