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The padrone system was a contract labor system utilized by many immigrant groups to find employment in the United States, most notably Italian, but also Greeks, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican Americans. [1] The word 'padrone' is an Italian word meaning 'boss', 'manager' or 'owner' when translated into English. The system was a complex network of business relationships formed to meet a growing need for skilled and unskilled workers. [2] Padrones were labor brokers, usually immigrants or first-generation Americans themselves, who acted as middlemen between immigrant workers and employers. [3] [4]
Transoceanic travel became more efficient and less expensive due to introduction of the steamship in the 1860s. This made enticements by labor agents attractive to individuals who were looking for better wages, but did not want to make the United States their permanent home. [5] In the U.S., these 'birds of passage' were employed in growth areas nationwide where the local labor force was too small. They worked for mining and railroad companies and agribusinesses, dug canals, and raised livestock.
The Padrone Act of 1874 was an attempt to ban the system. [6] and by the late 19th century and early 20th century, both the government and the Italian immigrant community struggled to fight the system. The government enacted laws, and the Italian immigrant community by organizing movements. The system was virtually extinct by 1930. [7] The First World War interrupting the flow of immigrants from Europe also contributed to finally abolishing the system.
Harney reexamines the negative image of the padrone system, in which immigrants are viewed practically as powerless slaves. This image relies on the assumption that the immigrants, especially men from southern Italy, were too stupid to understand what was happening and too ignorant to learn from the many immigrants who had already returned to their village. In reality, Harney argues, padrones were both exploiters and helpful patrons of the immigrants. They provided jobs the immigrants would not otherwise find. They provided housing, food, and transportation to the highest paying jobs available the padrone could discover. They were the spokesmen and advocates for the immigrants versus the police and local authorities and prevented them from being exploited by the company that hired them. Padrones served as the cultural link to Italy. They facilitated letters, the sending of money back to the families, and arranging transportation back when the term of employment was over. The padrone was paid for his services, taking money both from the immigrant and from the employer. Complaints that some took too much money led to criticism for "exploitation." [8]
According to historian Alfred T. Banfield:
Celso Caesar Moreno was an international adventurer of Italian origin. In 1886, he fought the padrone system persuading Congressman Henry B. Lovering of Massachusetts to introduce a bill to ban importation of slave contract labor from Italy into the United States. [10] On October 29, 1895, Moreno was condemned for libel against Italian minister to the United States, Baron Saverio Fava, whom he had accused of corruption. [11]
Collecting payments for transportation was just one of the methods padrones used to augment their income. Sometimes families would contract or sell their sons into servitude to a padrone. The terms of the contract ranged from a sum paid to the parents to exchanging passage for labor. [12] Immigrant workers were also charged a fee for initial job placements, and often had to pay a monthly fee in order to keep the position. [13] Pozetta shows that in Florida, railroads allowed padrones to run the commissaries at job sites, and there were complaints that they charged a 50 to 100% markup. However, he concludes, the padrone system, with its faults, on the whole was a success. Pozetta says:
The American Emigrant Company (AEC) was established in 1864 to take advantage of the “act to encourage immigration” passed by Congress that same year. Its mission was to transport skilled and unskilled workers from Europe directly to North American companies suffering labor shortages. Potential candidates found the length of service required, at least a year, unappealing; only a few thousand workers ever contracted with the company. Additionally, individuals who accepted employment through AEC frequently abandoned their positions at the first opportunity to do so. By 1870, the American Emigrant Company was bankrupt.
A group of Chinese merchants, known as the Six Companies, oversaw the emigration of 180,000 Chinese immigrants to the American Northwest between 1849 and 1882 from its base in San Francisco, California. The Chinese organization did not sign contracts until after arrival stateside; it preferred a credit-ticket system. Under the auspices of a company agent, immigrants then entered contracts with American corporations that not only specified length of employment but which also allowed for garnishment of wages to reimburse the Six Companies for ship tickets and other expenditures.
Although recognized as hard workers, Chinese immigrants had to frequently go on strike to protest low wages and physical abuse. In contrast, the presence of Chinese workers or rumors of their imminent arrival on a job site spurred white laborers to join unions and refuse membership to the Chinese. White workers also exerted pressure on the government to oust Chinese from the country. While demands to deport all Chinese were unsuccessful, the United States Congress compromised with passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. [15]
While immigrant contract labor was promoted by the United States government in 1864, laws were passed to prohibit contract labor. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in the 1880s to end Chinese immigration.
Part of a series on |
Slavery |
---|
The padrone system was a contract labor system utilized by many immigrant groups to find employment in the United States, most notably Italian, but also Greeks, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican Americans. [1] The word 'padrone' is an Italian word meaning 'boss', 'manager' or 'owner' when translated into English. The system was a complex network of business relationships formed to meet a growing need for skilled and unskilled workers. [2] Padrones were labor brokers, usually immigrants or first-generation Americans themselves, who acted as middlemen between immigrant workers and employers. [3] [4]
Transoceanic travel became more efficient and less expensive due to introduction of the steamship in the 1860s. This made enticements by labor agents attractive to individuals who were looking for better wages, but did not want to make the United States their permanent home. [5] In the U.S., these 'birds of passage' were employed in growth areas nationwide where the local labor force was too small. They worked for mining and railroad companies and agribusinesses, dug canals, and raised livestock.
The Padrone Act of 1874 was an attempt to ban the system. [6] and by the late 19th century and early 20th century, both the government and the Italian immigrant community struggled to fight the system. The government enacted laws, and the Italian immigrant community by organizing movements. The system was virtually extinct by 1930. [7] The First World War interrupting the flow of immigrants from Europe also contributed to finally abolishing the system.
Harney reexamines the negative image of the padrone system, in which immigrants are viewed practically as powerless slaves. This image relies on the assumption that the immigrants, especially men from southern Italy, were too stupid to understand what was happening and too ignorant to learn from the many immigrants who had already returned to their village. In reality, Harney argues, padrones were both exploiters and helpful patrons of the immigrants. They provided jobs the immigrants would not otherwise find. They provided housing, food, and transportation to the highest paying jobs available the padrone could discover. They were the spokesmen and advocates for the immigrants versus the police and local authorities and prevented them from being exploited by the company that hired them. Padrones served as the cultural link to Italy. They facilitated letters, the sending of money back to the families, and arranging transportation back when the term of employment was over. The padrone was paid for his services, taking money both from the immigrant and from the employer. Complaints that some took too much money led to criticism for "exploitation." [8]
According to historian Alfred T. Banfield:
Celso Caesar Moreno was an international adventurer of Italian origin. In 1886, he fought the padrone system persuading Congressman Henry B. Lovering of Massachusetts to introduce a bill to ban importation of slave contract labor from Italy into the United States. [10] On October 29, 1895, Moreno was condemned for libel against Italian minister to the United States, Baron Saverio Fava, whom he had accused of corruption. [11]
Collecting payments for transportation was just one of the methods padrones used to augment their income. Sometimes families would contract or sell their sons into servitude to a padrone. The terms of the contract ranged from a sum paid to the parents to exchanging passage for labor. [12] Immigrant workers were also charged a fee for initial job placements, and often had to pay a monthly fee in order to keep the position. [13] Pozetta shows that in Florida, railroads allowed padrones to run the commissaries at job sites, and there were complaints that they charged a 50 to 100% markup. However, he concludes, the padrone system, with its faults, on the whole was a success. Pozetta says:
The American Emigrant Company (AEC) was established in 1864 to take advantage of the “act to encourage immigration” passed by Congress that same year. Its mission was to transport skilled and unskilled workers from Europe directly to North American companies suffering labor shortages. Potential candidates found the length of service required, at least a year, unappealing; only a few thousand workers ever contracted with the company. Additionally, individuals who accepted employment through AEC frequently abandoned their positions at the first opportunity to do so. By 1870, the American Emigrant Company was bankrupt.
A group of Chinese merchants, known as the Six Companies, oversaw the emigration of 180,000 Chinese immigrants to the American Northwest between 1849 and 1882 from its base in San Francisco, California. The Chinese organization did not sign contracts until after arrival stateside; it preferred a credit-ticket system. Under the auspices of a company agent, immigrants then entered contracts with American corporations that not only specified length of employment but which also allowed for garnishment of wages to reimburse the Six Companies for ship tickets and other expenditures.
Although recognized as hard workers, Chinese immigrants had to frequently go on strike to protest low wages and physical abuse. In contrast, the presence of Chinese workers or rumors of their imminent arrival on a job site spurred white laborers to join unions and refuse membership to the Chinese. White workers also exerted pressure on the government to oust Chinese from the country. While demands to deport all Chinese were unsuccessful, the United States Congress compromised with passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. [15]
While immigrant contract labor was promoted by the United States government in 1864, laws were passed to prohibit contract labor. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in the 1880s to end Chinese immigration.