[1] Over the course of 400 years, ethnic groups from all over the world have been attracted to the Central New York area, including the African, Asian, British, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Lebanese, Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander, Polish, Assyrian, Ukrainian, and Welsh communities.
Recent demographics indicate that the largest ancestries represented in the city includes African American (27.9%), Irish (15.9%), Italian (14.1%), German (12.2%), English (7.6%), Hispanic (6.5%), Polish (5.0%), Asian (4.0%) and Pacific Islander (1.1%).
[4] Prior to the Civil War, due to the efforts of Jermain Wesley Loguen and others in defiance of federal law, Syracuse was known as the "great central depot on the Underground Railroad".
A British agent, William Johnson, acquired 200,000 acres (810,000,000 m2) of land in the Mohawk country near present-day Johnstown, New York.
In 1615, Samuel de Champlain launched an attack against the Oneidas with the aid of the Huron and Algonquian Indians who were bitter enemies of the Iroquois.
[6] The German immigrants who first settled in the farmlands around Syracuse beginning in the early 19th century came from all areas of Germany including Alsace which was then a part of France.
During the 1820s and 1830s, most came from Southern Germany,[7] namely: Baden, Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt and Württemberg which were the areas devastated by the Napoleonic War, among others.
[8] The arrivals from Northern Germany including Franconia, Lorraine and Prussia came later[9] By 2010, demographics showed that 12.2% of the population in Syracuse was of German descent.
The largest waves entered the country from 1900 to 1920 and most were young males "who wished to make a fortune and then return to Greece," although 70 percent ended up staying in America.
Most were transplants from New England who, with other Yankee farmers, left rocky, barren soil for uncrowded, fertile land in Onondaga County.
[2] Italian immigrants came to the area around Syracuse, New York in the early 1880s after providing labor for the construction of the West Shore Railroad.
[2] The city stands at the northeast corner of the Finger Lakes Region in Onondaga County which is located in Central New York State.