North End Research Paper

In the early part of the twentieth century Boston Massachusetts was a growing city full of history and possibilities. A younger Boston had survived the turmoil of British rule and the American Revolution. As a tribute to its past, the former home of Revolutionary hero Paul Revere stood at the north end of the growing city not far from the Old North Church where Revere warned the Patriots of an impending British arrival. But Boston was also growing and changing with the new times, especially in the area of Boston known as the North End.

Industrialism and immigration were changing the personality of the North End. Many wealthy loyalists returned to Britain in the years after the Revolution. Others moved to Canada or other parts of the new America. By the end of the 1800s, mansions of the past had begun to be replaced by warehouses,
Unemployment and poverty were high as many businesses refused to hire immigrants. Families crowded together to try to help each other, so diseases and poor living conditions were common. Many Irish families, enticed by the Homestead Act of 1862, left the city in search of agricultural prospects elsewhere in America. So, by the beginning of the 20th century, Boston's North End began to take shape as a primarily Italian Catholic neighborhood with a sprinkling of Irish Catholic families. This is how I came to be in Boston in 1919.

My name is Matthew, and my story actually begins with the Homestead Act of 1862. When the young American nation was beginning to stretch its legs, land was being given away to families who were willing to farm it. My maternal grandparents, suffering from the devastating famine in Ireland, saw this is as a huge opportunity for their families, so they gambled everything on hope and headed for new opportunities in America with a group of other immigrants. But life in America would not be as easy as they had