Another reason that Russian’s were pushed to America was famine. Peasants were forced to work on lands and were treated somewhat like slaves. They were not allowed to freely move within Russia and were denied the ability to migrate to a new country. This changed in the 1861 when the Emancipation Manifesto was created which granted peasants the ability to …show more content…
Russian Jews were not treated as equals. They were treated as second class citizens until Tsar Alexander II decided to pass reforms that created equality. Unfortunately he was assassinated shortly after passing reforms. His assassination led to riots as hate groups blamed the Jews for his murder. The riots were bad for both Russians and for Jews as their homes were destroyed and farms were burned to the ground. This pushed many Russian Jews to flee to America in search of a more stable and peaceful living experience. This is the reason my early ancestors left Russia to immigrate to America. In the 1890’s they left Russia and began their new life in Camden, New