IN THE BEGINNING…
Between 1674 and 1678, Antonio and Tommaso Crisafi made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Spanish rulers of Sicily.
They escaped and enrolled in the French Army where they became high-ranking officials. They were sent to the French colonies in North America, and Antonio became governor of Fort Onondaga, located in what is now known as Syracuse, New York. He later assumed the office as governor of Fort of the Three Rivers in the Mohawk Valley, what we now call Utica and Rome, New York. He served this position until his death in 1709.
EARLY ARRIVAL
Before the surge in the latter part of the nineteenth century, only a limited number of Sicilians immigrated to the United States. Those who came before that time were relatively few in number and they were mostly missionaries, refugees or adventurers. Some of the Jesuits converting the native Californian Indians were Sicilians. Other Sicilian priests followed the immigrants to preach the Gospel and to assist the new small communities forming on the eastern coast of North America. They built churches and schools and created friendly meeting places for the new Americans. Other immigrants arrived longing to build a new life and realize the American Dream of becoming wealthy before returning to Sicily. Many times, that dream turned into a reality of hard work, settling down and trying to become American.
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The wave of emigration from Sicily to North and South America in the early part of the twentieth century was the result of natural disasters in Sicily as well as the poor conditions which persisted as a result of policies enacted by the new Italian government established in 1870.
That year a disease attacked grape vines. In fact, in France in 1866 a small area of grapevine sickened and mysteriously died. The following year the disease spread in all directions covering a larger and larger area and advancing every year all over Europe until in 1870, it reached Sicily.
The mysterious sickness was Phylloxera, a plant louse which is very destructive to grapes and affects even the wine currently growing all over the world in a never-ending battle. These events were a ruin for many Sicilian farmers. as a result, many emigrated to Morocco and some to the Americas.
In 1887, a cholera outbreak affected the island and the big cities, in particular, suffered a great number of fatalities. On December 8, 1908, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 in Richter’s scale, shook the city of Messina, and a tsunami with 40-foot waves struck the coastal town, wreaking havoc. 90% of the town was destroyed, and 80,000 of the 140,000 residents perished. The Sicilians, who upheld the unification of Italy, were disappointed by the policies of the new government. Sicily was heavily taxed and an eight-year military draft was imposed. Because of the policies of the central government and of the trade wars with France and other European countries, the agricultural products could not be traded.
These situations created unrest and discontent. Farmers and workers were unemployed and could not provide for their families. Many felt that the only way to survive was to immigrate to the Americas.
In 1908, over two hundred thousand Sicilians left their homes bound for the Americas. Half of them went to the U.S.A.
SETTLING DOWN
This first wave of Sicilians to arrive in the States was not received too kindly by the established communities who regarded them as inferior.
The old antagonism between the northern and southern Italians was carried on in the new country. Sicilian immigrants were given the shabbiest jobs and treated with distrust. The American considered Sicilians to be grimy, dishonest and revolutionary.
The new arrivals established themselves in areas where other Sicilian immigrants had already settled. In these communities, they were better able to communicate, received assistance in finding work and most importantly, they could be among cose nostre or our own people.
Many of the new immigrants, who sailed from Palermo, made their homes in New York.