The Plight of Immigrants to Boston

The Plight of Immigrants to Boston

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.

Founded by the Puritans in the late 1600's, Boston and its people were not completely open to immigrants, at first, which seemed odd, considering they were once immigrants. Before the American Revolution, the majority of the predominately Protestant citizens of Boston were "fairly inhospitable to persons of any different religious persuasion…especially the Irish who were regarded by most Anglo-Saxons as members of an inferior race…" Because of these sentiments, many of the first immigrants from Ireland settled in the less populated areas of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. With one glance at the names of the towns they settled -- Dublin, Belfast and Limerick, to name a few -- you would think of their Irish counterparts in Ireland.

Many of the Irish who immigrated to Boston during the years before the American Revolution were part of "a poor, hardworking class." Most could not even afford to pay their way over and came as indentured servants instead. They came from all walks of life and many different backgrounds. There were tailors, cabinet-makers, carpenters, shoemakers, and bricklayers, as well as farmhands and laborers. The one thing...

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...ties and fire departments. They enlarged water supplies and ran new sewer lines. They did all of these things to accommodate their increasing Irish community in Boston.

The Irish-Americans were finally beginning to carve out their own little niche in Boston. They began to prove to the 'natives' their worth. They succeeded in pushing the natives out into the suburbs, whether or not this was purely because of prejudice or choice is unknown. Either way, I think that both the Irish-Americans and natives were content with the situation. The Irish further enriched the city that the 'natives' had built, in spite of the adversity that the natives had shown the Irish. In the end, I honestly think it was a win-win situation for both the Irish-Americans and the 'natives.' Both prospered after long periods of hard work, and also prospered because of each other's hard work.*