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Summary Of Erin's Daughters In America

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In Hasia R. Diner’s book Erin’s Daughters In America she discussed the history of the lives of Irish immigrants, specifically women, before the Famine and after they emigrated to the United States. After the Famine, Irish citizens had to make drastic changes in their lives in order to survive, such as having more variety in food and the crops that they grew, and changing their marriage patterns and how often they had children. Many people even decided to immigrate to America, the majority of which were women. When Irish women came to America their lives were greatly revolutionized when they were forced to adopt new economic opportunities by finding a job quickly and gaining economic stability, and they had to modify their marriage patterns by getting married later in life, if they got married at all. …show more content…

The majority of the population consisted of peasants. The peasants, because they had nothing to lose, would marry very frequently, at young ages, and they would have many children. People were able to get married and have so many children because they were able to feed their families with the potato crop, which “could be grown anywhere, even on the most miniscule of plots, and contained just enough nutrients to sustain the life of the poor” (Diner 6). When the potato blight struck Ireland the population dropped by approximately 2 million people, both from deaths and people emigrating to America. People were devastated and realized they had to make changes in order to survive. There was no longer enough food to support a large family, therefore, marriage rates and birth rates dropped

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