The Molly Maguires Essay

The factors that contributed to the conflict between Irish Americans and African Americans were job opportunities and the belonging to the white race. Irish-black conflict has existed for more than a century, a lot of the tension created between these two groups was due to the competition for jobs as well as a sense of superiority that dominated the Irish. These two groups competed for many low-wage jobs and the Irish feared this competition, creating conflict between the two groups. Due to the scarce jobs, many groups were seen to compete against one another in order to fill the job openings. Also, as the Irish immigrants settled into America, they grew a sense of entitlement and belonging into the white dominant race.

The Molly Maguires are a group of men in Pennsylvania who emigrated from Ireland to look for job opportunities in the great new world America had sold itself as. Originally being founded as a Protestant dominant country, fleeing from religious persecution, there was some tension between Americans and Catholics, in this case the Irish. Unable to find a union that would accept the Irishmen they were, the Mollies formed their secret organization because of their frustrations against their employers, when their needs were not met, they resorted to violence and strikes . The Molly Maguires, or Mollies, were labeled cruel, brutal terrorists in their court hearings. These alleged Mollies got their name after the Irish group in Ireland that existed in the years

Molly was a common nickname for women named Mary. The nickname ‘Molly Pitcher’ most likely came from the soldiers, when they needed water they’d yell “Molly - pitcher!” Which explains why she is known by that name. The believed springs that people think Molly and the followers fetched water from are now named ‘Molly Pitcher

As stated, many labor unions that were created utilized strikes to negotiate and come to a compromise between business leaders and their workers. However, it got to the point where they were being overused, and starting to turn very violent. The first time this had occurred is the Great Strike in the year of 1877. It occurred in the city of Baltimore, where workers from the Ohio Railroad company were on strike due to their pay checks being cut. However, a compromise was unable to be in a timely manner, causing the railroad system to come to a halt. This delay lasted for about a week or two, even causing the federal government to get involved as the economy and commerce was being greatly affected by this. To bring an end to this, the President,

The Irish Immigrants lacked many skills that were needed for different jobs throughout America. Many had few or no urban or rural skills, except growing potatoes. Many had only a grade school education and very few had a high school education. This lack of education brought

Irish American’s had immigrated to the United States in a time of need. The United States weren’t the only ones in need the Irish came to America looking for a “New World.” The Irish left Ireland due to lack of food, their crops weren’t growing. Therefore they wanted a place that they wouldn’t have to be worried about starving. Along with moving to the United States they came to a more racist and not so welcoming place. They were very disrespected for being an immigrant and standing out. Their beliefs and ways of living their life were discriminated against.

During the Revolutionary War, William ‘John’ Hays enlisted as a gunner in the Continental Army.Mary followed her husband,which was common, as did many of the other women did to be there for their husbands and to help as needed.On June 28,1778 Hays was fighting in the Battle of Monmouth with Mary bringing many pitchers of water for the soldiers to drink and to cool their cannons down. It is said that Molly Pitcher was named for her tiredless efforts,which is only the beginning of her story. For instance Bioraphy.com says that ‘Molly’ witnessed her husband collapse from a bullet wound and immediately dropped her

Ireland has always had religious problems between, Pagans, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish people. Ireland has always been a place of interest in English eyes so Ireland was continually concord over and over by the English and the currency, traditions and religions changed with every English King, Queen or Irish Rebel. Between 1641 and 1691 Oliver Cromwell changed everything, Irish Catholics, Pagans and Jews were killed or shipped off to be slaves. The influence to immigrate was very strong, their options were to go to a new world of which they knew no one and had nothing, be killed for your religion, or be gathered up and shipped away as a slave. It was a hard decision they all were forced to

The labor movement began sometime in the 19th century. Many groups such as the National Labor Union were founded. Although the NLU wasn't successful, it helped bring other groups about. One of these groups being the Knights of Labor in 1869. This group had about 700,000 members and were focused on addressing important issues such as an 8 hour workday and opposition to child labor. Because there was no set rules as too how much to pay workers and how long they should work, it lead to many employers abusing their employees. Eventually workers got tired and decided to take matters into their own hands. This led to many strikes such the Haymarket Square Riot and the Homestead Strike. The Haymarket Square Riot took place on May 4, 1886 in Chicago. Thousands of workers gathered to march for an 8 hour work day however protests got violent. For example a bomb was thrown, 8 "anarchists" were arrested for murder for murder and 4 of them were executed. The Homestead Strike wasn't pretty either. The Homestead Strike took place in Homestead, Pennsylvania on June 30, 1892. Before the strike, the Amalgamated Association formed in 1876, which was a union for iron and steel workers. By 1889 the Amalgamated Association already won two big strikes against the Carnegie Company, became powerful and organized and had a strong union contract. However, on June 29, 1892 the old contract expired without Henry Frick and the

Irish immigrants dealt with many negative impacts on their arrival to America. Coming to America they were put into destitute neighborhoods. As they were isolated and stigmatized in these lower class communities, this drove to the creation of Irish gangs. The gangs started fire companies as fronts to hold wars amongst each other for control over the slums, but most importantly Irish to defend their people against attacks of anti-Irish immigrant gangs. They assaulted anti-drink marchers and even rioted against the temperance movement as stated in the book from a man in a grog shop “in this land of liberty, they expected to do as they like” (pg.144). As gangs went on, they forced city officials to expand police and fire services to give more

In Margaret Lynch-Brennan’s work The Irish Bridget, Lynch-Brennan reveals how the socially marginalized Irish immigrant women of this era made their living in domestic service. In contrast to immigrant men, who might have lived in a community with their fellow Irish, these women lived and worked in close contact with American families. Lynch-Brennan explains the essential role this unique relationship played in shaping the place of the Irish in America today. Such women were instrumental in making the Irish presence more acceptable to earlier established American groups. At the same time, it was through the experience of domestic service that many Irish were acculturated, as these women absorbed the middle-class values of their patrons and

Their entrance into America created challenges for them. They were disregarded and perceive as blacks. “Irish immigrants found themselves compared to blacks. They were stereotyped as “a race of savages” (Takaki 141). They consider themselves “slaves for the Americans”. As both groups experienced rejection, Irish immigrants and African Americans had to scorn each other to find their place in American society.

In the United States, like most immigrants, the Irish were doing all the low pay, manual, and unprofessional jobs. The nativists were worried that the Irish immigrants were tarnishing the image of urbanized country America was establishing at the time. The social status of the Irish was

Along with being called “ape-like” the English assigned the stereotype of “Black Irish” to them because they believed that just like the south had a black problem, the north now had an Irish one. Following these two stereotypes there was also the stereotype that Irish were inferior to the English due to a few reasons. One of these reasons was that they did not have the “Protestant work ethic” that the English loved to think that they had. Also they called them immoral and uneducated because most of the Irish immigrants were young, single, and had no education. In fact, most women that came over were unmarried and would live in the same place as single men, something that was never done in the American lifestyle and this added to the Inferior stereotype. The last stereotype the English assigned to the Irish were that they were a bunch of drunks. It is true that pub culture was a big part of the Irish lifestyle, but the English took it and blew it out of proportion. It was concluded that if you were Irish then you were automatically a drunk. As if these four stereotypes were not enough the English also discriminated against the Irish in a few

against the Protestants. In 1829 Catholics were not suitable for schools throughout Ireland they were only suitable for Protestants. The Catholic peasantry were still called on to pay tithes, and they continued to be harassed by the exactions of tithe-proctors and others, who if the money was not forthcoming, seized the poor peoples cows, furniture, beds, blankets, kettles, or anything they could lay their hands on (History Of Nations 12 Ireland-Scotland p.224).The Catholics were a minority in Ireland much like in the history of Quebec where the English conquered the French, the French were considered lower forms of humans they weren’t up to English standards. As the years past the Catholics started to get back at the Protestants forming the I.R.A. I.R.A. and Protestant killings continued into the early 1900s, Britain began launching multi party- talks with the goal of forging a new assembly for northern Ireland and new relations between the north and Irish republic. By 1999, Protestant and Catholic negotiators had