America's Ancestry, Explained Through Maps

Great video. I’m an American descendant of slavery and you did a great job with speaking about our history and the Great Migration. My only complaint is that you lumped Black immigrants with Black Americans who are descendants of American Chattel Slavery. We are a separate ethnic group from Black immigrants that has been in America since the colonial era. We are quintessentially American. Additionally, Black Americans that are descendants of American Chattel Slavery are a mixed race group of people. We are an amalgamation of various African groups, mixed with various European groups primarily British, and many of us have Native American ancestry as well. I strongly believe that fact must be mentioned. You mentioned that Mexicans and Louisiana Creoles are an admixed people but failed to mention that about Black Americans. You would be extremely hard pressed to find a BlackAmerican who descends from American Chattel Slavery who does not have any European heritage.

As an African American, I find this so eye-opening. I identify as black, because that's how most of the world sees me and how I see myself. However, I have French, Irish, and Native American ancestry, as recently as my great grandparents, and probably other non-African ethnicities before that. I never think about their journeys or their lives here in a personal way, but more as some other group of people's history, even though the truth is that they are my people too. This video sparked a change in my way of thinking.

So, I just randomly found and was watching this video and at 13:22, you show a picture of a WWII ship. That ship was the USS Harry Taylor, and my dad served on that ship during WWII. I’ve studied that picture a lot, and found my dad among the many servicemen. The story of that ship was it had picked up thousands of soldiers from Europe and was going to take them to the Pacific arena via the Panama Canal to fight Japan. While still in the Atlantic, they received word that Japan surrendered, so they reversed course and headed to the NY harbor. It was the first ship to reach the harbor after VJ Day. Thanks for sharing, it brought back memories of my dad and his service!

As a Cajun, That was a pretty good analysis. I can’t speak French but my brother and grandmother can speak it and I’d like to learn one day as it feels important to me. Many people in Louisiana are very prideful in there heritage

I really enjoyed this video. I especially liked your mention of the Gullah, Creole, and Cajun cultures. Well done.

This was so well done. I am utlizing this for our migration lessons. Thank you so much for posting. Your research and care of detail, and diversity were really well appreciated. As an educator the amount of research you did is priceless.

Thank you so much for putting in the time and effort to make such an informative video.

Great job discussing the specific locations immigrants came from and went to. I like that you were more specific than just "from this country to USA". Including what part of the originating country, why they were leaving, what state they landed in, and why they chose that location, is amazingly detailed. Very well done.

I also appreciate you actually trying to pronounce names correctly. Lots of videos brush it off like "I am no good at pronunciation" then don't even try. You gave no excuses and gave a firm attempt. I didn't notice any mispronunciations. But I'm sure someone super keen probably noticed something.

I have been working on my family history for 30+ years. Recently, I have been researching history in the areas my ancestors lived. Thank you for making history so simple to understand! I am glad I found your channel. History makes more sense to me now.🙂🙂

Great job Carter! I think a lot of people from the Americas (myself included) have this hunger for knowing our heritage. It's a time consuming and beautiful task to revive our ancestors' stories and their journeys. Anyway, I'll keep posted for the next video! 🔔

Unfortunately, my family has firsthand experience with the anti-German sentiment following World War II. My maternal grandmother’s grandparents were all from Germany. Her grandparents and parents all spoke German, but absolutely refused to speak it around the kids/grandkids. They got harassed a lot, so much so that even today my mother refuses to tell people that she has German ancestry. Even I have gotten some negative reactions, although not many.

Edit: If you look at some of the replies, you'll see what I meant when I saw that many of us get negative reactions about our German ancestry.

Really appreciate the effort you put in your videos! Informative and well-explained!

Thanks for this great presentation, Carter!

Yes, this is interesting! Considering time constraints, you managed an admirably deep dive into the subject. A good overview, thoughtful and provoked my interest in the regional videos.

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Wow. Bravo!
Not only did I find your video interesting, but so informative. You have done an amazing amount of research. Then to put it all together in some way that made sense, was equally impressive. Well done, sir!

Outstanding video ! Very informative and well researched ! I will definitely be following you!

Exceptionally well researched, analyzed, and presented. 👏🏽

As a native New Jersey resident, I am English irish French German Italian Danish and polish. But I grew up dominated by the Italian-Irish Catholic culture. Almost everyone was either Italian/Irish Catholic or Jewish. I was surrounded by Irish pubs and Italian restaurants and Jewish bakeries.

This is amazing! Well researched and executed. Thank you

This was really informational and fascinating to watch. Thank you for the hard work you put into this