Irish Immigrants In America In The 1800's

In the 1800’s many Irish Immigrants were in search of jobs in America. In Ireland jobs were becoming very scarce because there were many problems in their economy. It was important for individuals to support their families because of this occurrence. In Ireland there was an outbreak of the “Potato Blight” a disease caused by eating contaminated potatoes. Because of this many individual lost jobs this cause the “Great Potato Famine.” It was important for these Irishmen to seek jobs elsewhere because of the lack of opportunity. It was necessary to support their families back at home so were supplied with the money needed for survival. Many of these emigrants worked in America in factories, as farmers, and built many forms of transportation,

“Some immigrants accepted jobs at factories because they had skills that were useful to industry developers and factory owners. Most joined factories because they needed money for food and necessities as they settled into their new lives in America” (Tucker). The addition of Irish labor to the economy impacted the American economy. Many factories were producing items, such as clothing, at a faster rate die to the Irish’s prerequisites. And many farmers were producing their crops faster. This was all possible because of the extra help from the Irish. One of the biggest contributions that the Irish made was the construction of the Erie
Canal.
“The workers lived on the edge of subsistence financially; physically, canal work was backbreaking, dangerous, and at certain times fraught with the near certainty of cholera and malaria, which carried off sizable chunks of the work force during virulent years. The lives of many Irish immigrants who worked in the canals seem to have been, in those immortal words, ‘short, brutish, and nasty’; violence and heavy drinking were rampant in the communities, and armed conflicts and labor riots were far from unheard of”( Mcneese,