Potato Famine Research Paper

1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts; chants of "Union is Power" could be heard as the young girls of Lowell Mills took to the streets to protest a wage cut of 15-20% to their already meager salaries. Banded together as one, with a common sense of companionship and unity bred from long hours of working side by side; the girls attempted to keep their earnings. An attempt that only ended in defeat, and the firing , of many. This is only a small example of the many indecencies done to society during the Industrial Revolution of America.

From 1824 to 1840 the Jacksonian Era raged in America, a period in time in which the "common man" became the focal point of politics and the Industrial Revolution reared its head; changing the country economically as

In an attempt to escape this condition, and find a country that could not only support them but in which they could also make a living, many Irish immigrated to America. Unfortunately, many of these immigrants reached the "land of plenty" with insufficient means and were forced to stay in the cities being unable to afford expanding westward into new territory, or even owning any land at all. Due to their financial situations, many Irish immigrants were taken advantage of by the "natives". Boston was a good example of the abuse that occurred to the Irish. Landlords were known to divide former single family dwellings into inexpensive housing charging a single Irish family living in a nine by eleven foot room with poor ventilation, no water, unsanitary conditions, and no daylight for around $1.50 a

Of all the Irish children born in Boston during this period, sixty percent did not live to see their sixth birthday, and the adult Irish lived an average of only six years after stepping off the boat into America. Most of this death and disease was simply caused by poor housing. A Boston Committee of International Health described an Irish slum as, "a perfect hive of human beings, without comforts and mostly without common necessities; in many cases huddled together like brutes, without regard for to age or sex or sense of decency. Under such circumstances, self-respect, forethought, all the high noble virtues soon die out, and sullen indifference and despair or disorder, intemperance and utter degradation reign supreme."Not only were the new Irish immigrants faced with horrible living conditions, they were also discriminated against heavily by the "native" Americans. The Protestant population that could trace their origins all the way back to the earliest English settlers did not take very kindly to the newcomers. Not only were they stealing scarce jobs that were in high demand in their eyes, but they were also Catholics. Protestants were extremely against any religion that wasn't theirs, especially Catholics who were rumored to be cannibals among other things. It was this resentment that helped fund a strong