Content Warning: This section of the guide includes a discussion of religious discrimination, racism, and child abuse.

In the late 1800s nearly 12 million immigrants came to the United States, many from Europe to escape a faltering economy that caused tough living conditions, crop failure, famine, and job shortages. Italian immigrants were no exception as Beniamino’s (Dom’s) situation in Napoli in The King of Mulberry Street shows: His family of 10 lives in a small apartment with little to eat. Additionally, Jews were persecuted across Europe and emigrated to the United States to escape religious persecution, which is apparent in Beniamino’s mother’s actions and advice, for she removes his yarmulke in the presence of strangers and advises him never to change in front of others, so they do not see his circumcision. 

At the end of the 19th century, nearly three-quarters of immigrants arrived via New York City. As a result, work was scarce, and employers often exploited immigrants for lower pay. Social tensions created competition, distrust, and prejudice between different groups of immigrants. For example, Chinese immigrants already established in US cities faced discrimination like Gaetano’s prejudice. Even Europeans were set against one another, Irish being favored in the job market because of their ease speaking English and because of their lighter skin. Italian immigrants often secured the least desirable jobs and were relegated to pockets of New York City. 

In 1874, the Padrone Act was passed in the United States, which prohibited the exploitation of immigrant children. Padrones were men who bought passage for children and then enslaved and abused them, forcing them to beg on the streets and treating them like animals. Despite this law, padrones were still plentiful in the 1890s. In the novel, they are a danger Dom encounters on several occasions—once on Ellis Island and again when he looks for Pietro. These bosses represent another layer of adversity that children like Dom faced.

Drawing on her own family history, Napoli often writes about the Italian Jewish experience. Her young adult novel Stones in Water, follows four Italian boys, one of whom is Jewish, who are forced into labor camps during World War II. Her young adult historical fiction, Alligator Bayou, shares the experiences of an Italian immigrant in Louisiana in 1899.