Irish In America Research Paper

This report will be about the Irish in America that was discussed in the documentary and Text book. This will discuss the reasoning behind there mass exodus from Ireland. It will also discuss their trial along with their desire to succeed. In Ireland in 1845 there was a famine that crossed the whole country, which caused a mass exodus of Irish immigrants. Most of these people had never been more that fifteen miles from home. Over the next decade approxitmely 1,500,000 Irish men and woman left Ireland. These immigrants dispersed themselves throughout the world with most landing in America. Taking very little with them besides the clothing on their backs, they included their songs, stories and religion. Most parents would even leave their

For those that made the journey, would be scared, starving and no money once they arrived in America. The Irish landed in America all along the Eastern sea board, they are considered the first refugee population in America.

Once they arrived they would migrate to where other Irish would be staying, to give themselves some familiarity. Living in what was called a Shanty, a home or building that would be divided up into multiple homes. Once divided the Shanty’s would house five to six times the amount of people they were originally designed for.

Once in America they would attempt to gather any job they could require, most becoming ditch diggers. The Irish worker was cheap labor, average pay of eight cents a day compared to the American worker average of a dollar twenty five a day. Slave owners would even hire the Irish to dangerous jobs, because they felt they were less valuable than the slaves they owned.

Because of this diversity in pay, free blacks even made more money than the Irish. By 1850 there was a war brewing between the Irish and the Blacks of America. The Irish gangs would go out, stone or beat the blacks, attempting to run them off from the jobs that where