The Irish Migration

1
The Irish Migration

• Jill Hamer
• History 141
• Arguello

2
Migration Begins

• The Potato Famine from 1846-1850 sparked the
  Irish migration.
• Crops that the Irish relied on to pay their
  landlords were destroyed by the blight.
• Landlords evicted hundreds of thousands of
  peasants, who then crowded into disease-infested
  workhouses.
• Other landlords paid for their tenants to
  emigrate, sending hundreds of thousands of Irish
  to America and to other English-speaking
  countries.
• Ship owners often crowded hundreds of desperate
  Irish immigrants onto rickety vessels labeled
  "coffin ships."
• These ships reached port only after losing a
  third of their passengers to disease, hunger and
  other causes.

3
Irish Presence

• The Irish were strongly discriminated against
  upon their arrival in America.
• British view that the Irish were an inferior race
  transcended to popular American belief.
• The Irish were confined to ethnic slums and the
  infrequent labor available was often
  inaccessible.
• Catholicism was regarded as archaic and lowly to
  the American Protestant nation, yet became the
  very tie that bound the Irish community.
• The absence of distinctive physical attributes
  facilitated Irish assimilation into American
  society.

4
The Draft RiotsJuly 11-13, 1863

• Violent protests occurred after Abraham Lincoln
  issued the March 3, 1863, Enrollment Act of
  Conscription regarding service in the civil war.
• The Enrollment Act contained exemptions,
  including the payment of a "commutation fee" that
  allowed wealthier citizens to buy their way out
  of service in the already two year old war.
• Irish immigrants populating the slums, were most
  resentful of the inequities of northeastern
  cities.
• On Sunday June 12, 1863, the names of the
  draftees drawn the day before by the Provost
  Marshall were published in newspapers.
• Within hours, groups of irate citizens, many of
  them Irish immigrants, banded together across the
  city numbering some 50,000 people.

5
Public Disturbance

• The mob terrorized neighborhoods on the East Side
  of New York for three days looting many stores
  and homes.
• Although demonstrations took place in many
  Northern cities, the riots that broke out in New
  York City were both the most violent and highly
  publicized.
• The mob caused more than 1.5 million of damage.
• The number of people killed or wounded during the
  riot range from two dozen to nearly 100.
• Lincoln deployed combat troops from the Federal
  Army of the Potomac to restore order they
  remained encamped around the city for several
  weeks.

6
The Potato Famine

• Throughout the Potato Famine, from 1845 to 1850,
  more than one million people died of starvation
  or emigrated.
• In ten years the Irish population decreased from
  eight million down to five million people in
  Ireland.
• Many deaths were related to typhus, scurvy,
  dysentery, as well as poor working and living
  conditions.
• Subsistence farmers were forced to export various
  food items leaving the Irish solely dependent on
  the white potato.
• The Famine also changed centuries-old
  agricultural practices, hastening the end of the
  division of family estates into tiny lots capable
  of sustaining life only with a potato crop.

7
St. Patricks Day

• St. Patrick was originally born as Maewyn Succat,
  near the end of the fourth century in Britain.
• Kidnapped at the age of 16, he was sold into
  slavery in Ireland. He worked as a shepherd and
  found solace in religion.
• He later changed his name to Patrick, a more
  Christian name.
• St. Patrick traveled throughout Ireland after
  escaping slavery and built monasteries in order
  to convert the people to Christianity.
• Legend has it that Saint Patrick drove all the
  snakes out of Ireland. Evidently, they all went
  into the sea and drowned.
• The snake is a pagan symbol and perhaps this is a
  figurative tale explaining that he drove paganism
  out of Ireland.
• St. Patrick used the shamrock leaf to symbolize
  the Holy Trinity.

8
Sources

• http//www.people.virginia.edu/eas5e/Irish/Famine
  .html
• http//www.civilwarhome.com/draftriots.htm
• http//www.ops.org/north/curriculum/socstudies/Eth
  nicB2/past/Irish.htm
• http//www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/317749.
  html
• http//www.presidioinc.com/newsletter/99newsarchiv
  e/99march_irishneed.htm
• http//www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/patrick/history.
  html