From Dago to White: The Story of Sicilian Ethnic Evolution in New Orleans Amidst the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1905

<p>The story of the Sicilian immigrants’ experiences in Louisiana is a tale of racial and ethnic evolution in the face of physical threats. With the end of the Civil War, many emancipated slaves migrated to other parts of the country, which left Louisiana planters in need of laborers. Planters turned to European labor to fill that need, bringing thousands of Sicilian peasants to work on their plantations. Extreme poverty and oppression made the opportunity to emigrate highly attractive, but Sicilians found problems in Louisiana as well. In addition to low wages, crowded living conditions, discrimination, and violence, the immigrants faced the threat of disease.</p> <p>Yellow fever was a recurring threat to the city of New Orleans, striking the city seemingly at random. The 1905 yellow fever epidemic dealt a heavy blow to this ethnic community; an unpredictable killer that tended to hit newcomers the hardest. This fact, along with Sicilian cultural beliefs, language barriers, and the racial tensions of the times influenced how the Sicilian immigrants reacted during the yellow fever epidemic. For the most part, the Sicilian community was insular and distrustful of outsiders, especially the doctors and authority figures. During the epidemic, efforts to educate the public about the disease slowly began to influence a transformation within the Sicilian community. This transformation influenced their racial and ethnic evolution from Dago to white, leading to, at least a partial, assimilation into American culture. This thesis is the story of that transformation.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology and Sociology

Year dc:date.available

2018

Author dc:creator

• Saucier, H. Denise LoPresto

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bridget Hayden
• Teresa S. Welsh
• Katherine Smith

• Sicilian
• Italian
• Ethnicity
• Yellow Fever 1905
• Cultural History
• Ethnic Studies
• United States History

Repository record dc:identifier

https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/344

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-1402