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Why did the Irish leave Ireland? Rich in nutrition and easy to grow, potatoes were eaten at every meal in Ireland in the 1800’s. Other crops and livestock were raised mainly for export. Potatoes fed the nation. Ireland was already poor when a sudden fungal disease wiped out the potato crop in the late 1840’s. Potatoes rotted in the ground and storage bins. A catastrophic famine set in. These drawings give a sense of the desperation of the poor as they searched in vain for good potatoes to eat. “The Great Hunger,” as it was called, was one of the great tragedies of the 19th century. In six years, the population of Ireland declined from 8 to 6 million. About a million people died from the famine and another million emigrated to the United States, Canada, and Australia.
In the 1840’s all of Ireland was part of Great Britain. Millions of Ireland’s poor were agricultural laborers, tenants of absentee landlords. Most of these landlords lived in luxury in England, only visiting their estates in Ireland once or twice a year. Even during the famine, many of the landlords continue to sell grain and meat abroad. Most landlords dealt badly with their tenants. At a whim, for example, in order to use their land for grazing purposes, they would force tenants out of their homes and off of the lands. Such evictions were often tragic as the illustration makes clear.
Great Britain can’t be faulted for the fungus that wiped out the potatoes but they were slow to act in responding to the crisis and far too little to improve conditions and provide relief for those who were starving. Some even claimed the famine was due to a defect in the Irish character. The British cartoon titled “The Workingman’s Burden” shows a happy Irish peasant carrying his famine relief money(welfare) while riding the back of an exhausted English laborer.
The trip to America was difficult and dangerous – especially traveling in steerage (Shown in the picture), the area of a ship reserved for the lowest paying passengers. Vessels full of Irish immigrants in steerage came to be known as “coffin ships.” For those who survived, arrival offered hope, but also new dangers and confusions. The picture shows Irish immigrants in U.S. ports. They are shown being examined by doctors. Most of the Irish settled in cities. Women took low-paying jobs as domestic servants and men worked as laborers in shops and factories. By the mid 1800’s, the Irish filled some of the worst and most dangerous slums in New York, Boston, and other cities. They faced resentment and prejudice as they competed for jobs in increasing numbers with native-born workers.
The Irish were often the targets of prejudice in America for a number of reasons: First, as immigrants, they were seen as taking jobs away from native born Americans. Second, the Catholic Church was an important force in the lives of the Irish immigrants, comforting them emotionally and spiritually. At the time of their arrival, America was a Protestant nation and the Irish attachment to the Catholic Church was looked upon with a great deal of suspicion and hatred. Finally, because almost arriving Irish were poor, they were seen by the native born Americans as inferior and “dirty.” As a result of these prejudices, they were often given the worst and most dangerous jobs. In addition, they were forced to live in the slums of America’s major cities. The last illustration on your page shows the Five Points neighborhood of New York City.
Your job is a little different than the other groups, you are to look at the two political cartoons and interpret them. After you have an understanding of the meanings behind the cartoons, you will then be asked to present the cartoons to the class. You will call on your classmates to answer questions about the cartoons – the questions you ask should be aimed at helping the students to identify details about the cartoons. In the end you must help the class reach an understanding of the main message of each cartoon.
