People from Poland have been immigrating to the United States and New York as early as the 17^th century.  Among these first immigrants was Tadeusz Kosciuszko, described by Paul Fox in The Poles in America as a “well-known patriot.”  This being said, there is much more to Kosciuszko than the mere fact that he was a patriot.  He was a man of the people, as he “championed peasants rights and ‘stuck his neck out when there was fighting’” (The Kosciuszko Foundation).  He even worked towards the emancipation of slaves, which was a very progressive pursuit at the time, and something that was not even accomplished in his lifetime.  Kosciuszko’s great societal achievements don’t end there, though!  He was also an important engineer, and designed and built West Point Academy, one of the United State’s most prominent and important military academies.

The next great migration of Poles was during the 1870s.  Their reason for moving to the United States was the violence and tumult of the Franco-Prussian War.  Many of these immigrants settled in the New York, New Jersey area.  The biggest movement from Poland to the USA, though, was in 1912, right before the First World War.  About 174, 365 Poles came because of overpopulation in Poland, arid land and hunger, a lack of industry, and a decline in wages with a raise in taxes.  At this time, there was a lot of advertising when it came to moving to America, which really enticed many Poles.  The majority of these immigrants were single, Catholic men who didn’t have a lot of money and didn’t own any land back home.  Their main goal was to remain in America and find work.  Most of the Poles that came at this time entered New York, though demographic statistics show a low Polish population in comparison to other nationalities and ethnicities.  Instead of moving to extremely urban, city areas, the Poles tended to stay in more industrial towns – one such being Greenpoint.

Like the rest of New York State, Greenpoint was purchased from Native Americans by the Dutch in the 17^th century, but later became a possession of Great Britain.  New York was always a very diverse community, but Greenpoint seemed to attract the Poles in particular.  The land here was quite swampy and marshy, and was not very attractive to wealthier immigrants.  The area became very industrial.  In the mid 19^th century Greenpoint was part of the shipping industry, and even built an important warship – the Monitor – to fight against the Confederate army during the Civil War.  Because of the heavy industry, Greenpoint became polluted and an even more unattractive neighborhood for wealthy newcomers.  The Polish population didn’t like to move around much, and were quite stagnant, and ended up staying in the industrial area, creating a “Little Poland.”  In 1939, a bridge was built and named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

Today, Greenpoint is still a very Polish neighborhood.  Though there have been gentrification efforts in the area, creating a raise in property taxes pushing some of the old residents out, Greenpoint still flaunts Polish restaurants and cultural centers.

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Work Cited:
Fox, P. (1970). The poles in america. New York: Arno Press.
Greenpoint USA Timeline