How the Lack of Potatoes Led to a Lack of Respect Numerous natural disasters, genocides, and pandemics have spread over lands and wiped out mass numbers of people throughout history. One of the most fatal ones from the nineteenth century was the Irish Potato Famine. The Irish Potato Famine struck Ireland in 1845, leaving millions of people starving, dead, and in poverty. More than 1.5 million people left their homeland to seek refuge in the America (Costly). Discrimination against the Irish, especially by potential employers, left many immigrants jobless and in poverty even in the United States. After the harsh treatment they had endured in America, many Irishmen took up arms and joined Mexico in an Irish Brigade in the Mexican-American War. …show more content…
After immigrating to America, the first task for many Irishmen was to seek employment so that they could support their families after escaping the famine back in Ireland. However, most of the immigrants were poor farmers that had never learned to read or write and didn’t know much English, if any at all. Overall, they took the jobs they could find; men usually did some small labor or janitorial work that he got paid pennies for, while the women worked as servants or in factories. Many businesses hung a sign on their door that said “No Irish Need Apply” to discourage unwanted applicants (Costly). The immigrants lived in slums and basements or attics with horrible conditions such as no running water or good sanitation abilities. They continued to face persecution because of their religious beliefs, which were predominantly Catholic. This led them to live in “ghettos” close together and form Irish-Catholic communities in small areas of different cities along the East Coast. Discrimination based on nationality, intellect, and religion was an immediate result of immigration to the U.S. and a direct cause of the Irish decision to side with Mexico during the Mexican-American …show more content…
Saint Patrick’s Battalion was an Irish brigade fighting for Mexico in the Mexican-American War composed of anywhere from 175 to several hundred men that had left the United States Army. However, the battalion was not all Irish; there were also many Germans, Mexicans, French, Italians, Canadians, and other immigrant from various nations, but most of them were Catholic. There were even escaped slaves from the southern U.S. among the ranks, but very few of the soldiers in the brigade were actually American citizens. The battalion was responsible for the toughest battles faced by the U.S. when they invaded Mexico. Saint Patrick’s Battalion, the Irish brigade that fought for Mexico in the Mexican-American War, was largely a result of racial and religious discrimination against immigrants in the United
“It must be understood that we cannot feed the people” (Kinealy Calamity 75). The mid 1800s in Ireland were characterized by extreme poverty, death, and emigration. The Great Potato Famine, also known as “The Great Hunger,” first hit in 1845; however, its effects lasted into the 1850s and can still be seen today. Prior to the famine, Irish manufacture and trade was controlled and suppressed by British government, which made Ireland an extremely poor country. Farmers in Ireland were forced to export crops such as corn, wheat, and oats to Britain, which left the potato as the main dietary staple for the people, especially the poor. Therefore, when the fungus Phytophthora infestans caused some, and eventually all, of the crop to rot over the next couple of years, the reliance on the one crop made the people of Ireland extremely susceptible to the famine. The effects were devastating, and poverty spread across the nation causing a huge increase in homelessness, the death-rate, emigration, and a change in the Irish people and country overall.
Throughout the entire movie, the immigrants live as poor people and are treated even worse. They are constantly being abused by the “natives” because they are Catholic. Most vividly when “natives” throw objects and verbally abuse the Irish even before they set foot on land as they walk off the boats.iii In many ways, during the entire movie, we see the
The Irish began immigrating to North America in the 1820s, when the lack of jobs and poverty forced them to seek better opportunities elsewhere after the end of the major European wars. When the Europeans could finally stop depending on the Irish for food during war, the investment in Irish agricultural products reduced and the boom was over. After an economic boom, there comes a bust and unemployment was the result. Two-thirds of the people of Ireland depended on potato harvests as a main source of income and, more importantly, food. Then between the years of 1845 and 1847, a terrible disease struck the potato crops. The plague left acre after acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot. The failure of the potato yields caused the prices of food to rise rapidly. With no income coming from potato harvests, families dependent on potato crops could not afford to pay rent to their dominantly British and Protestant landlords and were evicted only to be crowded into disease-infested workhouses. Peasants who were desperate for food found themselves eating the rotten potatoes only to develop and spread horrible diseases. ¡§Entire villages were quickly homeless, starving, and diagnosed with either cholera or typhus.¡¨(Interpreting¡K,online) The lack of food and increased incidents of death forced incredible numbers of people to leave Ireland for some place which offered more suitable living conditions. Some landlords paid for the emigration of their tenants because it made more economic sense to rid farms of residents who were not paying their rent. Nevertheless, emigration did not prove to be an antidote for the Famine. The ships were overcrowded and by the time they reached their destination, approximately one third of its passengers had been lost to disease, hunger and other complications. However, many passengers did survive the journey and, as a result, approximately ¡§1.5 million Irish people immigrated to North America during the 1840¡¦s and 1850¡¦s.¡¨(Bladley, online) As a consequence of famine, disease (starvation and disease took as many as one million lives) and emigration, ¡§Ireland¡¦s population dropped from 8 million to 5 million over a matter of years.¡¨(Bladley, online) Although Britain came to the aid of the starving, many Irish blamed Britain for their delayed response and for centuries of political hardship as basi...
Looking for a better life away from death, oppression, and destruction the Irish headed to America by the thousands in the 1840’s. Ireland’s staple food was the potato, it was the main means of subsistence for the poor. Then in the 1840’s cataclysm struck, the potato blight caused famine, disease, death and despair. Close to a million deaths were blamed on the potato blight in Ireland. The potato blight was caused by a disease that rendered the potatoes inedible. It lasted for several years, from 1845-1849 the country suffered great hardships, sickness, and death. The blight was the final straw to push many immigrants out of Ireland and to America looking for a chance of survival (Marger, 2015, pg. 284)
Phythophthora infestans was the lethal fungus that infested Ireland's potato crop and eventually ruined all of the land it grew on. This time is called the Great Famine and has impacted Ireland due to its destructive extinction of the potato farms which caused disease, extreme poverty, and death.
In the mid 1800s the course of Irish history was changed forever. The Irish were devastated by The Great Potato Famine of the mid to late 1800s. Population declined from over eight million people in 1840 to under 4.5 million in 1900 due to death and immigration (O’Rourke 2). The poorer Irish people, unlike many British citizens, relied almost entirely on agriculture. The Irish immigration not only affected Ireland and Britain, but its affects were felt over much of the world, including the United States. The famine had a significant effect on the future of Irish history including Home Rule legislation, The Easter Uprising of 1916, and the eventual creation of an Irish free state in the early twentieth century.
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.
The Nativists feared the immigrants because Americans were outnumbered, outvoted, and overwhelmed. The Nativists established the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, which demanded restrictions on immigration and even promoted violence against immigrants. This soon transformed into the American Party, also known as the Know- Nothings. The American Party claimed the immigrants were a threat to American values and democracy. For example anti-Irish feeling was high for several reasons. The Irish were poor and the cities they lived in eventually developed into slums. The American people blamed the Irish for the crime, disease, and corruption taking place. To take another case in point, The Irish were Catholic and many Americans were Protestant. The American belief was Catholics could not be trusted because they were more loyal to the Pope than the United States Government. The Germans were seen as anti-American for preserving their culture and language when they emigrated to America. The truth that many Americans failed to see was immigrants created a racially and ethnically diverse
The potato famine in Ireland from 1845-1852 sent thousands of poor farmers to America in hope of finding jobs. The Irish were overly dependent on the potato for a means of income, so when it faltered, so did their source of income. In America, the Irish worked in factories with
...y a majority of the cost with little aid from England. The English essentially made the Irish a territory not an equal who would have to save itself from the famine brought by the trading ships from Mexico.
During the mid 1840’s, blight in the potato crops in Ireland caused widespread starvation and migration of Irish citizens to the United States. Yet, the massive loss of life and massive exodus could have been avoided if British taxation upon the working class of Ireland was nullified. Though the struggle for liberation was already taking place, the potato famine furthered the cause and helped spread awareness. Furthermore, the potato famine made the average Irish family more reliant upon the government for subsidies and supports to get by.
With 3 million either gone or dead from the island of Ireland, 1845 was possibly the most painful year in its history. It was also obvious that something was afflicting Ireland, with the smell and sight of the crops. Death rate grew high, and immigration even higher during this time period of the famine. The Great Potato Famine of 1845 had a massive effect on Ireland in population decrease, the reactions of the people, and effects it had on the future of Ireland.
The Great Potato Famine was an event that drastically affected the lives of the Irish in a bad way. This paper covers the history of the potato, the migration of the potato blight to Ireland, land consolidation, and agriculture laws in Ireland. Also, the food exports in Ireland during the time of the famine, potato dependency, and the relationship between the Irish and the English at that time. Now let’s give you some background knowledge on the potato.
...ight hit the fields and destroyed the crops, disaster ensued. In those terrible years, between 1846 and 1851, one million people died of starvation, malnutrition, typhus, recurring fever, dysentery and scurvy. Another million Irish citizens emigrated.
The Irish Famine 1845-1849 “Is ar scáth a chiéle a maireann na daoine” “It is with each other’s protection that the people live” From the Fifteenth through to the Nineteenth centuries English Monarchies and Governments had consistently enacted laws which it seems were designed to oppress the Irish and suppress and destroy Irish Trade and manufacturing. In the Penal laws of 1695 which aimed to destroy Catholicism, Catholics were forbidden from practicing their religion, receiving education, entering a profession, or purchasing or leasing land; since Catholics formed eighty percent of the Irish population, this effectively deprived the Irish of any part in civil life in their own country. In the eighteenth century the Irish condition had improved: The Irish merchant marine had been revived and ports improved, and the glass, linen, and clothing industries developed. Agriculture had also been improved and in 1782 the Irish Constitution was formed.