Irish Potato Famine: Early Racism In America

The Great Famine, The Blight, or whatever one chooses to call it, the potato famine in Ireland was one of the worst tragedies to hit Europe during the 19^th century.  Unprecedented widespread starvation, disease and subsequent migration to various countries changed the lives of a vast number of Irish people.  The destitute situation at home left Irish landowners with little other choice but to provide passage for the starving peasants to other countries where opportunities were more plentiful.  Traveling to this new land of ‘Milk and Honey’ was as treacherous, if not more so, than the situation they had fled.  Dark, confined, cramped and unsanitary conditions were what faced these underfed migrants.  If one was lucky enough to survive the diseased and malnourished voyage across the Atlantic there were more and longer lasting challenges ahead for him.  The frail and vulnerable condition upon arrival of these passengers left them at the mercy of the newly savvy entrepreneurs of America.  New York was a large and bustling city during this time where people of all classes were given the opportunity to change their economic status in life.  This combination of desperate Irish immigrants just wishing to enjoy a meal and the profit seeking ‘native’ Americans led to a disastrous situation.  Irish immigrants were rushed off boats and herded into overpriced slums, and this is where the American perception of the Irish really begins.  The condition of the Irish upon arrival in New York led them to accept anything that was available to them.  Unfortunately, these people were already despised for their Catholic faith, but once they were forced into the filthy, disease filled, drunken areas, a new and even more negative perception emerged about the Irish which would last until recent times.

September 1845 brought with it an economically and socially destructive force that would ravage Ireland like never before.  Phytophthora Infestans was its scientific name, but most remember it as ‘The Blight’.  It was a fungus so destructive that it was able to almost completely rot the potato and turn it into a ‘black, squelchy, stinking mess’ within days.[i]  With potatoes being Ireland’s main food staple this was needless to say a cause for alarm.  Initially, the fungus was found to have only affected certain areas and only to a limited extent, but that was soon to change.  The very next year, naval Captain Mann stationed in County Clare distressed:

The first alarm was in the latter part of July, when the potatoes showed

symptoms of the previous year’s disease; but I shall never forget the change

in one week in August.  On the first occasion, on an official visit of inspection,

I had passed over thirty-two miles thickly studded with potato fields in full

bloom.  The next time the face of the whole country had changed; the stalk

remained bright green, but the leaves were all scorched black.  It was the

work of a night.[ii]

This reoccurrence of fungus combined with the economic policies then embraced by Ireland and England created a situation of mass starvation.

            During the 19^th century, England and Ireland were energetically pursuing laissez-faire economic policies. This attitude of letting the market correct itself was wholly embraced by Ireland’s Lord John Russell who was ‘ruling’ from Westminster.  During the famine, Russell believed that by ending many of the country’s controls on food prices and leaving poor relief up to the individual counties the economy and production levels would return to normal.[iii]  This decision and the fact that food was being exported out of areas where there was starvation outraged Irish peasants.[iv]  With food becoming ever more scarce the poor and starving were left with few options.

            During this period landlords were under increasing pressure due to certain clauses within the Poor Laws.  One such clause stated that tenants owning land worth less than 4 pounds were not required to pay the poor rate, but that the owners of the land would be liable for this amount.[v]  This created a great financial burden for large estate holders.  Many found that it would be more profitable to offer a small amount of money to aid in emigration than to continue paying the poor rate.  With the small farmers (who by in large were unable to pay rent on time) off their land, the land was often turned into more profitable export crops.  R. Dudley Edwards in The Great Famine: Studies in Irish History 1845-52 states clearly the landlords dilemma, “If the estate were to be run on business lines, a drastic clearance seemed essential; and the total cost of sending the ‘surplus’ to America was considerably less than the expense of maintaining them for a single year as paupers.”[vi]  Although this may seem callous, many landlords felt justified in their actions.  As poor relief began to fail and became more restricted, many that were without land and had little money, chose to emigrate.  This led to an experience, which would leave these Irish in a more precarious and destitute situation than they had fled.

            19^th century shipping was needless to say not a luxurious experience, but to a mass of starving people it must have at first seemed bearable.  With the flood of emigrants rushing to the ports in 1847, many ships made slight alterations in order to accommodate the Irish passengers.  Unfortunately, even with international standards on the living conditions of passengers in place, many ship captains chose to ignore them in order to turn a larger profit.  The captain of the ‘Sarah and Elizabeth’ gives a clear example of this when he packed 260 people onto 36 births far exceeding the regulated limit. The result of this greedy behavior was tragic.  Fever and disease spread quickly until justice was finally served when it claimed the life of the captain as well.[vii]  Passengers became more susceptible to illness due to a lack of adequate food and clean water.  While ships were required to provide at least three meals a day and water rations, many would scarcely provide two with a ‘little putrid water’.[viii]  Lacking clean living conditions or medical facilities, the condition of the surviving immigrants upon arrival in New York was a sickening sight indeed.

            Pre-famine New York City was quickly beginning to emerge as one of the world’s economic powerhouses, and by 1840 it was already the largest city in the union with a population over 391,100.[ix]  Many of the city’s inhabitants were strong believers in the Protestant faith and had an equally strong dislike for Catholics.  When news arrived in the city about the famine many attributed the country’s miseries to its’ Catholic faith.  Allegedly written by John Mitchell, in response to Dr. Whateley, the following correctly describes American attitudes regarding Catholic Ireland:

            Oh, Bishop! And tell your flock that the deadliest crime a nation can commit

            is to abdicate its nationhood, to set strangers to guard its gates, strangers to sit

            on its judgement-seats, strangers to train up its youth, strangers to rule its

            church.  Tell them that until they shall repent of this sin, and amend it, the hand

            of God shall be heavy on their land; the famine shall waste them….[x]

This widely shared negative sentiment about the Irish would be a crucial factor in how ‘native’ Americans would respond to the flood of desperate and ill Irish immigrants arriving in New York and other port cities.

            Despite the anti-Catholic atmosphere that permeated throughout New York City many Irish chose this as their new home.  History has shown that somewhere around 75% of Irish immigrants that came to the Americas ended up settling there, and 50% of this number arrived in New York.[xi]  This large influx of Irish entering the ports began to raise many new fears.  One such fear was that of disease.  Ships were regularly arriving with passengers suffering from severe outbreaks of typhus and other ship related diseases.  David H. Bennett in The Party of Fear: The American Far Right from Nativism to the Militia Movement clearly states the anxiety felt as follows, “The initial response of the Americans was, understandably, fear that the diseases the immigrants carried would ravage port cities and spread across the country.”[xii]  Facing this crisis the New York legislator decided that the initial quarantine system needed to be overhauled to make its requirements for entry more stringent.  This new system was to be headed by ten commissioners who were charged with providing a hospital, transportation assistance, and a staff of emigration officers to help ease the transition for the immigrants.[xiii]  Although this was an attempt to make things a little easier on the immigrants who were allowed to enter, many ‘natives’ still found ways to take advantage of the newcomers.  ‘Runners’ were a notorious breed of businessmen during this period that lurked about the docks waiting for their next victim.  When ships arrived ‘runners’ would surround the boats, with armed guards at times, and  ‘cajole’ the helpless Irish emigrants to stay at their bosses’ housing establishments, where they would be further exploited.  Many of these unsavory landlords became very wealthy by charging ‘three to four times the contract price’.[xiv]  This type of exploitation made the predicament in New York even worse for the Irish. 

            Once the Irish were given a chance to settle in New York City many chose to go away from their rural farming roots and endure the city life.  There are several reasons for this urbanization of the Irish.  One main factor was that the new immigrants were simply not educated enough in large-scale farming to be productive farmers.  Before arriving at the port of New York the majority had raised primitive crops such as potatoes and other roots.  Also, the lack of capital to buy such land prevented many from pursuing this avenue of enrichment.[xv]   .  This massive influx of immigrants into the New York City area created many economic problems for the ‘native’ inhabitants.  Housing had already been scarce before the famine, but with the great tide of immigration looking for housing, prices and availability became an enigma.  This helped to legitimize the fear in the minds of the indigenous people that these new immigrants would lower the standard of living for all, which would be ‘the greatest calamity which the folly of man could bring upon the land’.[xvi]  This attitude toward the Irish immigrants, ‘….increased feelings of loneliness and intensified the search for community….’ Which led many to view the Irish as clannish and thus further alienated them from society.[xvii]  This alienation, combined with a desire to go back to way things used to be, led large numbers of Irish to live with their own people in overcrowded slums.  R. Dudley Edwards discusses the consequences of such decisions when he states, “….mortality rates were highest amongst the Irish, who were particulary prone to the diseases occasioned by dirt, overcrowding or alcohol, and to pauperdom or lunacy.”[xviii]  These housing structures were sometimes just hovels dugout from underneath homes and many were filled with up to a foot of water.  This deplorable situation was needless to say a large factor in how native-born Americans viewed the Irish.

            After an immigrant secured a place to live the next thing that concerned him was where was he going to find employment.  With farming not an option in the city, and the majority not possessing any skills, many were forced to take jobs in mining, heavy industry, and other unskilled positions.  These jobs were generally in the form of ‘labour camps’ where the work was hard and the whiskey cheap.[xix]   This environment and availability of alcohol caused more hardship for the Irish.  The Irish had already been known for their excessive drinking, and now faced with hardship their drinking increased, and the ‘native’ perception of the immigrants worsened.  Nativist feelings were beginning to become outright hostile toward the new arrivals.  Signs were being placed in windows that read “None need apply but Americans” and politicians were calling for tariffs and taxes on immigrant workers.[xx]  With feelings of resentment rising the indigenous people of New York and other New England cities began to channel their feelings in secretive ways.

            With the perceived threat of the job taking, drunk, dirty, and worst of all Catholic Irish immigrants invading their Protestant homeland, many natives chose to join secret societies with the aim of combating this problem.   Gathering together in these secret societies helped kindle the fire of Nativism in Americans.  One of the most popular of these organizations was the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, which was formed in New York City in 1850.  In order to join this fraternity one was required to be ‘twenty-one, a Protestant, and a believer in God, willing to obey without question the dictates of the order.’  This society became a political force and had the sole purpose of making life as difficult as possible for any foreign-born Catholics.  Members were not allowed to vote for, employ, or profit from these individuals.[xxi]  By using methods such as these Protestants of New York City made it virtually impossible for the Irish to assimilate and created a greater need for community among the immigrants.

            The mid-nineteenth century was a tragic period for the Irish people.  The famine had wiped out over a million inhabitants of their homeland and left those remaining in poverty.  Desiring a chance to live, many boarded overcrowded, overpriced, and filthy boats and set sail for America.  The voyage across was a treacherous one, which took the lives of many.  The mass of immigrants who survived the voyage arrived in such a pitiful state they became the prey of the ‘natives’.  They were forced into filthy living conditions where they were charged outrageous prices, which must have led many to drink even more.  The jobs they received were of the lowest sort since many had little or no skills at all.  Despised for their faith many were persecuted and discriminated against when looking for work or public office.  If not for the sheer amount of immigrants coming into the cities it is hard to imagine the natives imagining them as being such a grave threat.  And if the Irish were to have arrived in better health and more financially stable they would have had more leverage in dealing with the anti-Catholic Protestant natives.  A healthy, slow but steady, migration of Irish Catholics to New York City and other ports would have helped alleviate the negative perception of the Irish, which lasted for decades after their arrival.

Jeffrey Brandon Lee