Potato Famine In Ireland During The 1840's

Although a blight affected the potato crops of Ireland during the 1840’s, the mass starvation was the result of British governmental policy, that forced many Irish to immigrate to America. Their immigration had many positive and negative effects on the American people and the economy.
Ireland was a country of poverty and nearly half of the families in rural areas were living in mud houses with no windows or furniture. According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Ireland was not an industrialized country and their few industries were failing. There was not a fishing industry or an agricultural industry, and by 1835 there were three quarters of the laborers had no sort of employment. (Constitutional Rights Foundation, Bill of Rights in
Action, 2010 (Volume 26, No.2)). In 1838, the government passed a Poor Law Act, which established 130 workhouses for the poor. The conditions were dour and men were forced to work 10 hours a day while cutting stone. The only way that a laborer could survive was to buy or rent land from British landlords and grow potatoes. Potatoes could be grown in huge numbers and did not need a plough to grow them. Potatoes were easy to cook and very nutritious so they were common in everyone’s diet. Many people realized that if the potato crop at any point were to fail, there was nothing to replace it.
By 1845 the potato crops were increasing rapidly. After a couple of months of good harvests, the farmers noticed signs of disease in the potatoes. According to Eat By Date, potatoes usually last around 3 to 5 weeks, but the recent harvests were only lasting a few days and then they began to rot. (Eat By Date, The shelf Life of Potatoes). Farmers tried many things including drying them or treating them, but nothing worked and in November scientists stated that the actual potato crop is either destroyed or is unfit for consumption. By the spring of 1846, panic had spread as the food supplies were decreasing and disappearing. People had to find a source of nutrition some how so they resorted to anything they could find such as grass, leaves, and bark. By the end of 1846, the whole potato crop was wiped out, and by 1847 around a quarter of land was planted compared to the year before. The mass emigration had begun and even though by 1849 the famine was officially ended, the country still continued to suffer. (Constitutional Rights Foundation, Bill of Rights in Action, 2010 (Volume 26, No.2)).
Between 1846 and 1851, over a million people had died from the Potato Famine.
Most of the deaths were caused by starvation, but also due to disease. Many illnesses and infections spread throughout the land. Ireland had become a part of Great Britain in 1801, so the parliament knew about the disaster happening in Ireland. The British Parliament believed in “laissez faire” which is when the government interferes with the countries economy as little as possible. (Constitutional Rights Foundation, Bill of Rights in Action, 2010 (Volume 26, No.2)). Since the government believed in this economy system, they refused to stop the British landlords in Ireland from exporting out all the crops, that weren’t potatoes, they were selling to get money, instead of feeding
the people starving next door to them. In September 1847, local soup kitchens were almost bankrupt and forced to shut down, leaving the starving people with little hope. (Constitutional Rights Foundation, Bill of Rights in Action, 2010 (Volume 26, No.2) Nowhere to turn).
In 1847, many Irish had left for America. Many of the immigrants settled in the industrialized cities such as Boston, New York, and cities along the East Coast. Men took whatever jobs they could find; loading ships at docks, building railroads, coal mining. Women took jobs as servants or workers in textile factories. Most immigrants could not afford great housing, so they lived in small tenements near their place of work. Many of the new technological advances that were happening in America needed man workers and laborers to help, so many Irish immigrants worked on the railroad and factories to avoid unemployment and poverty. The Irish immigrants supported unions and labor organizations and made them stronger throughout America. According to Library of Congress, “Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted over one third of all immigrants to the United States.” (Library of Congress, Irish-Catholic Immigration to America).
With such big numbers in population, the Irish made impacts on many things in America, and the economy was one of them. According to James Barrett in the Daily Beast, when unions started to breach the lines of skill, race, gender, and ethnicity, it was most often the Irish activists taking the lead and pushing the protests. (James Barrett, The Daily Beast 2012). In 1850 the Irish Immigrants started a bank called Emigrant Savings and Loans and it was created to help the immigrants coming to America and serve the financial needs of the immigrant population. Within a short period of time it had become the seventh largest bank in the country (Emigrant Bank, Emigrant.com). Many of the Irish immigrants helped industrialize America even more. They worked in factories, manufacturing many things, but their work soon made some cities large centers of manufacturing. Many immigrants also helped expand the transportation industry such as railroads and the Erie Canal. They have influenced many people to fight for what they think is right and have made our culture and economy more diverse and open to immigrants and people from different
countries. Immigrants from Ireland brought the Catholic faith with them. Many Catholic churches were established in places that the Irish settled. Their religious views created may conflicts between the Irish and the American’s who sought to only have the American way of religion. In a culture aspect, the Irish introduced us to the day we still celebrate here in America, St. Patrick’s Day. It was brought over by the immigrants from Ireland and is a celebration of the Irish culture here in America. The Irish also introduced a new sport to the American people, which was boxing. It was often mixed in and intertwined with politics because the Irish would sometimes fight anti-Catholics. According to Kevin Wander, the Irish also brought a new style of music over with them from Ireland (Kevin Wander, People of Our Everyday Lives). Their styles mainly impacted country music in America. The Irish’s presence and arrival in America created an ethnic diversity among the American people, and it still has an impact on us today.
The Irish were some of the first immigrants into America. The Irish immigration caused political parties such as the Know Nothing Party to be formed, who were nativists and anti-Catholics that didn't believe in immigration and wanted the immigrants to comply with only American cultures. The American party was fearful that the immigrants were evil and more loyal to other non-American party’s. The Know-Nothing candidates used fear and prejudice to campaign their political party to the American people. The Irish transformed politics in America by putting local power into the hands of the working class. They built on principles and rules of loyalty and organization. They became powerful political machines capable of getting votes for the people. A pioneer by the name of Gustaf Unonius, wrote a letter talking about the effects of immigration on his life. He says, “Foreigners are generally inclined to engage in political disputes long before they know what things are all about, and the rashness with which they make use of a citizenship they have gained all too soon is without question harmful to the country.” (Gustav Unonius , A Pioneer in Northwest America: 1841-1858, (1861)). He explains how Irish immigrants would first come into the nation not knowing anything about the politics or policies of America, but they still participate in the parties, causing harm to the political systems and the government. The reasons for the Immigration of the Irish were because of the blight that had affected the potatoes and the British government policies that didn’t help the people of Ireland, forcing them to move and live in a better place, which turned out to be America. The Irish immigrants affected the American economy, culture, traditions, religious beliefs, and politics. Some of the effects were positive and helped America out for the better, but some of them were negative, making the American people mad about their immigration in the first place and wanted them out.