THE REASON MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK
Like everything else, it was all about politics.
On July 21, 1892, US President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed that Friday, October 21st, would be a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America. But the reason for this was not to honor Christopher Columbus or the rediscovery of North America.
Instead, it was the end result of discrimination against Italians, a mob (including leading citizens and future elected officials) that lynched eleven innocent Italian emigrants in New Orleans in 1891, and political damage-control maneuvering to get a US President reelected.
The first official federal Columbus Day was celebrated 45 years later in 1937.
Told ‘ya!
THE INNOCENT ELEVEN
The inciting incident that set this historic event into motion started 135 years ago although, like all social situations, the history behind them preceded 1891.
According to Basil M. Russo, National President of Italians Sons and Daughters of America:
“On March 14, 1891, prominent New Orleans citizens, including future mayors and governors, led America’s largest-ever lynch mob into the darkest pages of U.S. history. Holding torches, rifles and rope, this mob of vigilantes stormed into Parish Prison and pulled out 11 Italian Americans.
Thousands assembled outside the jail and cheered as the wrongfully accused were riddled with bullets, hanged and ripped apart for souvenirs.
The horror of that night shocked the world, but today one will be hard-pressed to find the story in high school or college textbooks. It was the worst of more than 40 lynchings carried out against Italian Americans between the late-19th and early-20th centuries.” orderisda.org/the-innocent-11-and-the-creation-of-columbus-day
BACKGROUND: EMIGRATION INFLUX
The late 1800’s experienced a great influx southern Italians migrating to the US. In 1885 Sicilian emigrants numbered from 60,000 to 100,000 (depending on the source) and continued to increase. Italian, and particularly Sicilian, emigrants were looked down on by the well-established and suspicious Anglo-Saxon-dominated culture. The emigrants were unwanted and were subjected to ethnic discrimination, horrible living conditions, and severe restrictions on where they could live and go. ▼Image Source: archives-nolalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/
Like everything else, it was all about politics.
On July 21, 1892, US President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed that Friday, October 21st, would be a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America. But the reason for this was not to honor Christopher Columbus or the rediscovery of North America.
Instead, it was the end result of discrimination against Italians, a mob (including leading citizens and future elected officials) that lynched eleven innocent Italian emigrants in New Orleans in 1891, and political damage-control maneuvering to get a US President reelected.
The first official federal Columbus Day was celebrated 45 years later in 1937.
Told ‘ya!
THE INNOCENT ELEVEN
The inciting incident that set this historic event into motion started 135 years ago although, like all social situations, the history behind them preceded 1891.
According to Basil M. Russo, National President of Italians Sons and Daughters of America:
“On March 14, 1891, prominent New Orleans citizens, including future mayors and governors, led America’s largest-ever lynch mob into the darkest pages of U.S. history. Holding torches, rifles and rope, this mob of vigilantes stormed into Parish Prison and pulled out 11 Italian Americans.
Thousands assembled outside the jail and cheered as the wrongfully accused were riddled with bullets, hanged and ripped apart for souvenirs.
The horror of that night shocked the world, but today one will be hard-pressed to find the story in high school or college textbooks. It was the worst of more than 40 lynchings carried out against Italian Americans between the late-19th and early-20th centuries.” orderisda.org/the-innocent-11-and-the-creation-of-columbus-day
BACKGROUND: EMIGRATION INFLUX
The late 1800’s experienced a great influx southern Italians migrating to the US. In 1885 Sicilian emigrants numbered from 60,000 to 100,000 (depending on the source) and continued to increase. Italian, and particularly Sicilian, emigrants were looked down on by the well-established and suspicious Anglo-Saxon-dominated culture. The emigrants were unwanted and were subjected to ethnic discrimination, horrible living conditions, and severe restrictions on where they could live and go. ▼Image Source: archives-nolalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/
New Orleans had become a popular destination for these newcomers. The city had been a port of call for ships carrying Italian citrus fruits and goods since the 1830s, and many emigrants arrived via these trade vessels. In addition, sugar plantations, in particular, sought workers who were more efficient than formerly enslaved people, and they hired immigrant recruiters to bring Italians to southern Louisiana.
Despite the class tension, New Orleans, in the late 1880s and early 1890s, remained an area in which Italian emigrants began to thrive owing to its familiar climate, jobs and expanding economic opportunities, and Roman Catholic traditions. The French Quarter became known as “Little Palermo”, but the Italians were not confined to specific sections of New Orleans (as they were in New York and other cities) and integrated throughout the city.
TROUBLE IN NEW ORLEANS
Like most American cities of the time, New Orleans had its street gangs and criminal underworld. The Italians added another element to that mix. When Italian criminals, fleeing Italy to escape prosecution, arrived in New Orleans, fears of Sicilian mafiosos began to creep into the minds of New Orleans residents.
Rightly so, since one of the escaping arrivals was Giuseppe Esposito, a Sicilian kidnapper and extortionist, who succeeded in emigrating after bribing his way out of an Italian jail.
He arrived in Little Palermo flaunting his outlaw status and wasted no time going back to his gangster ways. Soon his less-than-low-key kidnappings gave away his location. New Orleans Police Detective David Hennessy and his cousin Michael aided two New York detectives in capturing Esposito. He was extradited to Italy where he received a life sentence in prison.
All’s well that ends well, right?
Not so! Hennessy did not get the promotion he expected from the arrest. Afterward, he and his cousin shot and killed the Chief of Detectives. Claiming self-defense, the Hennessys were acquitted but were fired from the force. Hennessy worked as a private detective until 1888, when the new mayor, Joseph Shakspeare, hired him back, with a promotion to chief of police.
The new mayor was not exactly a fan of Italians and openly expressed the typical anti-Italian prejudice of the times, complaining that the city had become attractive to "...the worst classes of Europe: Southern Italians and Sicilians...the most idle, vicious, and worthless people among us." He blamed the emigrants for just about everything that was wrong with the city. themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
During the whole of the 19th century and well into the 20th, Italian immigrants to the United States were often referred to as "White niggers". en.wikipedia.org/New_Orleans_lynchings
Despite the class tension, New Orleans, in the late 1880s and early 1890s, remained an area in which Italian emigrants began to thrive owing to its familiar climate, jobs and expanding economic opportunities, and Roman Catholic traditions. The French Quarter became known as “Little Palermo”, but the Italians were not confined to specific sections of New Orleans (as they were in New York and other cities) and integrated throughout the city.
TROUBLE IN NEW ORLEANS
Like most American cities of the time, New Orleans had its street gangs and criminal underworld. The Italians added another element to that mix. When Italian criminals, fleeing Italy to escape prosecution, arrived in New Orleans, fears of Sicilian mafiosos began to creep into the minds of New Orleans residents.
Rightly so, since one of the escaping arrivals was Giuseppe Esposito, a Sicilian kidnapper and extortionist, who succeeded in emigrating after bribing his way out of an Italian jail.
He arrived in Little Palermo flaunting his outlaw status and wasted no time going back to his gangster ways. Soon his less-than-low-key kidnappings gave away his location. New Orleans Police Detective David Hennessy and his cousin Michael aided two New York detectives in capturing Esposito. He was extradited to Italy where he received a life sentence in prison.
All’s well that ends well, right?
Not so! Hennessy did not get the promotion he expected from the arrest. Afterward, he and his cousin shot and killed the Chief of Detectives. Claiming self-defense, the Hennessys were acquitted but were fired from the force. Hennessy worked as a private detective until 1888, when the new mayor, Joseph Shakspeare, hired him back, with a promotion to chief of police.
The new mayor was not exactly a fan of Italians and openly expressed the typical anti-Italian prejudice of the times, complaining that the city had become attractive to "...the worst classes of Europe: Southern Italians and Sicilians...the most idle, vicious, and worthless people among us." He blamed the emigrants for just about everything that was wrong with the city. themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
During the whole of the 19th century and well into the 20th, Italian immigrants to the United States were often referred to as "White niggers". en.wikipedia.org/New_Orleans_lynchings
HENNESSY’S FOLLY
Police Chief Hennessy tangled with the Italian community in May 1890 when a group of dockworkers were shot at and wounded. The victims were members of the Italian stevedore company controlled by the Matranga Family. The Manrangas blamed the killings on their competitors, the Provenzanos.
◄ Image Source: themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
When the Matrangas pursued criminal charges, Hennessy provided witnesses from the police force to back up the defendants’ alibis, since he was friendly with the Provenzanos, allegedly for shady business reasons involving brothels. When the court convicted six of the Provenzanos for the shootings, the Police Chief promised to aide in their appeal, and it was rumored that Hennessy himself would testify.
Four days before the retrial, on October 15, 1890, Hennessy was ambushed walking along Basin Street to his home. The assailants shot him with sawed-off shotguns, but he returned fire. Some resources say he bled to death on the street where he was overheard by a witness. Some say he died in the hospital 10 hours later. I didn’t pursue the issue. Either way, the only thing anyone heard him say was, “The Dagoes shot me.”
Immediately, Mayor Shakspeare ordered the New Orleans police to “arrest every Italian you come across, if necessary,” and organized the Committee of Fifty, a citizens’ group to investigate and eliminate “Mafia” groups in the city.
"Shakspeares’ Mafia crusade was born from nativist fervor rather than actual evidence. Nevertheless, the prevailing anti-Italian sentiments in the community expected that the courts would avenge the slain chief of police.” themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
Any Italian who owned a fire arm or was remotely associated with the Matrangas was under suspicion and many were arrested.
THE LYNCH MOB
All but nineteen of those arrested were eventually released. Nine men went to trial in February 1891. Six were acquitted, including the family head Charles Matranga. The other three had hung juries which ended in mistrials.
The Committee of Fifty was outraged and organized a public meeting for the following morning. Thousands of angry citizens came. William Parkerson, a local attorney, political leader and ally of the mayor, addressed the crowd saying, “When courts fail, the people must act. What protection or assurance of protection is there left us when the very head of our police department, our chief of police, is assassinated in our very midst by the Mafia society and his assassins are again turned loose on the community? Will every man here follow me and see the murder of Hennessy avenged?”
Police Chief Hennessy tangled with the Italian community in May 1890 when a group of dockworkers were shot at and wounded. The victims were members of the Italian stevedore company controlled by the Matranga Family. The Manrangas blamed the killings on their competitors, the Provenzanos.
◄ Image Source: themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
When the Matrangas pursued criminal charges, Hennessy provided witnesses from the police force to back up the defendants’ alibis, since he was friendly with the Provenzanos, allegedly for shady business reasons involving brothels. When the court convicted six of the Provenzanos for the shootings, the Police Chief promised to aide in their appeal, and it was rumored that Hennessy himself would testify.
Four days before the retrial, on October 15, 1890, Hennessy was ambushed walking along Basin Street to his home. The assailants shot him with sawed-off shotguns, but he returned fire. Some resources say he bled to death on the street where he was overheard by a witness. Some say he died in the hospital 10 hours later. I didn’t pursue the issue. Either way, the only thing anyone heard him say was, “The Dagoes shot me.”
Immediately, Mayor Shakspeare ordered the New Orleans police to “arrest every Italian you come across, if necessary,” and organized the Committee of Fifty, a citizens’ group to investigate and eliminate “Mafia” groups in the city.
"Shakspeares’ Mafia crusade was born from nativist fervor rather than actual evidence. Nevertheless, the prevailing anti-Italian sentiments in the community expected that the courts would avenge the slain chief of police.” themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
Any Italian who owned a fire arm or was remotely associated with the Matrangas was under suspicion and many were arrested.
THE LYNCH MOB
All but nineteen of those arrested were eventually released. Nine men went to trial in February 1891. Six were acquitted, including the family head Charles Matranga. The other three had hung juries which ended in mistrials.
The Committee of Fifty was outraged and organized a public meeting for the following morning. Thousands of angry citizens came. William Parkerson, a local attorney, political leader and ally of the mayor, addressed the crowd saying, “When courts fail, the people must act. What protection or assurance of protection is there left us when the very head of our police department, our chief of police, is assassinated in our very midst by the Mafia society and his assassins are again turned loose on the community? Will every man here follow me and see the murder of Hennessy avenged?”
 |  |
Source of Images: themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
In answer to the challenge, the rabid mob stormed to the Orleans Parish Prison, breached the walls and proceeded to lynch 11 of the prisoners. The exact mode of death for each of the victims varies a little with the source, but apparently some were shot first, one reportedly 42 times. The descriptions of some of the witnesses are stomach-turning.
Eight prisoners escaped the carnage, including Matranga, who hid under a mattress.Local newspapers praised the actions of the mob, while publications in other states condemned them but conceded that it was a necessary evil.
Parkerson later referred to the lynchings as “a wonderful thirty-minute experience.”
In a letter to his sister dated a week after the lynchings, future US president Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “‘Various dago diplomats were present, all much wrought up by the lynching of the Italians in New Orleans. Personally I think it a rather good thing, and said so.”
Ironic that it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt who proclaimed Columbus a National federal holiday on September 30, 1934. www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ Or, if you want to believe Yhoosearch.com’s AI, it was 1937. [Close enough for artificial intelligence?]
THE VICTIMS
The following people were lynched
● Antonio Bagnetto, fruit peddler: tried and acquitted.
● James Caruso, stevedore: not tried.
● Loreto Comitis, tinsmith: not tried.
● Rocco Geraci, stevedore: not tried.
● Antonio Marchesi, fruit peddler: tried and acquitted.
● Pietro Monasterio, cobbler: mistrial declared.
● Emmanuele Polizzi, street vendor (mentally impaired): mistrial declared.
● Frank Romero, ward heeler for the Regular Democratic Organization: not tried.
● Antonio Scaffidi, fruit peddler: mistrial declared.
● Charles Traina, rice plantation laborer: not tried.
● Joseph Macheca, American-born former blockade runner, fruit importer, and political boss of the New Orleans Italian American community for the Regular Democratic Organization: tried and acquitted.
Eight prisoners escaped the carnage, including Matranga, who hid under a mattress.Local newspapers praised the actions of the mob, while publications in other states condemned them but conceded that it was a necessary evil.
Parkerson later referred to the lynchings as “a wonderful thirty-minute experience.”
In a letter to his sister dated a week after the lynchings, future US president Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “‘Various dago diplomats were present, all much wrought up by the lynching of the Italians in New Orleans. Personally I think it a rather good thing, and said so.”
Ironic that it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt who proclaimed Columbus a National federal holiday on September 30, 1934. www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ Or, if you want to believe Yhoosearch.com’s AI, it was 1937. [Close enough for artificial intelligence?]
THE VICTIMS
The following people were lynched
● Antonio Bagnetto, fruit peddler: tried and acquitted.
● James Caruso, stevedore: not tried.
● Loreto Comitis, tinsmith: not tried.
● Rocco Geraci, stevedore: not tried.
● Antonio Marchesi, fruit peddler: tried and acquitted.
● Pietro Monasterio, cobbler: mistrial declared.
● Emmanuele Polizzi, street vendor (mentally impaired): mistrial declared.
● Frank Romero, ward heeler for the Regular Democratic Organization: not tried.
● Antonio Scaffidi, fruit peddler: mistrial declared.
● Charles Traina, rice plantation laborer: not tried.
● Joseph Macheca, American-born former blockade runner, fruit importer, and political boss of the New Orleans Italian American community for the Regular Democratic Organization: tried and acquitted.
The supposed leader and "Instruments of the Mafia: - Image Source: themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
The following people managed to escape lynching by hiding inside the prison:
● John Caruso, stevedore: not tried.
● Bastian Incardona, laborer: tried and acquitted.
● Gaspare Marchesi, 14, son of Antonio Marchesi: tried and acquitted.
● Charles Matranga, labor manager: tried and acquitted.
● Peter Natali, laborer: not tried.
● Charles Pietza (or Pietzo), grocer: not tried.
● Charles Patorno, merchant: not tried.
● Salvatore Sinceri, stevedore: not tried.
Despite intensive investigations, the actual murders of Chief Hennessy were never identified or brought to trial.
POLITICAL FALLOUT
A New York Times headline announced, "Chief Hennessy Avenged...Italian Murderers Shot Down."
A Times editorial the next day vilified Sicilians in general saying, “These sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins, who have transported to this country the lawless passions, the cut-throat practices, and the oath-bound societies of their native country, are to us a pest without mitigation. Our own rattlesnakes are as good citizens as they...Lynch law was the only course open to the people of New Orleans.”
In fear of further vigilante attacks on Italians, the Italian consul in New Orleans requested Mayor Shakspeare and the Louisiana governor to call in the National Guard.
When they refused, the consul notified Italy’s Ambassador to the United States of the event and indicated he feared for his life. The Ambassador and Italian Prime Minister reached out to the US Secretary of State, who apparently held the same opinion about Italians as the New Orleans officials.
That created an international incident resulting in both countries recalled their ambassadors, and the Italian parliament introduced a resolution calling for a retributive naval assault on the Eastern Seaboard.
ENTER US PRESIDENT BENJAMIN HARRISON
The Italian resolution handed the presiding US President, Benjamin Harrison, with an both an international and an election crisis. Image Source: www.britannica.com ▼
● John Caruso, stevedore: not tried.
● Bastian Incardona, laborer: tried and acquitted.
● Gaspare Marchesi, 14, son of Antonio Marchesi: tried and acquitted.
● Charles Matranga, labor manager: tried and acquitted.
● Peter Natali, laborer: not tried.
● Charles Pietza (or Pietzo), grocer: not tried.
● Charles Patorno, merchant: not tried.
● Salvatore Sinceri, stevedore: not tried.
Despite intensive investigations, the actual murders of Chief Hennessy were never identified or brought to trial.
POLITICAL FALLOUT
A New York Times headline announced, "Chief Hennessy Avenged...Italian Murderers Shot Down."
A Times editorial the next day vilified Sicilians in general saying, “These sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins, who have transported to this country the lawless passions, the cut-throat practices, and the oath-bound societies of their native country, are to us a pest without mitigation. Our own rattlesnakes are as good citizens as they...Lynch law was the only course open to the people of New Orleans.”
In fear of further vigilante attacks on Italians, the Italian consul in New Orleans requested Mayor Shakspeare and the Louisiana governor to call in the National Guard.
When they refused, the consul notified Italy’s Ambassador to the United States of the event and indicated he feared for his life. The Ambassador and Italian Prime Minister reached out to the US Secretary of State, who apparently held the same opinion about Italians as the New Orleans officials.
That created an international incident resulting in both countries recalled their ambassadors, and the Italian parliament introduced a resolution calling for a retributive naval assault on the Eastern Seaboard.
ENTER US PRESIDENT BENJAMIN HARRISON
The Italian resolution handed the presiding US President, Benjamin Harrison, with an both an international and an election crisis. Image Source: www.britannica.com ▼
Harrison’s first step to damage-control a $25,000 indemnity payment to the Italian government. With the issue behind them, Italy proceeded with its plan to gift a statue of Christopher Columbus to the United States to commemorate the 400 hundred year celebration of Columbus’ landing in America. After the statue was installed on a traffic circle at the southwest corner of Central Park, the area became known as Columbus Circle.
The next step was to make peace with the Italian Community which Harrison attempted by proclaiming a one-time celebration of “Discovery Day.” The action formalized at a federal level an event which was already celebrated in Roman Catholic and Italian communities.
The president hoped this would be seen as an apology for the New Orleans tragedy. The Knights of Columbus organization, founded in 1882, further promoted these festivities as a rallying point to unite American Catholics, who faced opposition from the Protestant majority.
The next step was to make peace with the Italian Community which Harrison attempted by proclaiming a one-time celebration of “Discovery Day.” The action formalized at a federal level an event which was already celebrated in Roman Catholic and Italian communities.
The president hoped this would be seen as an apology for the New Orleans tragedy. The Knights of Columbus organization, founded in 1882, further promoted these festivities as a rallying point to unite American Catholics, who faced opposition from the Protestant majority.
The last-gasp effort failed and Cleveland defeated Harrison in a landslide victory. While it was the end for Harrison, Columbus Day was just beginning.
The 77-foot monument in the center of Columbus Circle in New York is topped with a 13-foot granite sculpture of Christopher Columbus.
Image Source: themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
Subsequently, the Knights of Columbus lobbied for the day to become a yearly tradition. In , and in 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt declared October 12 as Columbus Day. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation making it an official federal holiday beginning in 1971, now occurring on the second Monday of October.
TAKE AWAYS
I told you the holiday had little to do with Christopher Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492 or the recognition of his discovery.
Granted, it was because the Italians in general heralded [in the 1800s] the man’s achievements that he became the symbol of the contributions made to the world by Italians and Italian emigrants. But the creators of the holiday didn’t have that in mind.
“While today’s holiday has become a point of contention regarding its namesake, its origins had little to do with 1492. It emerged as a recognition of the Italian American and Catholic communities, established by a president who urgently needed support in an upcoming election.” themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
The holiday today should serve as a reminder how quickly prejudice can turn into unwarranted, unthinking violence, and an opportunity to memorialize the 11 Italians slain in 1891, victims of an angry mob that saw Italian immigration as nothing more than a pipeline of criminals invading New Orleans.
JUST SAYIN’
Note: "The word 'dago' is a derivative of the Spanish name 'Diego', which means 'James'. It was originally coined in the 17th century by British sailors to indicate Spanish or Portuguese people, especially sailors. Despite the hispanic origin of the word, in the 19th century the word 'dago' became more commonly used in the USA as a derogatory term for Italians, due to the large immigration from that country. However, it is still used to indicate Spanish or Portuguese people as well, but rarely the French." funtrivia.com/
Sources:
https://orderisda.org/culture/stories/the-innocent-11-and-the-creation-of-columbus-day/
https://themobmuseum.org/blog/columbus-day-and-its-mafia-origins/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1891_New_Orleans_lynchings
https://www.britannica.com/event/New-Orleans-lynchings-of-1891
https://www.history.com/articles/the-grisly-story-of-americas-largest-lynching
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890s_in_organized_crime
https://search.yahoo.com/
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1636&context=etd
https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/italian/the-great-arrival/
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-2101-columbus-day
https://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question106725.html#google_vignette
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hennessy
https://orderisda.org/culture/stories/our-darkest-hour-anarchy-a-lynch-mob-and-11-souls-lost/
https://archives-nolalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16880coll45
The 77-foot monument in the center of Columbus Circle in New York is topped with a 13-foot granite sculpture of Christopher Columbus.
Image Source: themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
Subsequently, the Knights of Columbus lobbied for the day to become a yearly tradition. In , and in 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt declared October 12 as Columbus Day. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation making it an official federal holiday beginning in 1971, now occurring on the second Monday of October.
TAKE AWAYS
I told you the holiday had little to do with Christopher Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492 or the recognition of his discovery.
Granted, it was because the Italians in general heralded [in the 1800s] the man’s achievements that he became the symbol of the contributions made to the world by Italians and Italian emigrants. But the creators of the holiday didn’t have that in mind.
“While today’s holiday has become a point of contention regarding its namesake, its origins had little to do with 1492. It emerged as a recognition of the Italian American and Catholic communities, established by a president who urgently needed support in an upcoming election.” themobmuseum.org/columbus-day
The holiday today should serve as a reminder how quickly prejudice can turn into unwarranted, unthinking violence, and an opportunity to memorialize the 11 Italians slain in 1891, victims of an angry mob that saw Italian immigration as nothing more than a pipeline of criminals invading New Orleans.
JUST SAYIN’
Note: "The word 'dago' is a derivative of the Spanish name 'Diego', which means 'James'. It was originally coined in the 17th century by British sailors to indicate Spanish or Portuguese people, especially sailors. Despite the hispanic origin of the word, in the 19th century the word 'dago' became more commonly used in the USA as a derogatory term for Italians, due to the large immigration from that country. However, it is still used to indicate Spanish or Portuguese people as well, but rarely the French." funtrivia.com/
Sources:
https://orderisda.org/culture/stories/the-innocent-11-and-the-creation-of-columbus-day/
https://themobmuseum.org/blog/columbus-day-and-its-mafia-origins/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1891_New_Orleans_lynchings
https://www.britannica.com/event/New-Orleans-lynchings-of-1891
https://www.history.com/articles/the-grisly-story-of-americas-largest-lynching
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890s_in_organized_crime
https://search.yahoo.com/
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1636&context=etd
https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/italian/the-great-arrival/
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-2101-columbus-day
https://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question106725.html#google_vignette
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hennessy
https://orderisda.org/culture/stories/our-darkest-hour-anarchy-a-lynch-mob-and-11-souls-lost/
https://archives-nolalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16880coll45
RSS Feed
