Ireland in America
The United States has always been known as "The Land of Immigrants." People from all parts of the globe have traveled to America, to be free from oppression, disease, and hunger, or simply to start a new life. Many different people of different culture, race, and religion have made their mark and helped to shape the American culture. One of the most influential immigration movements in American History is the Irish Immigration. During the 18th century the Irish slowly began their migration to America. Centuries of oppression from Protestant English rule had forced them to live very poor lives under strict rules, in some cases having to renounce their Catholic beliefs and having to abandon their Gaelic
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The women worked manly as servants called "Brigets," to upper class families.
In the south, mainly New Orleans, the Irish lived in the swampland, living with diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. The Irish men were looked at as lower than slaves, as one historian puts it "If a plantation owner loses a slave, he loses an investment, If a plantation owner loses a laborer he can just find another" (Walt). Because of this, many were put into very dangerous jobs.
In cities such as Boston and New York, Irish immigrants were packed into slums and many still were dying as a result of hunger and disease. The Irish were discriminated against, mainly for being Catholics in an almost exclusively Protestant society. Many factories and employers posted signs on their doors, "workers wanted, no Irish need apply" (Considine 5). With the low wages that the Irish were earning (although much higher than they would receive in Ireland), one would think that the money would all be spent on feeding and housing the worker and their family, but this was not the case. "Through backbreaking sacrifice, they were able to send home a few shillings or pounds at a time until a sister, a brother, a mother, father, daughter, aunt, uncle, cousin or friend had enough money to buy the ship ticket" (Considine 46). This devotion of the Irish to their family and their fellow countrymen is a remarkable aspect of their culture.
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The factors that led to the Irish to emigrate from Ireland to America in the 1700’s and 1800’s were because of the scares resources. Potato was an important crop in Ireland because it can survive the war and provided their basic food needs. The Irish Famine forced them to make the choice to emigrate to America. The government was no help at all to the Irish because they did not do anything to really help the people going through hard times. Many people in Ireland were in poverty and lived of what they could grow but things diseases affected their crops. They were starving to death. Those working were paid little but most were unemployed. They were not given education in Ireland. The Irish had no hope left in Ireland. They left to America to
As mentioned before, Irish Americans had to climb their way up the social hierarchy. More often than not, this group traded their economic standing in order to be considered part of the white dominant race meaning that they would usually work for low wages in exchange for a sense of belonging into the dominant group. Because of this, Irish Americans were affected by poverty. However, there were some economic factors that contributed to the upward mobility of Irish Americans. A significant amount of Irish Americans became mobile by the 20th century, this upward mobility of Irish Americans is largely due to Urban political machines and the timing in which they entered the urban economy. In a fortunate series of events, many working men and women entered the country when companies were expanding and when various industries needed large amounts of workers, who were only to be paid with low wage.
However, Irish immigration to New York City took place throughout the late 1700s and the entire 1800s, which allowed a rift to form between protestant and catholic Irish communities in New York. Irish immigrants of the protestant faith had started to arrive before the catholics and established themselves as a community before the catholics had had a chance. Scottish-Irish was the self proclaimed name taken by many protestant Irish who had wanted to distance themselves from the new catholic arrivals. No matter which faith they followed, all Irish immigrants faced financial difficulty. A poor Ireland had been struck by many famines in the 1800s and most families could barely afford to cross the ocean into America. Those who did manage to muster the funds were left with little upon arrival. Integration started when the protestants joined other protestants in New York to avoid association with the catholics, but would not finish until work conditions improved and allowed catholic Irish workers to lose their poor reputation.
The life of Irish immigrants in Boston was one of poverty and discrimination. The religiously centered culture of the Irish has along with their importance on family has allowed the Irish to prosper and persevere through times of injustice. Boston's Irish immigrant population amounted to a tenth of its population. Many after arriving could not find suitable jobs and ended up living where earlier generations had resided. This attributed to the 'invisibility' of the Irish.
They would take the poorly paying jobs that required little skill such as jobs in brickyards, meatpacking plants, etc. They would settle in the neighborhoods with less money, like Bridgeport on the South Side or Kilglubbin on the North. It was in one such neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago where the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 started in the barn of 2 Irish immigrants, Patrick and Catherine O'Leary. The economic status of the Irish Immigrants improved as time passed. The newer generations of the Irish seems to be better off than their parents economically and educationally. At the end of the century, the Irish in chicago were still very much a part of the working class and much of them still lived in
The Irish people came to the United States to attempt to start a new life and attempt to succeed. Once arrived, the Irish lived in ethnic enclaves that contained a lot of Irish individuals because they could continue to practice their culture and be amongst individuals whom were also from Ireland. Based of their culture, the Irish experienced many stereotypes. The Irish were called immoral, lazy, and uneducated. They were immoral
When many think of the times of immigration, they tend to recall the Irish Immigration and with it comes the potato famine of the 1840s' however, they forget that immigrants from the Emerald Isle also poured into America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The assimilation and immigration of the Irish has been difficult for each group that has passed through the gates of Ellis Island or South Boston. Like every group that came to America, the Irish were looked down upon; yet, in the face of discrimination, political, social and economic oppression, the Irish have been a testament to the American Dream as their influence in
Irish immigration started in the 1800’s. tens thousands of Irish people left Ireland because of bad conditions in Ireland. Here are the reason Irish people left Ireland the first reason they left Ireland is because there was a mass starvation in Ireland and there was not enough food for everyone they fled in mass numbers to Canada in hope to find a better life. Second reason they were drove out of ireland is there was a massive sickness going around that was sweeping the Irish population and there was no antidote. The final main reason the Irish people left Ireland was they were trying to rebel against Britain and the irish men did not want to go into war so they and their families fled to Canada.
Immigrants from Ireland were driven to the United States due to the Great Famine of 1845-1850. Many people were almost completely dependent on potatoes, an easy-to-raise crop, due to Britain’s change of religion. These potatoes then fell victim to the unknown disease that left many families starving, and people dead. Families saved money for several winters to be able to send even one person to the United States, although they would only be able to arrive if they managed to survive the unsanitary and unsafe journey over. After arriving, many Irish immigrants began working in factories, or took jobs in the households of native-born families - then sent money back to Ireland to feed their suffering families, or to pay for another family member
As they began to immigrate to the United States, the Irish population suffered from various racism. They were categorizes as dangerous, aggressive, temperamental, along other derogatory words. However, with the introduction of new ethnicities, as well as the conformity Irish Americans dealt with, the stereotypes and discriminations regarding this immigrant group often diminished. As many other ethnicities have done, the Irish Americans found themselves conforming to American cultures and beliefs. This process of conformity has been adapted by many immigrating ethnicities, giving up most of their culture and identity to fit the image of what an ideal American is. In the case of Irish immigrants, many of them encountered hostility because of
America is traditionally a country of immigrants. Very few people today have relatives who were Native Americans, many of them because of religious persecution, and others because of they were just looking to start a new life on the exciting untouched frontier. For instance, in Florida, the first arrivals were European, beginning with the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon who explored the land in 1513, following French and Spanish settlement during the 16th century. From the past, America was seen as a country of opportunities. People from all over the world have moved here looking for better opportunities. There are a lot of reasons why immigrants should live in this country, but I would like to mention three of them.
Their entrance into America created challenges for them. They were disregarded and perceive as blacks. “Irish immigrants found themselves compared to blacks. They were stereotyped as “a race of savages” (Takaki 141). They consider themselves “slaves for the Americans”. As both groups experienced rejection, Irish immigrants and African Americans had to scorn each other to find their place in American society.
The Irish immigrated to the U.S. in the millions from 1820 and on. They came for a variety of reasons, primarily the potato famine that caused nationwide starvation. However, the living conditions in Ireland were deplorable far before the potato famine. The Irish were different from Americans because they lived in rural area that lacked modern industry. Many were very poor and had issues supporting themselves, or even moving away from the place they docked at when they got off the boat. When they came to America, they were unprepared for the more industrialized centers of the U.S. The Irish set the scene for immigrants coming to America in their housing choices, occupations entered, and the way they sent financial support back home to Ireland. Many Irish were large contributors in
Transitions are never an easy thing to conquer. It is often hard and stressful to cope with changes to one’s surrounding, but in the cases in which one manages to conquer this obstacle, elevation of knowledge and experience are great results gained from this achievement. I originally came from Africa and recently moved to the United States to join my mother and my step father. This great change in the things I had become accustomed to in my daily life was not easy, furthermore taking into account the fact that I had never experienced a transition so little as shifting from one residence to another.
Since its conception in the early 1600's, Boston, the so-called 'City on a Hill,' has opened its doors to all people of all ethnic and religious background. At times there were many who fought to prevent the immigrants, while other people, at the same time, helped those who made it to the Americas, more specifically, Boston to make a new life for themselves. The immigrants from Ireland were not unfamiliar with this trend in American history. More often than not, the Irish immigrants were met with adversity from the 'native' Bostonians.