How do shifts in population change a place?Ireland sent immigrants to the American colonies early in their settlement. Charles Carroll was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In the 1840s, the Irish potato sent waves of migrants who could afford passage fleeing starvation in the countryside. The Irish made up one half of all migrants to the country during the 1840s. From 1820 to the start of the Civil War, they constituted one third of all immigrants. Early in the century, the majority of Irish immigrants were single men. After the 1840s, the pattern shifted to families as a few family members came first and earned money to bring relatives later in a process known as chain migration. In later years, women provided the majority of new arrivals. Show
Irish Immigrants in AmericaSo harsh were conditions in Ireland that the nation's population decreased substantially through the 19th century. From 8.2 million in 1841, the population dropped to 6.6 million in only ten years and to 4.7 million in 1891. From 1841 to World War II, some estimates conclude that 4.5 million Irish came to the United States. While not all Irish migrants were poor, most were. Many did not have money to move beyond the eastern port where they landed, and their numbers soon swelled cities like New York and Boston. Many found the adjustments from their rural backgrounds to the impersonal urban environments very difficult. They crowded into low-cost housing creating problems for schools, disease and sanitation. Men took whatever jobs they could find, usually at very low pay, while women became domestic workers or other low paying jobs. Often they found themselves competing for jobs with African Americans for work that was the hardest, most dangerous and lowest paying. Employers used the Irish, as well as other newly-arrived immigrants and African Americans, to threaten replacement of workers if they advocated for better working conditions, which created ethnic tensions that sometimes broke out into violence. In addition to economic pressures, the Irish also faced religious discrimination. Centuries of conflicts between Protestants and Catholics followed immigrants to the United States, and the Irish Catholic faced hostility from the longer-settled Protestants who feared that the growing numbers of Irish would translate into political power. And it did. As politicians learned to court Irish voters, urban political machines rewarded their supporters with public jobs like policemen, firemen, sanitation workers and road crews. Protestant groups gravitated toward the Republican Party that sometimes promoted discriminatory laws like voting restrictions or the prohibition of the sale and use of alcohol. In response, Catholic immigrants like the Irish became the heart of the Democratic Party in many Northern states. The Irish in IowaIn Iowa, the Irish were the second largest immigrant group, topped only by the Germans. They settled in large numbers in the Mississippi River towns like Dubuque and Davenport. The Catholic bishop in Dubuque encouraged Irish and German Catholic immigration to Iowa and directed new arrivals to communities in northeast Iowa where they could be served by Catholic priests. Within the church itself, there was often competition to bring an Irish or German priest to serve the congregation. The railroads needed manual laborers and recruited the Irish to lay the rails and maintain the trains in roundhouses, bringing workers to small towns. The Irish also settled together in towns like Emmetsburg and in rural neighborhoods. They often supported private schools so that they could teach their children in a Catholic environment. During World War I, German-Americans were often the targets of abuse or discrimination. The Irish came under some pressures, too. They resented the centuries of domination by Great Britain, a U.S. ally. In the 1920s, Protestant-Catholic tensions produced a revival of the Ku Klux Klan to "protect American values" against the rise of "foreign threats" like the Irish and other immigrants, but the organization lost steam by the end of the decade. World War II did much to quiet ethnic tensions at home as America united to fight Germany and Japan. Supporting QuestionsWhat factors led to migration from Ireland to North America?
How did the migration of Irish people impact the United States and Ireland?
How did Americans respond to immigrants?
Additional Resources
Iowa Core Social Studies Standards (6th Grade)Listed below are the Iowa Core Social Studies content anchor standards that are best reflected in this source set. The content standards applied to this set are middle school-age level and encompass the key disciplines that make up social studies for students in the sixth grade.
Why did the German and Irish immigrate to the United States in the early 1800s?Famine and political revolution in Europe led millions of Irish and German citizens to immigrate to America in the mid-nineteenth century.
Why did Irish and German immigrants start coming to the United States in the early to mid 1800s in such large numbers?In the mid-1800's, a large number of immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean to begin a new life in America from Europe. More than 3 million of these immigrants arrived from Ireland and Germany. Many of them were fleeing economic or political troubles in their native countries.
When did German and Irish immigrants come to America?In the 1840s the Irish made up close to half of all immigrants to the United States. Germans: More than 1.5 million between 1820 and 1860. The 1850s was the single biggest decade for German immigration, with some 951,000 reaching the United States.
What was the main reason the Irish immigrated to the United States?The fungus which decimated potato crops created a devastating famine. Starvation plagued Ireland and within five years, a million Irish were dead while half a million had arrived in America to start a new life.
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