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Antonio Sansone, Sansone Fruit Co., Norfolk, Photograph, c. 1915

CONTENT WARNING

Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation. 

Context

Antonio Sansone was born in 1856 in Termini Imerese, Sicily. He immigrated to the United States in 1880 at the start of a wave of Italian immigration to America that lasted until about 1920. By 1899, he had established Antonio Sansone & Company, a wholesale dealer of fruit located on East Main Street, near the city market, in Norfolk. Truck farming was a major industry in the tidewater region of Virginia, and Norfolk was a major port for exporting fresh produce and fruit to northern cities. Other members of the Sansone family immigrated to the United States and also engaged in selling fresh produce. Some members of the family went on to establish their own businesses.

Antonio Sansone’s house was a full one by 1900, when the census taker visited. In addition to his wife, Annie Sansone, the family included six daughters, two sons, a nephew, and Antonio’s mother, Salvatora. Other family members lived in the neighborhood, which was a mixture of immigrants and native-born Virginians who worked in variety of occupations. When Antonio Sansone died in 1956, the extended Sansone family had experienced a trajectory of upward mobility as they built their businesses and lives in a new country.

Citation:  Norfolk’s Sansone Fruit Company, shown about 1915, Mann Collection, Prints and Photographs, Special Collections, Library of Virginia. 

Standards

VS.9, USII.3, CE.6, VUS.10, VUS.12, GOVT.5

Suggested Questions

Preview Activity

Look at It: Look at the photograph. What can you infer about the subject based upon the image? List three or four ideas.  

Post Activities

Think About It: As ports of entry for immigrants, cities such as Norfolk, Baltimore, and New York have long been centers for diverse populations. Newly arrived immigrants settled in ethnically diverse neighborhoods, established businesses, and worked to bring members of their families to the United States. Pretend you have just immigrated to Virginia. Write a letter to a relative in your homeland giving them your opinion of whether they should emigrate or remain in their home country.

Current Connection: Many people immigrate to the United States every year. What challenges do today’s immigrant communities encounter which may not have existed in the early 1900s? Consider the diversity of the countries immigrants represent and how that may impact their ability to immediately assimilate to American culture?