Date of Award

Spring 5-1-1987

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

First Advisor

William W. Giffin

Second Advisor

Rebecca S. Shoemaker

Third Advisor

Herbert J. Rissler

Abstract

The study compares the experiences of Irish immigrants in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1860 with those of Irish immigrants in the port cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. Adjustment and identity are the main points of comparison. While all immigrants experienced difficulty in adjusting to life in a new country, the Catholic Irish who fled their famine-ridden homeland to Protestant-dominated nineteenthcentury America encountered special problems engendered by a fear of the Catholic church. Their adjustment to this hostile environment was made on three levels--economic, social and political. Economic adjustment involved occupational skill levels, employment, income, and property ownership. Social problems included housing, disease and mortality, indigency, and crime. Political adjustment involved prominence in political affairs, political candidates and patronage. The Irish found they were no longer identified by county origin; they were Irish. Their identity in America is examined via social, cultural, and political aspects as well as native American perceptions of their identity. Residential patterns, ethnic organizations, and family life determined social identity while church, schools, and ethnic newspapers dominated cultural identity. The Irish political identity was affiliated with the Democrat party. Differences within the Terre Haute Irish group were also examined. Extant public records--i.e., censuses, church records, city directories, newspapers, and naturalization records-provided data on the Terre Haute Irish. Monographs by Handlin (Boston), Ernst (New York), Clark (Philadelphia), and Niehaus (New Orleans) provided comparative data for the Irish in the port cities. The Terre Haute Irish experienced similar economic difficulties, were not as successful in the political arena, but found social adjustment easier. In Terre Haute, the Irish, a small percentage of the total population, maintained an ethnic identity but with vaguer lines of definition.

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