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A Race United Essay

Decent Essays
When the first Irish immigrants landed on the eastern shores of America in the 18th century, they were met by intolerance from the Native whites who saw them as a threat to the American way of life. The Dangers of Foreign Immigration, an article written by Samuel Morse in 1835, exposits much of the anti-immigrant sentiment prevalent in the 19th century. To the natives, the Irish were simply "niggers turned inside out" (Anonymous Satirism), who came to America as refugees from Ireland to deprive them of their wealth and prosperity. Thus, the immigrants of Erin were forced to join the ranks of the slave, the German, and the free Negro laborer at the very bottom of the American diaspora. But instead of accepting the hand which they were…show more content…
In addition to Irish progress politically, the sons and daughters of Erin also received help from each other. Written in 1835, The Dangers of Foreign Immigration was not targeted at the earliest wave of Irish immigrants who arrived in the late 18th century. Unlike later generations, these early Irish Americans were not necessarily Catholic, and didn't always speak English, but rather Gaelic. By the time the second wave of Irish immigrants arrived in the mid-19th century, yet more differences existed between these two waves. Those immigrants who had arrived earlier were by now relatively more wealthy and established than their more recent counterparts. But through their common threads Irish men and women, the established communities provided financial and political aid to their newly arriving brethren. The Shamrock Friendly Association, an Irish aid group comprised of prosperous Irish American citizens, published an informational pamphlet in 1816 entitled Hints to Emigrants from Europe. In it, they tell Irish immigrants that "they may derive benefit from the counsel and guidance of friends," and that "if one has gone the road [they] are about to travel, by only showing [them] how it winds beyond the next hill," (Shamrock Friendly Association 4) they would be better able to navigate their path in America successfully. In addition to encouragement, the immigrants also received
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