The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2010 The Italian Emigration of Modern Times: Relations Between Italy and the United States Concerning Emigration Policy, Diplomacy, and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment, 1870-1927 Patrizia Fama Stahle University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, Political History Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Stahle, Patrizia Fama, "The Italian Emigration of Modern Times: Relations Between Italy and the United States Concerning Emigration Policy, Diplomacy, and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment, 1870-1927" (2010). Dissertations. 934. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/934 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi THE ITALIAN EMIGRATION OF MODERN TIMES: RELATIONS BETWEENITALY AND THE UNITED STATES CONCERNING EMIGRATION POLICY,DIPLOMACY, AND ANTI-IMMIGRANT SENTIMENT, 1870-1927 by Patrizia Famá Stahle Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2010 ABSTRACT THE ITALIAN EMIGRATION OF MODERN TIMES: RELATIONS BETWEEN ITALY AND THE UNITED STATES CONCERNING EMIGRATION POLICY, DIPLOMACY, AND ANTI-IMMIGRANT SENTIMENT, 1870-1927 by Patrizia Famà Stahle May 2010 In the late 1800s, the United States was the great destination of Italian emigrants. In North America, employers considered Italians industrious individuals, but held them in low esteem. Italian immigrants were seen as dangerous subversives, anarchists, cheap laborers who were always ready to accept jobs for lower wages. Indeed, numerous episodes of violence and even lynching of Italians occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. In most cases, the violence went unpunished by the local authorities. Such episodes of violence provoked a diplomatic controversy between Italy and the United States concerning treaty-guaranteed protection of foreign-born nationals on U.S. soil. The contention focused on the lack of jurisdiction by the federal government in the member states of the Union based on the separation of powers. The federal government took the position that there was no liability on its part for acts of mob violence, claiming that protection to aliens must be under the control of state governments. However, the federal government often found itself in an embarrassing position because of failure to comply with existing treaty obligations. ii The contention between Italy and the United States was never resolved in a satisfactory manner, except for payment of indemnities to the victims’ families. However, long and patient diplomacy on the part of Italian representatives prompted the beginning of a movement in Congress for passage of a federal anti-lynching law aimed at protection of aliens who had treaty rights. Proposals submitted to Congress for a federal anti-lynching law were not successful because of constitutional issues, states’ rights, and sectional prejudice. Italian diplomats protested vigorously the federal government’s failure to comply with existing treaties. However, they adopted a realistic attitude of prudence and moderation, and made efforts to maintain good relations with the United States-- except for the case of New Orleans which provoked a serious diplomatic crisis and national pride, culminating in Rome’s recall of its ambassador. iii COPYRIGHT BY PATRIZIA FAMÀ STAHLE 2010 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My dissertation committee was very helpful in providing guidance, knowledge, and encouragement for me to complete this study on diplomatic incidents that arose between Italy and the United States over a series of lynchings of Italian immigrant laborers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The committee includes professors James “Pat” Smith, Orazio Ciccarelli, L. Margaret Barnett, Phyllis Jestice, and Kenneth McCarty. Each professor contributed to the completion of this project in a unique way. However, Dr. Ciccarelli and Dr. Smith both deserve special thanks. Dr. Ciccarelli provided guidance in the initial stage of my research and writing. He helped me to narrow my topic and to devise a good research design, and he advised me about which archives to explore. Most of all, he provided his own knowledge of Italian emigration history. Dr. Smith took over as dissertation committee chair during the final stage of this project. He provided dynamic guidance and leadership during the last months of rewriting, polishing, editing, sharpening the focus and improving the final product. I am most grateful to all committee members for all that I learned in their classes and especially for what each one of them taught me about the art of writing. Many archivists and librarians have contributed to the success of my dissertation. I did my research in Rome, Italy; New York; Athens, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. I would like to thank Dr. Rosaria Ruggeri, Dr. Andrea Edoardo Visone, and Fabrizio Federici of the Italian Foreign Ministry Diplomatic Archives (ASDMAE, Rome, Italy). I wish to thank the staff of the New York iv Center for Migration Studies; the librarians of the Public Library, Jacksonville, and Patrick Dunn of the Eureka, Nevada, Historical Library. I also wish to thank the librarians at the College of Coastal Georgia, where I have taught history full- time for the past ten years: Ray Calvert, former Director of Libraries and Learning Resources; John Kissinger, Director of Library, Camden Center; Roberta Basenfelder, Duressa Pujat, Heather Brown, and especially Linda Kennedy whose expertise in U.S. government documents and connections at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., were instrumental in obtaining important State Department sources. I thank all of them for their patience, availability, and expertise. Special thanks go to my friend and colleague Sharon Bartkovich, Associate Professor of English at the College of Coastal Georgia, for editing the manuscript. I am most grateful for the help that she extended to me in editing my work. Finally, I am grateful to my husband, George, whose loving partnership made it possible for me to have an intellectually satisfying profession and a full and happy personal life. I also thank my children, George Arthur and Crystal Alexia, for firmly believing that I would finish my dissertation. Their loving support and faith in their mother helped through the bright and dark days of research and writing. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………… ........................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.……………………………………………………………..iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................. 1 II. THE GREAT MIGRATION FROM THE ORIGINS TO THE CLOSURE OF THE AMERICAN GATES………..……….………….16 III. ITALIAN EMIGRATION LAWS AND POLICY FROM THE LIBERAL STATE TO THE FASCIST STATE. ............................... 38 IV. ANTI-ITALIAN SENTIMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: HARASSMENT, VIOLENCE, AND LYNHCING IN THE LATE 1800s.. .......................................................................................... 70 V. MORE LYNCHING, VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT IN THE EARLY 1900s..…………………………………………………….…110 VI. THE ITALIAN RESPONSE: THE PROBLEM OF PROTECTION OF ALIENS AND RELATIONS BETWEEN ITALY AND THE UNITED STATES……………………………………………….……163 VII. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………..210 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………...231 vi 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION By the late 1800s the United States was the greatest destination of Italian emigrants. The United States represented for them not only the promise of a brighter future but also the fragility of that dream. Italian immigrants were valued as a source of cheap, unskilled labor always ready to accept a job for lower wages than Americans. Thus, both American employers and workers looked down on them as an inferior race. In addition, Italians were stereotyped as dangerous subversives, anarchists, and troublemakers. Numerous episodes of violence and even lynching of Italians occurred in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the United States. In most cases the violence went unpunished by the local authorities, regardless of the innocence or guilt of the victims. Italian diplomatic representatives protested vigorously the federal government’s failure to protect Italian nationals working on U.S. soil, who were supposed to be protected by existing treaties. However, Italian diplomats usually adopted a realistic attitude of prudence and moderation and made efforts to maintain good relations between Washington and Rome--except for the New Orleans lynching of 1891, which provoked a serious diplomatic crisis and national pride in the Italian Parliament culminating in Rome’s recall of its ambassador. One of the most striking features of Italy’s modern history is the great migration of the Italian people shortly after completion of the country’s unification in 1871. Between 1876 and the onset of World War II, roughly twenty million emigrants left the Italian peninsula and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, 2 representing 10 percent of emigrants throughout the world during that period