Al CaponeEssay Preview: Al CaponeReport this essayA lot of Italian immigrants, like many immigrants of all nationalities, came to the New World with very few items. Many of the immigrants were peasants escaping the lack of opportunity in rural Italy. Gabriele Capone, Alphonses father, was one of 43,000 Italians who arrived in the U.S. in 1894. He was a barber by trade and could read and write in his native language. He was from the village of Castellmarre di Stabia, sixteen miles south of Naples. Gabriele, who was thirty years old, brought his pregnant twenty-seven-year-old wife Teresina , his two-year-old son Vincenzo and his infant son Raffaele. Unlike many Italian immigrants, he did not owe anyone for his passage over. His plan was to do whatever work was necessary until he could open his own barber shop.
A new type of job was born in Galicia in 1864, in the name of a local company. Here, some were employed temporarily to make goods for the Italian government before the U.S. government transferred them to another company. When Italian businesses began to move into the U.S., the company quickly grew, producing over fifty thousand products and two hundred thousand pounds of goods every year. Before the rise and fall of Italy, a large number of Italian and American businesses had been moving in the U.S. to start manufacturing goods. Although the majority of Italy’s manufacturing activity took place in the U.S., a small number of Italian businesses in all of the 16 new U.S. cities were in the business of the Italian government. All of these businesses were working together to create a new economy. The Italian government, as its true benefactor, was doing good work in business. With the U.S. economy in turmoil, and the United States in the midst of the Great Depression, Italian businesses also began to seek the American market, especially in the construction of office buildings, warehouses and the military. Although almost all foreign banks had begun to build in the U.S., only a few of them had had business opportunities for the Italian government. These Italians, in their attempt to obtain employment in the American market, found themselves working for no other choice but for the government of the Italian government and, under their orders, they worked themselves to death or left Italy on their own terms, leaving it to local and national governments to offer job openings to workers in their local markets. While many Italians fled with their families back to Italy, the Italian government was determined to provide the United States with a high level of capital to help it meet its budget obligations. When the Federal Reserve issued a note to the government in June 1886, it added a million dollars on the table, with an amount equal to $25,000,000 ($15.1 million to $16.4 million, including payments to Italian banks, and at one point to the Federal Reserve Board. Other provisions of the note also extended the date that would have led to the creation of a bank in Galicia. When it was finally issued in October of 1896, the first note authorized by the Bank at the time, the government extended the term of that note to 18 months. Between 1902 and 1910, the government provided about twenty million dollars to the national governments for capital construction in Galicia. The government provided about $2.6 billion over the next sixty years, but by that point unemployment was already very low. Nevertheless, the Italian government was well aware that it was in no position to solve the problem of low job numbers in Italy. While the government in Galicia was beginning to be more serious about addressing the issue and making improvements and in some cases creating new jobs, the Italian government, especially during the great depression of 1920, worked to create a low job pool to support its banks. In response to this, the government moved to require some form of employment security. Before World War I began, the government
A new type of job was born in Galicia in 1864, in the name of a local company. Here, some were employed temporarily to make goods for the Italian government before the U.S. government transferred them to another company. When Italian businesses began to move into the U.S., the company quickly grew, producing over fifty thousand products and two hundred thousand pounds of goods every year. Before the rise and fall of Italy, a large number of Italian and American businesses had been moving in the U.S. to start manufacturing goods. Although the majority of Italy’s manufacturing activity took place in the U.S., a small number of Italian businesses in all of the 16 new U.S. cities were in the business of the Italian government. All of these businesses were working together to create a new economy. The Italian government, as its true benefactor, was doing good work in business. With the U.S. economy in turmoil, and the United States in the midst of the Great Depression, Italian businesses also began to seek the American market, especially in the construction of office buildings, warehouses and the military. Although almost all foreign banks had begun to build in the U.S., only a few of them had had business opportunities for the Italian government. These Italians, in their attempt to obtain employment in the American market, found themselves working for no other choice but for the government of the Italian government and, under their orders, they worked themselves to death or left Italy on their own terms, leaving it to local and national governments to offer job openings to workers in their local markets. While many Italians fled with their families back to Italy, the Italian government was determined to provide the United States with a high level of capital to help it meet its budget obligations. When the Federal Reserve issued a note to the government in June 1886, it added a million dollars on the table, with an amount equal to $25,000,000 ($15.1 million to $16.4 million, including payments to Italian banks, and at one point to the Federal Reserve Board. Other provisions of the note also extended the date that would have led to the creation of a bank in Galicia. When it was finally issued in October of 1896, the first note authorized by the Bank at the time, the government extended the term of that note to 18 months. Between 1902 and 1910, the government provided about twenty million dollars to the national governments for capital construction in Galicia. The government provided about $2.6 billion over the next sixty years, but by that point unemployment was already very low. Nevertheless, the Italian government was well aware that it was in no position to solve the problem of low job numbers in Italy. While the government in Galicia was beginning to be more serious about addressing the issue and making improvements and in some cases creating new jobs, the Italian government, especially during the great depression of 1920, worked to create a low job pool to support its banks. In response to this, the government moved to require some form of employment security. Before World War I began, the government
Gabrieles ability to read and write allowed him to get a job in a grocery store until he was able to open his barber shop. Teresina, in spite of her duties as a mother, took on sewing piecework to add to the family coffers. Her third child, Salvatore was born in 1895. Her fourth son and the first to be born and conceived in the New World was born January 17, 1899. His name was Alphonse Capone. A block from Als home was the parish church, St Michaels, where the Reverend Garofalo baptized him several months after his birth.
At the age of five in 1904, he went to Public School 7 on Adams Street. Educational prospects for Italian children were very poor. The school system was deeply prejudiced against them and did little to encourage any interest in higher education, while the immigrant parents expected their children to leave school as soon as they were old enough to work. Al did quite well in school until the sixth grade when his steady record of Bs declined rapidly. At fourteen, he lost his temper at the teacher, she hit him and he hit her back. He was expelled and never went to school again. About this time, his family moved from their house on Navy Street to 21 Garfield Place. This move would have a lasting impact on Al because in this new neighborhood he would meet the people who would have the most influence on his future: his wife Mae and the gangster Johnny Torrio.