Irish Immigrants In America In The 1800s And Early 1900's

America in the 1800’s and early 1900’s was a place of great unrest. The westward expansion created a tenuous environment for pioneers and settlers with Native American tribes; and cities in the east started to explode as waves of immigrants began arriving to fine their “New World” American dream. The wealthy in the northeast, generally white Americans of English protestant ancestry, felt a sense of urgency and entitlement to maintain control of the social, political and financial power in America. These white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP’s) were seen by the masses of new immigrants as a cruel, unfair and closed group. However, those unique characteristics were what was needed for acceptance into “American” high society and politics. In the
The majority of the Irish who immigrated to the United States were illiterate poor laborers from rural counties. They lacked farming skills causing them to settle in cities and took whatever jobs they could find. They lived in slums near the ports where they arrived, men often spent their money on alcohol and the women took jobs as servants, leaving many children to beg in the streets. In the mid 1850s the Know-Nothing party was created to try and prevent additional Irish immigration because their large numbers strained cities’ re. Many unskilled “native” American workers worried they would lose their jobs because the Irish would work for less money. The Irish were also ostracized from American society for being Catholic. Many Protestants and “nativist” Americans were distrustful of Catholicism; because people prayed to saints and statues. The discrimination caused the Irish-Catholic immigrants stayed together in small communities or