GENEALOGY: SYRIAN, LEBANESE IMMIGRANTS ARRIVED IN U.S. IN 1870S
By Tamie Dehler

Terre Haute Tribune Star
August 15, 2009 09:28 pm

Early Syrian and Lebanese immigrants to the United States began
arriving in this country in the 1870s. These people were from
the areas we now call Syria and Lebanon, but the land was then a
part of the Ottoman Empire, and had been ruled by the Turks since
1519. The modern-day nations of Syria and Lebanon had not yet been
created. Within the Ottoman Empire, Greater Syria bordered the eastern
Mediterranean and was made up of parts of modern-day Iraq, Syria,
Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and part of
southern Turkey. The Mount Lebanon area included primarily the city
of Beirut and surrounding areas.

The immigrants had Turkish passports and most often called themselves
Syrians. Most were Christians. The predominant religious denominations
represented were Marionites, Eastern Orthodox (including Antiochian
Greek Orthodox and Syrian Greek Orthodox), Melkites (Greek Catholics),
Armenians, and other Protestants. A small minority were Muslim. Most
identified more strongly with their religious sect and home village
than with any greater nationality. Going back in time, these
people were descended from the Canaanites (who became known as the
Phoenicians), along with Aramaen Israelite peoples and Arabs. They
spoke and read the Arabic language.

The primary dates for the first wave of Syrian/Lebanese immigration
was between the years of 1870 and 1929. Immigration began in the
1870s, peaked in 1914, declined significantly during World War I,
rose again in the 1920s, and dropped dramatically after 1929, when
the Immigration Quota Act (1929-1965) was passed. Numbers arriving
per year were anywhere from a few hundred to over 9,000 during peak
years. A second, more modern, wave of immigration occurred after
1965. Most of these later immigrants are Muslim.

Most of the early immigrants came over to obtain increased economic
opportunity. Many traveled over on the French Line or the Fabre Line,
leaving the homeland, anchoring at Havre or Marseilles in France,
and then continuing on to New York. The trip took three to six
weeks. Often one family member might come over first, get established,
and then other family members would follow. Although some were farmers,
settling in North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Washington
state, they settled mostly in urban areas including Utica, NY; Boston,
Lowell, Lawrence, and Springfield, MA; Danbury, CT; Fall River, RI;
Dearborn and Detroit, MI; Toledo, OH; St. Louis, MO; Chicago, IL,
Jacksonville, FL; and New Orleans, LA. By 1924, when the quota system
was enacted, there were 200,000 people of Syrian/Lebanese descent
living in the United States.

The Syrian/Lebanese immigrants were more likely than other groups
to become self-employed and to work as small businessmen-as
tradesmen, merchants, and restaurateurs. Education and family were
highly valued. Despite this, there was some prejudice against the
newcomers. Because of their loyalty to family they tended to be a bit
clannish. That, coupled with their "exotic" form of dress-loose shirts
with vests and knee-length baggy trousers with high boots, capped off
with a fez for the males, and long dresses with embroidered panels
and bodices, tall hats, and long white veils for females-made them
stand out. In 1929 Sen. David Reed of Pennsylvania referred to the
Syrian/Lebanese immigrants as the "trash of the Mediterranean." He
did not know that by the third generation they would become solidly
middle class, with a higher-than-average level of education.