Irish-Americans – U.S. to 1877

Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126

Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127

The readings for this Tuesday offered two enlightening perspectives about the relationship between free laborers and the system of slavery. It was interesting to compare the experience of white freemen in the North working for labor rights (as discussed in Roediger’s essay) and that of Irish Americans in their attempts at establishing a favorable identity within a slave society (discussed in Dee Dee Joyce’s article). I enjoyed Roediger’s eloquent style and Joyce’s clear and concise outlining of her argument.

Northern white laborers compared themselves to slaves in a rhetorical strategy in order to critique the “evolving capitalist social relations as a kind of slavery” (Roediger 342). This strategy was risky and complex; while they compared their plight to that of slaves, they also had to be careful to “distance themselves from blacks even as the comparisons were being made.” (Roediger 341). While it is easy to look back now and characterize their comparisons to slavery as hyperbolic and extreme, the risk that was assumed by likening oneself to a slave should not be understated. Roediger emphasized this point by saying that “comparing oneself to a slave or to any Black American could not be lightly undertaken in the antebellum United States” (344). I assumed that comparing themselves to slaves implied a certain degree of anti-slavery sentiment, but the reading revealed that this was not the case. Rather it was “a call to arms to end the inappropriate oppression of whites” (344). Because, you know, slavery is totally okay… just not for whites.

The Irish Americans in the South also played on the societal inferiority of blacks and slaves as they attempted to create their identity in their new home of the antebellum south. Like the white northern freemen, the Irish were extremely concerned about avoiding “the taint of blackness” as they attempted to succeed in the realm of free labor (Ignatiev quoted by Joyce, 188). While Joyce described quite a few racist acts by the Irish (minstrel shows, eradicating slave and free black from the realm of free labor, etc…) it is understandable (but not necessarily justified) that Irish Americans resorted to racism in light of their past. Will pointed this out extremely well when he said: “Shaped by a history of marginalization, Irish-Americans desperately longed for inclusion and a sense of superiority, and maintaining slavery offered the best way to attain these goals” (http://sites.davidson.edu/his141/white-laborers-fear/). This history of marginalization led them to be very pragmatic and calculating about their discrimination of blacks. I ultimately took away from this reading that it wasn’t necessarily racist impulse that fueled their anti-black actions, just an undeniable truth that either the Irish immigrants or the African Americans were going to be oppressed in the US, and the Irish did what was possible to make sure it wouldn’t be them.

I found Joyce’s essay on Irish-Americans in the South very interesting, mostly because I haven’t given the subject much thought before. People tend to associate Irish immigrants with urban working class in the North, but I hadn’t considered their presence here before. It reads fairly smoothly, and I appreciated how clearly the author laid out the points in the beginning.

It also struck me how the Irish felt the need to gain sure footing in the social world because of prior experiences in the North and previously in Ireland. Joyce said that they “took constrained actions to place themselves in positions of best advantage within existing social networks” (193). Additionally, as wirobertson said, “Irish-Americans desperately longed for inclusion and a sense of superiority,” and they found this inclustion through their support of slavery. To me, this seems like a classic part of the melting pot idea. They retained much of their Irish culture, but made a conscious, directed effort to fit smoothly into the “existing social network” of Charleston (Joyce 193).

Additionally, the role of the Catholic church was fascinating. I hadn’t previously thought of the Catholic church as a particularly influential force in the South, but it certainly had an impact on the attitude of the Irish with regard to slavery. Joyce said, “Southern Church leaders validated and gave divine sanction to the slave system and provided their constituents with an explanation of Southern social relations” (190). To this group of people, the church was a way to connect with people like them, and it also helped ease the transition into a new culture. If the church had taken a less accepting stance with regard to slavery, I doubt that the Irish-Americans would have been received as easily in the South. However, they were able to relate to other white Southerners on this cause and create a sense of cultural identification across different cultural backgrounds.

Tag: Irish-Americans

Irish Identity, White Laborers, and the Rhetoric of Enslavement