From the year 1845 until the early 1850’s, Ireland was hit with one of the most devastating travesties: the potato famine. Disease was spread upon Ireland’s main crop, the potato, which caused Ireland’s agricultural economy to hit rock bottom. It also caused many deaths among the Irish through starvation. To avoid death and start a new life, many Irish had to flee to The United States and Canada. Though many died while traveling across the Atlantic, thousands made it to land. With no money and no place to live, the Irish were about to make a big change in North America. Bringing only their religion and agricultural experience with them, the Irish fleeing the famine increased the power of the Catholic Church in Canada, catalyzed the effects of the industrial revolution, and strengthened the economy through the creation of thousands of jobs.…
“…as Oscar Handlin observed, “In a society that favored whites over blacks, the Boston Irish found themselves found themselves in a community that preferred Negroes to Catholic Immigrants.”showing that Catholics fell below all others on the Boston social ladder”(P25, View). In a community that has been under Protestants dominance almost since the establishment, these poor immigrants found themselves very much unwelcome. During their early times in Boston, most of these pre-farmers that fled from famine were “funneled into, unskilled day labor as a mere means of scraping by” , which “did not provide enough to even maintain a family of four”(P18, View). In order to survive, Irish women and children also had to work and “mainly taking jobs as servant in Boston’s middle-class homes”(P18, View). Such miserable situation did not really get better in the later years of the nineteenth century, that the Irish were still at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. In comparison to “the British middle class which rose from 26 percent to 53 percent and the number of manual workers fell from 31 percent to 23 percent” and “the East European middle class (principally Jewish) grew from 25 percent to 50 percent while the number of manual workers decreased from 25 percent to 23 precent,” the Irish middle class expended “from 10 percent to 38 percent” and “ the number…
During the 1840s, life in Ireland was becoming increasingly difficult. Agriculture was becoming market-oriented while the population continued to increase, leading to a decline in opportunity for farmers and leaseholders. Soon after, the potato blight devastated Ireland, where approximately one million perished and a million more emigrated to the United States. This caused Ireland’s population to decline by 20%. Meanwhile, the United States was in the midst of its Industrial Revolution.…
What I have learned about my Irish ethnicity has been quite an experience for me. I have learned that the Irish were put through many years of suffering when they immigrated to the United States of America. The Irish immigrants were considered uneducated and unworthy. In many ways the Irish were perceived to be on the same level as African Americans. Irish immigrants were put into slavery, given jobs that nobody else would take, weren’t paid well, and were forced to live in unfit conditions and only with other Irish.…
During this era almost more than half of the Irish population lived on farms and were making little or no money. Because of the low income they were given, many farmers could only afford to buy potatoes to survive. Unfortunately this crop failed 3 years in a row, the outcome was horrendous! More than 750,000 men and children died due to the famine in Ireland. What were they to do? They had little choice they had but to move to the new world to escape disease and famine. During the same equivalent time Germans left their home country to escape political hardships. Many riots and rebellions took place during the civil unrest which ultimately caused the German revolution of 1848. Like the Irish German population were forced to leave for the sake of their lives.…
Philadelphia has had a long standing immigration of Irish citizens. The highest immigration of Irish into Philadelphia however was during the 19th century. The central cause of this spike in immigration was due to the failed potato crop in Ireland, which later became known as the Great Famine. Over a million Irish people died of starvation, while nearly another two million emigrated. A large portion of this plight landed in America, primarily to the Eastern coast cities, because copious amounts of them were extremely poor. The Library of Congress explicates that the Irish “In the 1840s…comprised nearly half of all immigrants to this nation” (Immigration). The majority of these Irish immigrants followed the Catholic religion, while previous…
Although the immigrants contributed a lot to U.S. society, they also caused many social issues in U.S. society. For instance, the Chinese immigrants undercut American wages and brought an unacceptable culture with them. According to reading, Chinese immigrants worked for low wages and debased the American standard of living. Also, they were an alien race that could not be assimilated into America; their innate lack of morals made them as inferior race, as some Americans said. Besides Chinese immigrants, there also had other ethnic immigrants causing social issues. For instance, like Chinese immigrants, irish immigrants also lowered down the American standard of living and undercut American wages as they accpeted low wages. Also, they completed…
In this document, Boutler describes the situations in which people in Ireland were currently living under and relates the emigration especially to poverty (the “pull”). He also says that many people had been migrating to America attracted by a better life and more job opportunities (the “push”). However, he is aware of the fact that 1 in 10 men do well abroad and the rest lives…
Why is it everyone left their homelands in Ireland for this? Irish immigrants suffered many problems with their environment especially. It caused mostly starvation upon tons of other things. As you may know, potatoes were a big supplement in Ireland. In 1845-1845, there came the 'Great Hunger' or The Irish Potato Famine. There was a famine that passed through the potato crops causing diseases such as typhus and dysentery, as well as bringing a massive death toll of 2 million from starvation and disease. Overall, Irish immigrants fled to America to escape from the threat of more natural disasters, death, and…
From “a race of savages” the Irish were able to integrate and achieve whiteness with an “Irish ethic” To make clear distinction from the other minorities, the Irish lashed out to attack the black and used them to facilitate their integration into society. In addition, through structural emergence in politic, they were able to organize entrance for opportunities and jobs. They actively pursued their political voice and emerged through Democratic party. Through leadership and rise of unions, there was a shift in representation. They went from a poor serving class to a skilled middle class laborers.…
Immigrants at a certain time were treated as welcomed guest with a bright future and equal opportunity to make a difference. Immigrants who arrived after 1880 experienced a shift in the lives of the American citizen that resulted in a firsthand experience of dreams that didn’t come true, bad living and working environments, and in equal rights. This dramatic shift came about from racism and a sudden decrease in space in cities and in some parts of the country.…
The experience of Mexican-Americans in the United States is both similar, yet different from other minority groups. They were treated much like the Irish-American and other newcomers of the ninetieth century. Mexican-Americans also like the Irish, soon made themselves indispensable in the first half of the twentieth century as cheap labor. Later in the last decade, they have felt pride began to make themselves a necessity in far more numerous ways to business, government, popular culture and art.…
Immigrants ventured to America to live the American dream. They wanted independence and freedom, but many were stripped of their freedom and thrown into factories and companies where they worked strenuous hours on back-breaking jobs, only to get paid a couple dollars. Without other options, these immigrants and other poor people were essentially slaves to the industry and were subjected to low wages, poor living conditions, long hours, and poor working conditions.…
By 1850 43% of the immigrants that lived in America were Irish. 90% of the Irish living in America still lived in cities, and the other 10 percent lived in the country mostly on farms. The Irish stayed the closest of all the immigrants. One reason was to try to stay close like they were in Ireland, and another was because the Irish were the poorest, and wanted to stay close to help each other out.…
Immigration in the United States is a complex demographic activity that has been a major contribution to population growth and cultural change throughout much of the nation's history. The many aspects of immigration have controversy in economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, crime, and even voting behavior. Congress has passed many laws that have to do with immigrants especially in the 19th century such as the Naturalization Act of 1870, and the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, or even the Immigration Act of 1903 all to insure specific laws and boundaries set on immigrants. The life of immigrants has been drastically changed throughout the years of 1880-1925 through aspects such as immigrants taking non-immigrants wages and jobs, the filtration process of immigrants into the United States, and lastly, the foreign policies of the immigrants and their allowance into the nation.…