Irish Immigration to the Gangs of New York

1. Irish Immigration to the Gangs of New York

2. What is an Ethnic Group?

3. Large groups of people classed according to common traits or customs

4. Who has been the most successful ethnic group in US history?

5. Jewish Immigrants have become the most successful ethnic group in the US. What have they achieved?

6. Highest Income Highest Level of Education Most Occupational Prestige

7. Who is the second most successful ethnic group? National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

8. The Irish!!! Who are a close second in each category National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

9. How? • Why?

10. Strategies? • By Chance? • Luck?

11. Background History of the Irish

12. Early Irish History 8000 BC – 400 AD Nomadic hunters and gathers Eventual settlements Few archaeological remains

13. Early Christian Period 400 – 800 St. Patrick, 432 AD Roman and Christian influences England, 684 AD

14. Medieval History 800 – 1200 Viking invasions and settlements Dublin, 840s AD Irish feudal kings

15. Later Medieval History

16. Later Medieval History Norman Invasions, 12th Century English – French rivalry 1171 AD, Lordship of Ireland, English Crown

17. The Scots in Ireland Scots migrate to northern Ireland; Ulster 17th century sporadic migration 18th Century: Formal English policy Irish Catholics Driven from Ulster Time of bloody confrontations

19. Where the British Empire Goes So go the Irish: as Soldiers, Servants, Missionaries, Settlers, etc. To North America

20. Irish Assimilation in North America Subsistence to Market Rural to Urban Non English--English Speakers

21. Ulster Presbyterians become American Frontiersmen Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett Irish Catholics from Ulster become Protestant in America Irish Catholic Indentures (also Anglo-Irish) Ulster Presbyterian

22. During the American Revolution 33% to 40% of Washington’s Army was Irish Many British thought it was an Irish rebellion, or a Presbyterian rebellion

23. Early Irish Patriots: Matthew Thornton George Taylor James Smith

24. By 1789 United Irishmen Alien-Sedition Act

25. Colonial Period: • Irish as Alien Servants and Frontiersmen • 2.Revolutionary Period: • Irish gained claim to patriotism • 3. Early Republican Period: • Irish convergence of talented, educated men

26. Jacksonian Period: 1840s Mass Irish Immigration to the US Famine and political Mostly Catholic Mostly Unskilled Labor Settled in the cities Emergence of intense anti Irish/Catholic hostilities: The Native American Party, later renamed the American Party The Know Nothing Movement

27. Irish in the Civil War 1860 census Irish/Am in the US: 1.5 million Northern armies: 150,000 Southern armies: 40,000 ???

28. The First Major Minority Group: All of the urban pathologies we now associate with the urban poor

29. Poor Irish • 2/3 of those in Alms House were Irish Alms Houses lent poor out as laborers

30. UNSKILLED WORKERS Canals: Erie, Delaware & Chesapeake, New Orleans Railroads

31. CHOLERA EPIDEMIC Proof of Irish decadence

32. COMPETITION WITH BLACK LABOR • IRISH MOVE INTO CITIES ENMASS • $3 paid forwarding agents for fictitious RR jobs • They could work 12 hours for 87.5 cents a day • Much lower than African Americans • See Want-ads in Boston & Philly papers • NINA

33. Irish Discrimination • Paddy wagons • Patrick Hooligan • Irish drunks • Mic’s

34. Upward Mobility • Priesthood & Religious Life • Politics • Police • Firemen • Labor Unions • Nationalism

35. Not so Upwardly Mobile • The Irish dominated these professions by the late 19th century • Boxers • Sportsmen • Singers • Actor • Musicians

36. Philadelphiavs. New York & Boston Which city was best for the Irish?

37. Housing -- 1851 • New York 515,000 • 37,730 houses • Philadelphia 490,000 • 61,200 houses

38. Philadelphia • 1850 72,312 Irish born • 18% of city’s population • 1860 95,458 Irish born • 17% of city’s population • In NYC & Boston 23% of the population

39. 1850Only 1% of Boston Irish were grocers 1857 20% of Philly’s grocers were Irish 12% of Philly’s Dry Goods Merchants were Irish

40. HOUSES Building and Loans in Philadelphia

41. ENTREPRENEURS • Entrepreneurs Raise the Irish to New Levels • 1850 48% of Irish were unskilled laborers • This has NO parallel with any other immigrant group • But only 33% of Philly’s Irish were unskilled laborers

42. Irish Construction Companies Build Catholic Churches & Schools Irish Catholic Workers Workers can afford homes

43. Prior to 1860Boston has only 4 Catholic schools PHILLY HAD 19

44. CATHOLIC SCHOOLS • Protestant Bibles • Proselytize Catholics • Harass Children

45. NATIVISTS RIOTS in Philadelphia • BIBLE CONTROVERSY • HARASSMENT OF CATHOLIC CHILDREN

46. Gangs of New York • Fact: • Gangs existed originated in part from gangs in Ireland. • Functioned similarly to gangs of today.

47. Gangs of New York • NY’s infamous • Five Points

49. The Battle?

50. Bandits Roost