Immigrant Experience

[00:08.40] In 1817, when the Erie Canal first started, local farmers from New York State did a lot of the digging. [00:15.54] As time went on, as you got into the 1820s, and some of the tasks were more complex, they often recruited immigrants from Europe to do those tasks. [00:27.30] You had 5,500 people on average coming through there every day. [00:31.88] New immigrants coming into the city who were either going to stay here because of opportunity or they had no money left. [00:38.92] You had Native Americans, you had soldiers, and you had the canawlers, who were the people that drove and worked on the canal boats. [00:48.46] But what you were doing is you were taking all those immigrants and pulling them in and saying ‘We need you.’ [00:54.46] We could always work. [00:56.30] And when word went back to the mother countries they said ‘I can be safe there. [01:01.28] I can have a job there. [01:03.04] We can have a house there,’ and that was important. [01:07.12] But that allowed the city to grow, though, and get bigger and bigger. [01:12.70] One of the greatest impacts was all of these cultures enriching our culture here. [01:17.98] And it was so rich that it even survives today. [01:21.10] People who have nothing to do with the Polish culture or the German culture, they like to take part in those things, eat their food, do their dances, sing their songs. [01:30.90] And that I think was the most lasting effect. [01:34.10] Immigrants, they could be themselves, they could enjoy their culture, but they could learn a new culture too. [01:41.17] And I think that's kind of unique about Buffalo. [01:44.21] It's a place where it didn't matter who you were or what you were if you were willing to do work and get educated, you could. [01:50.85] And that's how they survived, and that's how they affected us. [01:59.61] But if you got to a place like Buffalo, and then people look around and say, ‘Oh, there's jobs, there's communities, there's people like me. [02:08.17] I can do something here. [02:09.77] I can be something here.’ [02:11.20] And, that was the biggest thing that the canal gave us. [02:14.08] All the energy of all these people coming here, and they were able to utilize it in jobs created around the canal. [02:21.05] But if we didn't have that combination of things, then I don't know that we would have ever had the success. [02:28.01] It was a very, very important highway for this community. [02:30.80] Definitely. [02:31.80] And it had an extraordinary impact on what we became. [02:35.40] We need you for this city. [02:37.10] And I think that was the message that they got loud and clear. [02:42.00] This was the Erie Canal’s legacy.