Slavery

Hello again! Now I have just get home from a museum where I learned a little bit about slavery in USA. This was very interesting so I want to share something of it with you guys.

 

The slavery in the United States began slowly after the Europeans settled in 1776 in that who would become United States. From around 1619 to 1865 there were people who came from Africa who were lawfully held as slaves in the United States. The economy in the country was improved mainly through free labour performed by slaves. Around half a million Africans were brought over from Africa during the slave trade. The first slaves, who arrived in the country, came from Africa and were carried to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 to assist with the production of tobacco.

When the slaves arrived to America, they were sold on actions to planters. Families were split and sent to different farms around the country. There did they live under really poor circumstances and they had to work all the day. They also got a small amount of food and water. The owners treated the slaves very different. Some treated them like animals and were very naughty to them while others might be a little kinder to them. Some female slaves were assaulted and raped by the owners. If you were young or old, it didn’t have anything to say. The slaves lived in a slave’s house. The house was very cramped, since many lived there, When the slaves were working in the fields, they invented the "work song". In a "work song" could they bring out secret messages that the owner wouldn’t hear. If a slave tried to escape, some owners did cut of their limbs.

I think it's terrible how people were treated in the past and it is great that the slavery is over now. We'll talk soon.

-Marthine

Sources:

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States  

Immigration

Hey, I haven’t been blogging that much lately, because I’ve been busy visiting cities, shopping, and sightseeing, and I am very sorry about that. I’m having a really great time being here, and I don’t want to go home. In this post, I am going to tell you guys about the immigration in the USA.

The immigration consists of four waves. We can start with the very first wave; it is called “the founders.” It began in 1609 and ended in 1775. Most of the immigrants came from England, France, Germany, Ireland and Italy. Some of the immigrants came because they were looking for adventure, others came to leave their religious past behind them, and others came with a hope of a better economic future. The first Africans who came to the USA were slaves and they didn’t have it great at all.

After a break of immigration during the American Revolution and wars in Europe, a second wave of immigrants began arriving around 1820. Most of the immigrants came into the Country through New York. A bigger part of the Immigrants who came in the second wave was Irish and Germans. A potato famine hit Ireland during the 1840’s, and as much as one-third of the immigrants during this time were Irish fleeing that famine. Nearly the same amount of Germans came in the same period and a lot of them bought farms in the mid-west. Most of the Chinese came into USA through the port of San Francisco. Most of them were single men who planned to earn fortunes and go back to China again, but a huge part of them ended up spending the rest of their lives in the USA where most of them had low paid jobs. The second wave ended at the end of the 1870 century.

It got much easier so immigrate into the United States in the 1800. It was because of the increasing railroad companies. This was the beginning of the third wave. It was cheaper and less demanding to immigrate to USA, so the poor Europeans used the opportunity and went to the states. In the period between 1881 and 1920, 23 million people immigrated from all over the world into the USA, but it was mostly the Europeans who came.

In 1965, there were no quotas based on nationality and that was the beginning of the third wave. So it meant that how many people who came from which country had nothing to say. So is resulted that 120,000 immigrants came every year from the Western Hemisphere and 170,000 came from the Eastern Hemisphere. Eventually they changed the quota so that it didn’t matter if you came from the western hemisphere or the eastern hemisphere. They increased the quota for the number of immigrants to 700,000 people from 1992 to 1994 and fell to 675,000 in 1995. If you had family in the United States and wanted to stay with them, it didn’t have anything to say in the quota law.

In the 1800, Norway met an obstacle in the industry. This made it harder for the younger generations to find themselves jobs, so they left to the USA to provide their selves and their family. At this time, Norway had a lack of jobs, but America needed manpower. A lot of people took this opportunity and immigrated to the USA. The start of the Norwegian immigration began in 1825, when the ship named “Restauration” sailed to the USA with 53 norwegians aboard. But It wasn’t before 1865 a huge amount of Norwegian immigrated into the USA. The Norwegian wave of immigrants lasted for 8 years.  During this period, there was about 110,000 Norwegians who immigrated to the USA. The first people who immigrated to USA settled in New York. From there, the Norwegians started to move to the west (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and the Dakotas). For those who had family back home in Norway, for them it was common to send letters.

Ellis Island is located in the harbour of New York. The island was once the main port for those who immigrated to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. Those who travelled on the first and second class were cleared on the ship to America, and were released on Manhattan. Those who travelled from 3rd class was sent to Ellis Island. Ellis Island was opened on 1 January 1892 and closed in November 1954. When it closed, had more than 20 million immigrants passed over the island. Of these, only about two percent was refused entry to the US and sent back to their homeland. Many of those who came into the land, was settled in New York and the northern parts of New Jersey. Ellis Island is now owned by the National Park Service, and is now run as a museum. It has a database that includes all immigrants from 1892 to 1954.

-Marthine

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island

http://www.energyofanation.org/3f9c3958-cf6f-43ed-a9bf-05b8ad118870.html?nodeid

http://immigrationinamerica.org/603-immigration-waves.html

Two well-known cities

In my last blog post, I told you guys that I want to visit Las Vegas and San Diego. So in this blog post, I will tell you a little bit about those two cities.

”We can start with Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a city in the state of Nevada, USA. The city is one of the top three leading destinations in the United States for conventions, business and meetings. It is today one of the top tourist destinations in USA and the whole world.  Vegas are also famous for all casinos and wedding chapels they have. Every day there are about 150 people that get married in Las Vegas. Another thing Las Vegas is known for is the nightlife and shopping. People come to Las Vegas to see Grand Canyon, Bellagio, The Mirage, Stratosphere Las Vegas and many other things. The city has many nicknames, some of them are; “Gambling Capital of the World”, “Entertainment Capital of the World” and “Glitter Gulch

Their climate in Vegas is really exotic. There are usually no storms and tornadoes here. They can enjoy sunny days almost the whole year. They have about 310 sunny days I one year. The summer month is really hot and dry. I the middle of a sunny day, the temperatures is around 33.6 °C and in the nighttime the temperatures is around 27 °C. The winter in Las Vegas are mild and the season is short. Snow is rare in Las Vegas. In December, who is the coldest month, the temperature is around 8, 7°C

The population in Las Vegas is 583,756(in the period 2013/2014). It is the most populous city in the state of Nevada. Last year (2013) did 39,668,221 people visit Las Vegas.

Here are some facts about San Diego: It is about 120 miles south of Los Angeles so I have to rent a car. San Diego is the eighth largest city in the United States and the second largest in the state of California. The city is located on the Pacific coast in the southwest corner of the United States and is known for its mild climate all year round, natural deep-water harbor, large and long beaches and long cooperation with the United States Navy. There are 3,095,313 people living in San Diego during the period from 2013/2014. The city has several nicknames but here are some of them: America's Finest City, City in Motion and silicon beach. San Diego is known for its large zoo(San Diego Zoo) and Sea World and the city is influenced by the Mexican culture. There are many tourists who visit San Diego. In 2013 there were over 32 million who visited the city.

The climate in San Diego is very mild. It is only 23-33 cm precipitation annually.  They have a dry and warm winter. On average, the city has 201 days per year with temperatures over 21 ° C. The record high temperature in San Diego is 44 °C, it was in September 26, 1963. The record low temperature was 4 °C in January 7, 1913.

 -Marthine

Sources:

http://suburbanstats.org/population/nevada/how-many-people-live-in-las-vegas

http://www.lvcva.com/stats-and-facts/

The USA in general

Hello! I arrived LA yesterday and it is totally amazing here. I just love LA. I was really tired after all the flight trips, so it was lovely to finally see the hotel that`s fantastic. I'm really looking forward to this month. It will be fun to see some of the cities here in USA. My plane is to visit Las Vegas and San Diego, in the next few days. In this blog post I will tell you general facts about the USA.

The American Flag is the national flag of the United States of America. It consists of 13 horizontal white and red stripes and a square that's blue with 50 stars in it. Each star(who is white), represent 1 of the 50 states I USA. Since 1959 has USA had 50 states. Each red and white stripe represent 1 of 13 British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and became the first states in the Union. The flag has many nicknames and some of them are "Old Glory", "Stars and Stripes and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The government in America was formed 1789 and is the federal govermenet for the 5o states in USA. There is a president who governs the country. The government consists of the presidents, a vice president and 15 other ministries. The president has the office in the White House, it's also where he lives. His family lives there too.The white house is in Washington D.C and the house currently consists of  432 voting members, each of them represents a congressional district. The president they have now is called Barack Obama. He was elected in 2012. There is a New selection every 4 year and accedes the 20^th of January the year after the election. The president can be elected twice. The first president of the America was George Washington. He was president from 30 april 1789.

George Washington

The capital of The United States of America is Washington D.C. Tourism is today really important for the capital. About 20 million come to visit the city every year. They come to see The White House( where the president lives), Jefferson Memorial(which is a temple-like building), Lincoln Memorial(a giant statue of the American President Abraham Lincoln), National World War II Memorial(a national memorial dedicated to Americans who served in the armed forces and as civilians during World War II) and others. Washington D.C.  had in 2013 a population of 601,723.

The currency in USA is United States dollar ($) and have the code USD. 1 USD is worth 6.47 NOK.

The national day of The United States of America is on the 4^th of July. They call there nationale day Independence Day. They celebrate with fireworks over the whole country. New York City has the biggest fireworks.

There are many famous buildings in USA. One of them is The Empire State Building. It is a skyscraper located along Fifth Avenue, between 33rd and 34th street in Manhattan, New York. The building has 102 floors and 381 meters high. The building was finished in 1931, and had then a price tag of $ 45 million The Empire State Building was the world's tallest building from 1931 to 1972.

Another famous building in USA is the Statue of Liberty. The statue stands on Liberty Island in the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor. The Statue of Liberty was unveiled on 28 October 1886 and was a gift to the American people from the French people as a symbol of the countries' mutual friendship.

 

Sources:

Wikipedia.com

conservapedia.com

-Marthine