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 800 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 Limited democratic practices

15. Later Medieval History

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

17. The Scots in Ireland Scots/Ulster - Irish 17 th century sporadic migration 18 th Century Formal English policy Irish Catholics Driven from Ulster Captured Indentures Cromwell sent 100,000 to Caribbean Isles

19. Where the British Empire Goes So go the Irish: as Soldiers, Servants, Missionaries, Settlers, etc. 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 PresbyterianUlster Presbyterian Ulster Presbyterians become American Frontiersmen Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett Irish Catholics from Ulster become Protestant in America Irish Catholic Indentures (also Anglo-Irish)

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 Patriots: Matthew Thornton George Taylor James Smith

24. By 1789 United Irishmen Alien-Sedition Act

25. 1. 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 Mostly Catholic Mostly Unskilled Labor Settled in the cities Emergence of intense anti Irish hostilities

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

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

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

30. CHOLERA EPIDEMIC Proof of Irish decadence

31. 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 Much lower than African Americans See Want-ads in Boston & Philly papers See Want-ads in Boston & Philly papers NINANINA

32. Irish Discrimination  Paddy wagons  Patrick Hooligan  Irish drunks

33. Upward Mobility  Priesthood & Religious Life  Politics Police Police Firemen Firemen  Labor Unions  Nationalism

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

35. Philadelphia vs. New York & Boston Which city was best for the Irish?

36. Housing -- 1851  New York515,000 37,730 houses 37,730 houses  Philadelphia 490,000 61,200 houses 61,200 houses

37. 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

38. 1850 Only 1% of Boston Irish were grocers 1857 20% of Philly’s grocers were Irish 12% of Philly’s Dry Goods Merchants were Irish

39. HOUSES Building and Loans in Philadelphia

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

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

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

43. CATHOLIC SCHOOLS  Protestant Bibles  Proselytize Catholics  Harass Children

44. NATIVISTS RIOTS in Philadelphia  BIBLE CONTROVERSY  HARASSMENT OF CATHOLIC CHILDREN

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

46. Gangs of New York  NY’s infamous  Five Points

48. The Battle?

49. Bandits Roost

50. NY Irish Gangs Disappeared as they became economically assimilated

51. Why study the Irish? American success story