Paige Pennypacker

Mrs. Kelly

English 9 Honors

May 6, 1998

THESIS: In this paper I will research the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1850), with particular emphasis on how people survived.

III.

IV.

B. Causes

C. Events

SURVIVAL TECHNIQUES

A. In Ireland

WORKING AND LIVING CONDITIONS

v. CONCLUSION

Paige Pennypacker

Mrs. Kelly

English 9 Honors

May 19, 1998

There was a long, wet spell in the spring of 1845. The smell of the air in Ireland was not like it used to be. When they were uprooted, the potatoes had a strange, sludgy slime on them. Icy gales and snowstorms invaded the country and there were drenching rains for many months. The people could not work the land. There was no firewood to burn. There was no food to eat. (O'Connor, 59) A disease had struck the country of Ireland. This was known to all as the Potato Famine. It was a disease that killed the potato crop in Ireland and forced half the country's population to either die of starvation or immigrate to America and other countries. This famine was one of the greatest in the history of the world and lasted from 1845 to 1850.

In 1845, a year before the passage above, a blight began to spread through Ireland obliterating the potato crop and dashing all hope of maintaining a livelihood. Food was scare and prices were high. With no crops to sell, farmers had no money to pay for

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necessities. The famine brought lasting devastation and ruin to the Irish economy, a huge loss of population through immigration and death, and an abiding hatred of the British Government for its failure to relieve a dying nation. (Abbott, 593)

The Irish Potato Famine was a devastating event. It affected the lives of many people and caused desperation to everyone in Ireland. Prior to the famine, Ireland's population was approximately 8,000,000. Lasting to 1850, the famine killed about a quarter of this population. Ireland was also one of the most densely populated regions in Europe, with about one quarter of the country not having any employment even before the famine. (Woodham-Smith, 64) After its onset, people sold everything they had for food, and even then most went hungry. Ireland was known as the land of the living ghosts because so many people died. There were mass open graves while the parishes could not keep up with the number of dead. (Conion-McKenna, 124)

Potatoes were not the only crop Ireland produced. During the blight, many other crops were sold and exported to make money for some of the people of the country, but it was not enough to stop the starvation of the masses. Only the wealthy landlords and the rich became richer, and the poor became poorer. One of the famine's final legacies was that Britain finally lost Southern Ireland altogether because of the Irish people's intense hatred of Britain after their lack of help. (Andrist, 104)

During the time of the famine, most land on which peasants lived was not owned by them. They worked the land for the owners. In return, they had very small cottages for homes filled with their extended family which were always very crowded. The cottages were situated on very small plots of land where most people grew their own

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food, which included mostly potatoes that grew abundantly without the use of fertilizer. Before the famine, the potato was the most abundant crop in Ireland and therefore one of the regularly eaten foods. (Conion-McKenna, 123-124) The famine affected so many people because most of the Irish (two-thirds of the population) relied on agriculture, and only one-third relied on industry. The Irish did not have a fishing industry. (Bladey, 3)

When the famine was noted in the press for the first time, the Prime Minister of England took prompt action by sending Indian corn meal, setting up a relief commission, lowering the cost of grain to the Irish, and putting some people to work. However, the Indian corn meal was not enough to meet the starving people's needs and had no nutrients (although this was not known then). The relief camps set up for people to work building roads and such, in exchange for food, caused the 130 workhouses to be extremely overcrowded with at least 800 people in each one. (Laxton, 24) There were too many people and not enough work. Therefore, starvation, disease, fever, typhus, and dysentery spread and the people started riots. Unfortunately, the public works program was abandoned in 1847.

Some people were helped during the famine by English and Irish landlords who let them stay working the land without paying rent. Many landlords, however, did not help and only evicted the poor, starving tenants. As for the foreign countries that Ireland had helped during various wars, they did nothing to help Ireland during the famine. (Bladey, 5-6)

This lack of help seemed ironic, considering the potato rot did not even originate

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in Ireland, but in foreign countries. It actually started in America, spreading to Europe through the tubers, or starting potatoes, which were used to grow more potatoes. The first blights started in England and Holland before reaching Ireland. (Laxton, 21)

In the beginning of the famine, most people with money and foresight (there were not many) left Ireland as soon as possible. These people went to places where they could find good jobs and fair housing. For many of those who stayed behind, there was not enough money to buy the food that was available. One outrageous fact about the famine is that Ireland actually produced enough food that did not rot that could have sustained the country's hungry. Instead of using the food for the people, most of the produce, cattle, butter, wheat, barley, and vegetables were exported for money. Yet the money did not go to help the people who needed it! The remaining good food was sold at market price in both Ireland and England and most of the Irish could not afford it. Too many people worked for little money to raise crops and livestock for export, not for themselves. (Laxton, 19-21)

There were many survival tactics for those people who stayed in Ireland. For one, the Irish people tried to help each other. However difficult their lives, the Irish were a strong people, used to difficult, meager times and helping each other, as shown in the following passage.

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In addition to the people helping people, the English government relief system maintained 932,000 people, paid for by taxing the landlords. (Bladey, 6)

When there was no help at all, for most people the situation was much worse. Some people ate each other for food and others were actually eaten by their pets. (Woodman-Smith) Of course, some people managed to survive by diversifying their agricultural production and making their farm holdings larger, without government intervention. (Bladey, 6)

Another survival tactic was immigration. The famine caused mass immigration to other countries, including Canada, America, England, and the British colonies. During the period of immigration, there were 5,000 ships used, with 400 passengers per ship. Before this exodus, many of these ships were used to transport slaves. (Laxton, 4) The passage of 3,000 miles to America cost $10. Even though that seems like a little bit of money, it was a lot of money to have back then. Some people gave all they owned just to have ten dollars to get out of Ireland. While on the voyages to other countries, about five percent of the people died. The ships were called "coffin ships" and "famine ships" where there was death, extreme discomfort, and disease. (Andrist, 301)

None of the countries where the immigrants went were prepared for their numbers or to offer enough employment. There were not many jobs in America but there were more than in Canada. Most immigrants went to Boston because it was the cheapest fare. Boston's population doubled in the years 1846-1848. (Andrist, 304) Other destinations were New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Savannah, Charleston, New

Orleans, Texas, and Australia.

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Those who left Ireland had many different kinds of jobs but most were not skilled. An example passenger list on one of the famine ships to America included occupations such as farmers, dressmakers, servants, laborers, and unknown. (Laxton, 245-246) The people were willing to do any kind of job they could to survive in the new lands. They were a source of cheap labor, digging canals, building roads, laying railroads, and being seamstresses and servants. (Laxton, 7-8)

Many people were in the business of job forwarding immigrants, which was similar to job placement today. Others were in jobs such as clerks, servants, and drivers. Most people did not know what they would end up doing, but they were thankful for arriving safely in America and finding work, as shown in the following

passage.

Some immigrants were welcomed to America on their arrival such as the

Catholics in Boston, who welcomed the Irish with open arms. Bishop John Bernard

Fitzpatrick encouraged his parishioners to "share their last loaf of bread with those

whose wild shrieks of famine and despair can be heard across the At/antic." (O'Connor,

60) The Boston Catholics also sent large sums of money to Ireland, estimated at

$150,000. The non-Catholics in Boston also helped. The U.S. Congress allowed the

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sloop, Jamestown, to transport provisions to Ireland, consisting of 800 tons of grain, meal, potatoes, and other food. (O'Connor, 60)

Even though the Boston Catholics welcomed the Irish, there was much discrimination against the Irish immigrants because most of the native Americans were anti-Catholic and considered the Irish people a threat to American democracy. The immigrants represented cheap labor and were feared and mistrusted. These differences caused many problems and conflicts. (Andrist, 305) Even though the Irish became laborers, builders, artisans, carpenters, bartenders, boat-builders, dockers, waiters, and eventually policemen and fireman, the NINA (No Irish Need Apply) was a frequent sign seen outside places of employment until the large, new population was balanced. (Laxton, 167)

As difficult as it was facing discrimination, the Irish seemed to adapt, as evidenced by this passage:

Of course, working and living conditions were strenuous for the most part. The Irish did very grueling labor in Boston and throughout America. Generally, the Irish

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became unskilled laborers who were unorganized. Many immigrants had little education. Women tended looms and men became factory hands. They were considered "docile labor." Women worked at looms for many hours a day at very low wages. Whole families lived in a single room, producing festering slums. Terrorist gangs erupted. (Andrist, 320) The immigrants were forced to consider almost any work available. Conditions were often dangerous, such as when building railroads. (Laxton, 167)

Information on the low wages earned by the Irish in the 1850's was provided by a man named Horace Greely. In 1851 he published data on working wages. Factory workers with a family of five had a minimum budget of $5 to $6 dollars a week. Only skilled workers were privileged, receiving $10.37 per week. Women often made $3 to $4 a week, and those who were needleworkers made 14 to 24 cents per day. Women factory workers working the long hours for little pay usually worked on looms, and when they arrived home, they had to take care of their children and husbands. (Andrist, 320)

While many immigrants faced their new life alone and unprepared, the lucky ones met families waiting for them on arrival. For farmers, there were land offers, published in immigrant circulars. The new immigrants had to move from place to place looking for work. As they labored across America, their mobile living quarters sometimes became permanent, increasing in size over the years to form villages with Irish names, such as nine communities named Dublin. (Laxton 168)

Many Irish immigrants were drafted into the Civil War. Sometimes former neighbors or fellow passengers found themselves fighting on opposite sides of the war. The Union Army had approximately 144,000 Irish-born troops. The Irish formed their

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own fighting force in 1850, the Ninth New York State Militia, with light-green uniforms, and names like the Irish Dragoons. (Laxton, 168)

The massive Irish immigration consisted mainly of men, so the population in the new land was unbalanced. The men far outnumbered the women. To try and fix this in Canada, officials recruited girls from Ireland's workhouses to come to Canada and Australia. The girls had to be "able-bodied women, single or married without families, who have been inmates of the workhouse for a least one year." (Laxton, 169) In the end, the transporting ship's conditions where so bad that the women only wanted to go back to Ireland. (Laxton, 169)

The Irish Potato Famine led to a generation of modern relief methods, practices, and implementation. Government funding for aid and food purchase was discontinued and was put in the hands of private enterprise. (Bladey, 4) The famine also led to the break between Southern Ireland and Great Britain. Finally, the famine led to a curtailment of the potato blight. The same blight, disease, fungus, that caused the Irish Potato Famine is in existence today in Ireland, England, Canada, the United States, and other countries. However, the use of Bordeaux mixture, an insecticide, keeps it under control. (McLoughlin, 1388)

The first census in Ireland taken in 1841 showed a population of approximately 8,000,000. Ten years later the census returns gave a figure of 6,552,385. Sociologists have decided that the population of 1851 should have been in excess of 9,000,000. Death by famine or departure by immigration claimed a loss to Ireland of 2-1/2 million people - more than one in four. (Laxton, 247)

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In the end is the distressing fact, as Laxton reports, that the apparent absence of

remorse among the British continues.

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Abbott, Edith, ed. Immigration: Select Documents and Case Records. Chicago:

Andrist, Ralph K., ed. The American Heritage History. of the Making of the Nation

Bladey, Conrad Jay. The Potato Famine in History. (Online) Available http://

www.toad.net/-sticker/nosurrender/chistory.html, May 5, 1998. Conion-McKenna, Marita. Under the Hawthorn Tree. New York: Penguin Books USA

Laxton, Edward. The Famine Shios: The Irish Exodus to America. New York: Henry

McLoughlin, E.V., ed. The Book of Knowledge. New York: Grolier Society inc., 1958. O'Brien, Elinor. The Land and People of Ireland. New York: Lippincott, 1953. O'Connor, Thomas H. The Boston Irish: A Political History-. New York: Little, Brown,

Woodham-Smith, Cecil. The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849. New York: Harper

and Row, 1964.