Irish Settlers in America

The Irish immigrants faced prejudice, segregation, and discrimination. The Irish settlers are part of my heritage and the Ethnic group I chose for this essay. I had a very difficult time finding enough information for this assignment and I did not expect there to be so little information on this topic. I am not sure about the rest of my background but I have always been proud to be an Irish American descendent. That was until I read some of the ways they treated other immigrants in the new nation. Irish immigrants had a rough start in the United States, stuck in urban poverty and taunted by some of their neighbors. They and their descendants overcame the obstacles and prevailed (Kenny, 2008).

Irish immigrants were not treated as bad as the African Americans were treated but were treated pretty closely. They did get a few extra benefits like being able to sell themselves as slaves instead of someone else selling you. As they arrived in American cities, they were crowded into districts that became centers of crime, vice, and disease and they commonly found themselves thrown together with free Negroes. Irish and African Americans fought each other and the police, socialized (and occasionally intermarried), and developed a common culture of the lowly (Barnett, Valla, and Williams). They also stated that ‘‘It is a curious fact,’’ wrote John Finch, an English Owenite who traveled the United States in 1843, ‘‘that the democratic party, and particularly the poorer class of Irish immigrants in America, are greater enemies to the negro population, and greater advocates for the continuance of negro slavery, than any portion of the population in the free States’’ attributed the animosity between Irish and African Americans to labor competition between the two groups. I did not know any of this and found it to be extremely interesting. Race becomes a social fact at the moment that group identification begins to impose barriers to free competition among atomized and otherwise interchangeable individuals. Competition among Irish and African-American laborers failed to form a mutual appreciation of the need for unity because the competition among these two groups did not take place under normal circumstances, but was distorted by the color line. Slavery in the United States was part of a bipolar system of color caste, in which even the lowliest of ‘‘whites’’ enjoyed a status superior in crucial respects to that of the most exalted ‘‘blacks.’’ As members of the privileged group, white laborers organized to defend their caste status as a way of improving their condition as workers (Barnett, Valla, and Williams). Although evidence is sketchy, it is believed that Catholic Irish immigrants were more conservative and slower to choose sides between the British and American causes. Some may have felt the Revolution was a chance to prove their loyalty to the crown by serving in royalist forces against the rebels. However, dissatisfaction with the British handling of Irish affairs along with the lure of advancement within American society may have won over many. Indentured servants among Catholic Irish immigrants may have been most attracted to military service, which could very well reward them with an early termination of the indentures, business connections, and the possibility of land grants out west (Baglyos).The British tried to take over Ireland and America. I wonder if this is why the Irish settlers were so disgruntle towards the British. Kenny (2008) states Irish immigrants became good Americans without sacrificing their religious and cultural heritage. I think that by doing this they gave themselves an advantage over the other immigrants. They demonstrated that assimilation is not a one-way process in which immigrants must conform to a dominant Anglo-Protestant culture while forsaking their own traditions. Immigrants always change the United States as much as the United States changes them. By becoming Americans in their own way, the Irish carved out a distinctive ethnic identity and helped lay the groundwork for today’s cultural pluralism in the United States. Today the Irish are one of the most prosperous ethnic groups in the United States, significantly exceeding national averages on education levels, occupational status, income, and home ownership. This was extremely surprising to me because of the troubles they had to endure and the climb they had to get to this position. In line with their steady upward social mobility during the 20th century, the American Irish moved out of the tight-knit urban communities of the Northeast and Midwest to settle in suburbs, towns, and cities across the United States. They also married increasingly outside their ethnic group, first with other Catholics and then with Americans generally. The result of these developments is a much less cohesive sense of communal identity than in the past. But Irish Americans retain a strong sense of ethnic pride, especially in the realms of politics and culture. To be Irish-American, after all, is to be part of a national success story (Kenny, 2008). As a conclusion, the Irish immigrants face discrimination and racism they also dished out a little too. I am still proud to be of Irish descendent but I am also ashamed of how they treated the African Americans in this situation. Both groups were going through the same situation and should have banned together in this time of need.

References
Baglyos, Paul A.. Encyclopedia of the new American nation Immigration and Immigrants, 193-196.
Barnett, Susan M., Valla, Jeffrey M., & Williams, Wendy M. Encyclopedia of race and racism Irish Americans and Whiteness, 199-202.
Kenny, Kevin (20008 February 13) Irish immigrants in the united states American Journal Retrieved from www.america.gov