Faces of America

          Over the past few days in class we have been watching the series "Faces of America".  This show, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, helps prominent figures of American culture to find where their ancestors are from and when their family first came to America.  One of the major persons in the film is Kristi Yamaguchi.  She is the descendant of a Japanese family that came to America during the WWII era.  Her family faced the discrimination of the concentration camps in the West despite the fact that her father served in the American army as one of the few Japanese soldiers not in a purely Japanese company.  Her mother and father were both born in the concentration camps.  Though most of her Japanese culture, such as language, was lost over the years. Despite what was lost "Faces of America" was able to track her family lineage all the way back to a town in Japan.  Their they found her grandfather's cousin and they were able to learn a lot from him through pictures and information that had been passed down through him.  Overall, the show really depicted how America's major "faces", or people, aren't actually as American as many believe due to their history of immigration no more than 200 years ago.

          In my opinion, America being a nation of immigrants make it very unique in its background.  Due to the fact of having so many people coming in from all over the world makes America a nation of people who strive for better lives.  This attitude makes America even more of a nation of hard workers and people who are willing to make sacrifices in order to make their living conditions better and also to be to achieve their dreams.  Also people of other countries also come to the US as a place of refuge from the troubles and hardships of their maiden land.  This is a major sign of accomplishment for the Us.  This shows that people see the Us as a place of safety and a strong point in the world.  And the fact that the Us is a nation of immigrants means that these people who escape strife are trying to make the US a strong point in order to help deliver people that were in their situation to safety.  All these people of different cultural backgrounds makes America very unique in a sense of its culture.  This is due to all of these cultures mixing and blending with the others to create a culture that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.  I do not feel a very strong connection with my ancestry because of the time since my ancestors first arrived in America.  My family from both sides have been inn America for hundreds of years and over time the traditional culture has been lost.

 

W.H. Vanderbilt

                 W. H. Vanderbilt is the son of Cornelius Vanderbilt.  W. H. was born into wealth but when he was growing up his father had no confidence or hope for him in the economic world. Cornelius made his wealth through shipping in the steam freighter era.  But when W. H. was older Cornelius put him in charge of the family farm in New York that was going through some rough times.  W. H. was there for a little under a year and by the time that he left the farm had been turned around and was actually making a profit.  After this Cornelius began to have some confidence in his sons economic ability.  About this time the railroad system was the up and rising industrialist phenomenon.  Cornelius bought the New York State railroad and put W.H. in charge of the operation.  Not long after W. H. had been put in charge Cornelius past away.  After the passing of his father W.H. made the New York line very profitable and began to buy most of the railroad lines in the Northeast region of the United States.  W. H. Vanderbilt made huge profits through his ability to turn corporations into profitable economic empires.  With the wealth he made W. H. made very large contributions to up and coming universities.  He made a very large donation to Central Nashville University which has now been renamed as Vanderbilt University.  He is also responsible for a large portion of the Vanderbilt estate which is now a days worth about $52 billion.  By the time W. H. Vanderbilt passed away in his sixties he had accumulated so much wealth through his economic prowess and his inheritance that he was able to earn the title of 4th wealthiest man in history and surpass his fathers previous wealth.  His father is number 10 on the list of wealthiest men.
                   In my opinion W.H. Vanderbilt is one of the greatest economic success stories of his time period.  He overcame the negativity and distrust from his own father as a child to become even more wealthy than his father had been.  Another point of admiration about W.H. was in his urge to do better and achieve even more.  Even though he did inherit a large amount of wealth from his father, he turned around and made even more.  And he did not accomplish this by merely continuing in running the family business.  He made his wealth in a whole new field than the one his father did.  Cornelius was in the shipping business whereas W. H. made the majority of his wealth in the railroad business.   And another point is that he was born with natural talent for business and economics.  His father put him in charge of the family farm in his teenage years and W. H. was still able to pull the farm of an economic slump and actually turn it into a profitable small business.  W. H. was also a very charitable person.  As mentioned early W. H. made a very large donation and contribution to the Central Nashville University, which is now Vanderbilt University and is one of the leading medical and academic colleges in the nation.  He also contributed to A surgical hospital in the Northeast which is now one of the most prestigious medical schools in the country.   The Vanderbilt estate is now a museum that is open to the public and a true example of the amount wealth that was accumulated by the economic geniuses of the late 19th century.

W. H. Vanderbilt