Irish Immigration to the

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Irish Immigration to the Gangs of New York
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What is an Ethnic Group?
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Large groups of people classed according to
common traits or customs
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Who has been the most successful ethnic group in
US history?
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Jewish Immigrants have become the most
successful ethnic group in the US. What have they
achieved?
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Highest Income Highest Level of Education Most
Occupational Prestige
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Who is the second most successful ethnic
group? National Opinion Research Center at the
University of Chicago.
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The Irish Catholic Who are a close second in each
category National Opinion Research Center at the
University of Chicago.
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• How?
• Why?

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• Strategies?
• By Chance?
• Luck?

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The First Major Minority Group All of the
urban pathologies we now associate with the
urban poor
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Irish Assimilation Subsistence to Market Rural
to Urban Non English--English Speakers
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Background History of the Irish
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Ulster Irish 1605-1697 1715, 1730, 1745 Irish
Catholics from Ulster Captured
Indentures Cromwell sent 100,000 to Caribbean
Isles To Hell or Connaught (or Barbados) Quaker
Servants
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(No Transcript)
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Where the British Empire Goes

• So go the Irish
• as Soldiers, Servants, Missionaries, Settlers,
  etc.
• To North America

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Ulster Presbyterians become American
Frontiersmen Irish Catholics from Ulster become
Protestant in America Irish Catholic
Indentures (also Anglo-Irish)
Ulster Presbyterian
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During the American Revolution 33 to 40 of
Washingtons Army was Irish Many British
thought it was an Irish rebellion, or a
Presbyterian rebellion
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By 1789 United Irishmen Alien-Sedition Act
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• Colonial Period
• Irish as Alien Servants and Frontiersmen
• 2. Revolutionary Period
• Irish gained claim to patriotism
• Early Republican Period
• Irish convergence of talented, educated men
• Jacksonian Period
• Emphasis returns to mass immigration of
  unskilled labor
• Period of intense Anti-Irish activity

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Philadelphia

• 1850 72,312 Irish born
• 18 of citys population
• 1860 95,458 Irish born
• 17 of citys population
• In NYC Boston 23 of the population

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Poor Irish

• 2/3 of those in Alms House
• were Irish
• Alms Houses lent poor out as laborers

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CHOLERA EPIDEMIC

• Proof of Irish decadence

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Philadelphiavs. New York Boston

• Which city was best for the Irish?

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Housing -- 1851

• New York 515,000
• 37,730 houses
• Philadelphia 490,000
• 61,200 houses

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HOUSES

• Building and Loans in
• Philadelphia

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UNSKILLED WORKERS

• Canals
• Erie, Delaware Chesapeake,
• New Orleans
• Railroads

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COMPETITION WITH BLACK LABOR

• IRISH MOVE INTO CITIES ENMASS
• 3 paid forwarding agents for fictitious RR jobs
• They could work 12 hours for 87.5 cents a day
• Much lower than African Americans
• See Want-ads in Boston Philly papers
• NINA

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ENTREPRENEURS

• Entrepreneurs Raise the Irish to New Levels
• 1850 48 of Irish were unskilled laborers
• This has NO parallel with any other immigrant
  group
• But only 33 of Phillys Irish were unskilled
  laborers

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1850Only 1 of Boston Irish were grocers

• 1857
• 20 of Phillys grocers were Irish
• 12 of Phillys Dry Goods Merchants were Irish

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Upward Mobility

• Priesthood Religious Life
• Politics
• Police
• Firemen
• Labor Unions
• Nationalism

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Not so Upwardly Mobile

• Boxers
• Sportsmen
• Singers
• Actor
• Musicians

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CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

• Protestant Bibles
• Proselytize Catholics
• Harass Children

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Prior to 1860Boston has only 4 Catholic schools

• PHILLY HAD 19

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Irish Construction Companies Build Catholic
Churches Schools

• Irish Catholic Workers
• Workers can afford homes

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NATIVISTS RIOTS in Philadelphia

• BIBLE CONTROVERSY
• HARASSMENT OF CATHOLIC CHILDREN

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Gangs of New York

• Fact or fiction?

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Gangs of New York

• NYs infamous
• Five Points

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(No Transcript)
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The Battle?
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Bandits Roost
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Why study the Irish?

• American success story