America is often referred to as a melting pot. It is a place where people of all ethnicities and backgrounds can come for refuge from their native land. The country itself was founded by people seeking freedom, and is still seen today as a beacon of hope for the opportunity to prosper. Since the nation’s birth, immigrants have come to America. Although they have faced hardships, they have been filled with the desire of having a better life than the one they left behind in foreign lands. During the pre civil war era, America was host to incoming Irish, German, and Chinese immigrants who changed the makeup of the country.

The potato famine hit Ireland in 1845. Potatoes were the primary food source for those living in Ireland, and their shortage resulted in over 750,000 deaths. (Irish and German Immigration) Due to the dismal state that Ireland was in, many people emigrated from the country. America became a place of hope for the Irish. One immigrant wrote in a letter to the London Times that, “What you labour for is sweetened by contentment and happiness; there is no failure in the potato crop, and you can grow every crop you wish.” (Irish and German Immigration) This shows how desperate the conditions in Ireland were. Something as simple as the ability to plant crops and have food brought happiness. America offered land and food for those who had been previously starving. This spurred an increase in the number of Irish immigrants coming to America. From the start of the potato famine to 1854, an estimated two million people from Ireland immigrated into America. (Irish Immigration) They were the major contributors to the Immigrant population in the antebellum America. Because of the number of Irish immigrants in the United States, they changed the demographics of the nation.

Although the Irish were seeking refuge in America in such large quantities, they were not eagerly greeted by those already living in America. Nativists, as they called themselves, were in strong opposition to immigrants, especially the Irish. They believed the Irish to be, “lazy, dirty and stupid…and feared Irish Catholics would try to ruin the country’s democratic values.” (American Immigration Volume One 18) Americans did not want to compete for jobs with the immigrants. Most of the Irish were unskilled workers finding jobs in factories, on railroad construction, and in coal mines, and working for lower wages than Americans would take. (Irish Immigration) Because the Irish were a threat to the Americans working in these positions, their immigration received a negative response. Many workplaces antagonized the Irish immigrants by posting ‘No Irish Need Apply’ on their job ads. (American Immigration Volume One 19) This was due to the hostility that American workers felt towards the Irish imposters. Because the Irish were so poor, many were forced to live in city slums. An 1849 health investigation in Boston, MA reported that,

“The situation of the Irish is particularly wretched…The whole district is a perfect hive of human beings, without comforts and mostly without common necessaries; in many cases, huddled together like brutes, without regard to sex, or age, or sense of decency.” (Irish Immigration)

 

America was not a perfect place, and a majority of the Irish coming to America had to deal with similar circumstances. Yet the hardships that the Irish had to face once in the United States were worth it compared to the monstrosities they left behind in Ireland. The Irish immigrants changed the face of America. What had previously been a predominantly English Protestant nation became infiltrated with Irish Catholics. Not only was a new ethnicity brought into America, but a new religion as well.

There was a large wave of German immigration prior to the Civil War. Over one million German immigrants came to America during the period of 1845 to 1855. This was due to political rioting and revolution in Germany (Irish and German Immigrants) The German immigrants did not receive as much hostility as the Irish did. Because the Germans were finding refuge from political issues rather than issues of starvation, many of them were more skilled and from a higher economic class than the Irish were. (Immigrants) More Germans than Irish were able to obtain farmland or own businesses, and did not need to take unskilled working positions. (The American Journey) This made them less of a threat and less likely to be targeted by the Nativists. Many German immigrants traveled to Midwestern America rather than stay concentrated in the Northeastern cities. There was abundant farmland in the West, and Germans had the financial ability to acquire western land. (American Immigration Volume One 19) Because the Germans were more spread out across the country than the Irish were, they received less opposition upon coming to America. Not only were the Germans able to bring new faces and religion to America, they were able to bring more people to the empty western regions of America. German Immigration helped to extend the population across America.

The Irish and the Germans made up the largest number of the immigrant population in Antebellum America, yet other cultures were also finding refuge in America. The Chinese were the major immigrant group in the West. After the California gold rush of 1849, forty-one thousand Chinese immigrants came to America between 1851 and 1860. The Chinese settled in the San Francisco area, establishing an all Chinese community called Chinatown. (American Immigration Volume One 21) The majority of the Chinese immigrants were young men who took jobs in mines and on railroad construction projects. They worked under harsh conditions, and were willing to accept wages lower than those for which Americans would work. (Immigration, Chinese) This sparked resentment from the Nativists and efforts to exclude Chinese immigration once their numbers started to multiply. Chinese immigrants were also responsible for taking the jobs that the white population would not. This included making food, clothes, and doing laundry. (Immigrants) From these jobs, the Chinese were able to create businesses that provided services for the men who came to the West. Yet because they caused competition in the workforce out West, where many people were hoping to make it rich, they generated a negative response. This would later lead to such things as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which “made the Chinese the only ethnic group in the world that could not immigrate freely into the United States.” (The American Journey 531) The making of such an act shows how hostile the American-Chinese relations were. The Chinese were the first of the Asian groups to immigrate into America. Not only did they help to fill up the western part of the United States, but they also brought a whole new ethnicity and cultural background into the country.

Immigrants have always come to the United States, and will continue to come to the United States. It is what makes America such a uniquely diverse country. New cultures from around the world are brought forth, sparking change in America. These cultures blend and eventually recreate what America is. When the Irish, Germans, and Chinese came to the United States, the nation was predominantly English protestant. America became exposed to these new backgrounds and started to diversify. Antebellum America was not necessarily accepting towards immigrants, but it was open for them. The immigrants were able to have a better life than would be possible in their previous homeland.

 

 

Works Cited

American Immigration Volume One. Connecticut: Grolier Educational, 1999.

Goldfield, David, et al. The American Journey. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc., 2007.

“Immigrants.” Historycentral.com. 17 May, 2009. http://www.historycentral.com/Ant/People/immigrants.html.

“Immigration…Chinese: Struggling for Work.” Memory.loc.gov. 17 May, 2009. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/chinese3.html.

“Irish Immigration.” Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk. 17 May, 2009. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAEireland.htm.

“Irish and German Immigration.” Ushistory.org. 16 May, 2009. http://www.ushistory.org/us/25f.asp.