By Gary Berton
Immigration to America was a major impetus for the American Revolution, both physically and intellectually. Thomas Paine welcomed immigrants who were escaping tyranny. In 1776, he wrote in Common Sense, the manifesto of the American Revolution:
“O! ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.”
Common Sense turned a tax revolt into a social and political revolution.
Other than the indigenous people who originally occupied this continent, the people who were transitioning to becoming American in the 18th century, and Americans of today, are immigrants or descended from immigrants, including kidnapped slaves. And in fact, capital accumulation in America primarily came from three sources: the land stolen from the indigenous nations, the stolen labor power of slavery, and the underpaid labor of the immigrants and their descendants.
Paine was the first American to demand reparations for the crimes of slavery, in his letter to Jefferson in 1808.* He believed that the indigenous nations would live peacefully beside peoples from other parts of the world. He was wrong about that: the commitment to English colonialism infected the minds of too many. In part, the perpetuation of colonialism was due to the failure of democratic structures to take hold. In addition, the ethic of greed came to dominate as the wealthiest people remained in charge of governmental structures. The descendants of the indigenous nations also deserve reparations.
In every era, immigrants have added to the vibrancy and progress of the nation, bringing not only their talents and energy and cultures, but the possibility and hope of realizing democracy in America. This era is no different. Our Association stands with the principles advanced by Paine; it is why we exist: to educate the world about the most important figure of the age of revolutions, which is still unfolding. Although some historians have attempted to repress him and his ideas, he still influences the choices we have as Americans.
* The letter to Jefferson signed “A Slave” on November 30, 1808 was attributed to Paine in an article to appear in “Identifying “A Slave”: The Iona College Text Analysis Project Explores a Mystifying Letter to Thomas Jefferson”, Gary Berton, Smiljana Petrovic, Michael Crowder, Lubomir Ivanov, in Mark Boonshoft, Nora Slonimsky, and Ben Wright, eds., American Revolutions in the Digital Age, University of Cornell Press 2024.