British Colonization of Ireland

British Colonization

• Ireland was invaded in 1179.
• In the seventeenth century, Britain established English and Scottish Protestant settlements in Ulster.
• Beginning in 1603, the Plantation of Ulster enabled these settlers to seize lands from Gaelic Catholics.
• British Protestants considered Catholic Irish as racially inferior.
• In 1649, there was a genocidal campaign against the Irish.
• The defeat of Irish Catholic forces in 1690 at the Battle of the Boyne led to Britain imposing the Penal Laws, banning Catholics from public office, legal professions, limiting their education and land ownership, and restricting religious practices.
• Religious suppression, apartheid-style division, and violence occurred during British colonization.
• Land and its products were taken from the Irish.
• Local people were expelled from their land.
• During the Irish potato famine (1845-1852), the British compelled Irish farmers to cultivate crops for export.
• Families were dispatched to America on "coffin ships."

Potato Famine

• Potatoes served as the primary food source and cash crop.
• Only one strain of Irish potato was grown.
• Most farms were owned by absentee Anglo-protestants who rented out the land.
• The Irish were very poor and indebted.
• Rising food and supply costs resulted in starvation, while epidemic diseases were caused by malnutrition.
• England took no action to aid the Irish.
• Food exports from England increased during the famine.
• Famine refugees arriving in America possessed few skills and were destitute and impoverished.
• The English/British created Irish resentment.

Alien Acts of 1798

• The Alien Act, Alien Enemies Act, and Sedition Act targeted Irish immigrants and were anti-Irish, anti-immigrant, and anti-Catholic.
• Pro-French French people and Irish immigrants were targeted.
• The naturalization period was extended from 5 to 14 years.
• The detention of subjects from enemy nations was permitted.
• The chief executive was authorized to deport aliens deemed dangerous.
• Legislation made it more difficult for immigrants to vote.

Germans vs. Irish

• Germans were believed to be less racially distinct and less dangerous.
• German traditions mirrored and traced ancestry to Germany.
• Germans were viewed as freedom-loving and noble peoples
• Germans primarily settled in the west, contrasting with the industrialized northeast.
• German religious diversity made it less likely that they would consider themselves a distinct race; that diversity made them less politically useful for political purposes, and German Catholics faced challenges.
• “Irishism” (late 1840’s), also known as "Celtism", was framed pejoratively and made rigid racial types.
• Irish immigrants and their offspring faced habitual depravity and degradation.
• There was a direct link to observable physical traits, skin color, hair color, facial type, and physique.
• The Irish were thought to be "low browed," "brutish," and "simian."
• According to Harper's Weekly (1851), the Irish had "small and somewhat upward turned nose" and "black tint of skin."
• Racialism offered a framework for comprehending immigrant behavior.
• Beliefs that deemed them "unfit" for self-governance resonated in popular culture.
• There was an implication that inferior people should not govern themselves.

Irish Federalism

• A rupture between Anglo-Saxons and Celts drew upon historical Saxon conquest.
• The Irish differed and those differences were respected and accepted along Irish lines.
• The Irish rejected ideas of inferiority, but accepted racial distinctions.
• Assigned meanings were widely accepted and culminated in perceived physical differences.
• The primary conveyor of racial meanings (for the Irish)was Irish nationalism.
• Awareness of Irish identity + Irish nationalism was reinforced by the Saxon brand of historical oppression and the Celtic brand of impoverishment and resilience.
• There was a racial distinction on both sides of Atlantic, and their shared animosity was perceived as natural.
• The language of racial unity fostered a connection with both homeland and the promise of liberation.
• Although naturalization laws permitted Irish to enter as "white," labor competition encouraged embracing "whiteness.”

Know-Nothings

• A nationalist political group arose in the late 1840s, emerging from a populist movement of impoverished whites discontented with the two-party system.
• The American Party was established.
• It sought to uphold American culture by limiting immigration.
• Both Irish Catholics and Catholic countries became targets. They had candidates elected to political office, as well as a president.

Commonalities with Black Folk

• The Irish and Black Folk had lots in common, and shared lots of contact during this period
• They lived side by side and shared workspaces.
• During the initial immigration wave, they were associated together in the same class contending for the same employment opportunities.
• The term “mulatto” appears for the first time during the 1850’s that resulted from intermarriage between Irish and African Americans.
• A common descriptor was Negroes "turned inside out” and Negroes as “smoked Irish."
• Nativists regarded free blacks and the Irish as connected and similar and performing the same tasks.
• Many felt that if amalgamation occurred, it could happen between Irish and blacks.
• While the Irish embraced whiteness, it conflicted with their experience in Ireland; whiteness equated to freedom as to where black equaled slavery.
• African Americans were excluded once the Irish had secured employment so that the Irish would not be considered the same.
• By distinguishing themselves, they would be considered different and be able to benefit from whiteness.
• The Irish rose to prominence within the labor movement, while African Americans were marginalized.

Who Not To Be

• By fighting against abolition and embracing anti-black racism, the Irish were able to gain some white status.
• Their white skin gave them the opportunity to blend in.
• They exchanged greenness for whiteness, and collaborated with whites to oppress blacks.
• The Irish learned that doing well was through participation in the exploitation of Northern blacks, who were their closest competitors in social class.
• Back home, "native Irish” or “Papists" went through something very similar to American slavery under English Penal Laws.
• To gain approval as citizens and stand up to the Nativist (WASP) movement, they partnered in the oppression of African Americans.
• They blocked the abolition, and they garnered help from Southern, slaveholding democrats.
• Some Southern Democrats agreed to eliminate English Act of the Union, with some of those individuals convinced that abolition was an English plan meant to weaken their country.

Civil Service

• While integrating into mainstream society, political influence was mobilized.
• Civil Service positions like police and fire departments are why most cities have St. Patrick's Day parades.
• The immigration wave began in 1840, and there were few Irish police officers during that time.
• The Irish made up more than 1/4 of the NYPD by the end of the year.
• More than 50% of NYPD and more than 75% of its firefighters were Irish by the end of the century.
• There was an overrepresentation of Irish people as prosecutors, judges and prison guards.
• Irish Cops were a figure in American culture.
• Once considered "apelike barbarians,” the Irish presented themselves as selfless and patriotic civil servants.

Draft Riots of 1863

• In the Draft Riots of 1863, it was overwhelmingly Irish and working-class.
• There was a domestic violence incident where 400 people were killed.
• Primarily targeting Blacks, the rich, and Republicans
• African Americans were shot, burned, and hanged.
• It was in reaction to the Conscription Act of 1863.
• The rich could avoid military service, and pay $300 or buy a substitute.
• A mob attacked the recruiting station when recruitment for the army began in New York.
• Destruction of the city by mobs marched for three days, destroying buildings, streetcar lines, homes, and factories.
• The draft riots were 4 days of violence (7/13-7/17).
• Irish skilled workers sought to get rid of blacks who competed with them.
• Black workers were beaten, murdered, and mutilated.
• Irish soldiers criticized the violence.
• Irish soldiers sought to be sent to New York to fight against the Irish: 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, New York 69th, and Massachusetts 9th

Draft Riots of 1863 Contempt

• The reasons behind the Irish soldier contempt:
  • There as a threat to derail the progress of soldiers in the Union.
  • There was support to the legality and necessity of conscription.
  • Targeted Irish soldiers:
    • Colonel Robert Nugent-Assistant Provost enforced the draft. His home was attacked, but he was not home.
    • Colonel Henry O’Brien-home was attacked; bludgeoned, dragged through the streets, and hung from a lamp post.

Immigration

• The intention was to fashion America into a Protestant and culturally homogeneous America in 1790.
• Only “free white persons, who have or shall migrate into the United States” were eligible to become naturalized citizens.
• The calculus of racism went through revisions when immigrants from Europe changed the face of the country and the country had to determine how to deal with that.
• The surge of newcomers caused panic, and America implemented a restrictive view on how to allocate whiteness.

Whiter Italians

• White Europeans were separated into races.
• Some were “whiter”, and more worthy of citizenship than others.
• Some were ranked as too close to being black.
• Italians went from a racial pariah in the 19th-century to white Americans in the 20th century.
• Race is constructed in the United States
• American racial hierarchies can change.
• In 1912, the US House Committee on Immigration debated whether Italians were “full-blooded Caucasians.”
• Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were seen as "biologically and culturally less intelligent."
• Southern Italians with darker skin endured the sanctions that came with being black on both sides of the Atlantic.
• In Italy, Northerners viewed that people in the south, especially Sicilians, were “too African”.
• Northerners viewed Southerners “uncivilized”
• Racist philosophy about Southern Italians found rich soil in the United States.
• Americans were given images that portrayed Italians as racially “suspect.”
• There were barriers for them in movie houses, schools, and labor unions.
• There were church pews for black people.
• Italians were thought to be criminals and swarthy.
• Italians were referred to as"dago” and “guinea”.
• They were referred to as “white nigger” and “nigger wop”.
• Employers sought after workers that were lighter-skinned.
• There was a fear to hire small statured railroad worker's.
• When it came to mining, Italians were usually in charge of labor whereas English speakers were in charge of skilled positions.
• Labor jobs that require a higher education were harder to get.
• In the 1920s, Italians were able to integrate into the workforce.
• However, skilled labor was rare.
• Union prejudice for Italian immigrants was common and was held in English.
• Italians were not elected to positions of power even if they were a part of the union.

Being Marked as Black

• Name-calling was one of many punishments for blackness.
• Italians came to the country as free citizens but were labeled as black as they took on work roles that the black community was usually associated with.
• Black people living in the South became vulnerable.

Rewriting History

• Christopher Columbus became central to the idea of making Italians “white”.
• Holiday was a way to build a new tradition that rewrite history and rewrite the past.
• In the efforts to quell the outrage among Italian-Americans Benjamin Harrison announced that there would be a celebration that would take place in 1892.
• This one-time special occasion would honor the Italian immigrants that lost their lives from the tragedy that happened.

Broad Anti-Lynching Effects

• Protests were started by the Italian government which started an anti-lynching effort.
• The protest created space for black lives that were being lost and not being recognized.
• Lynching the Italian population drew a lot of eyes to the newspaper which in turn created a buzz for people to view the tragedy so the owners of the paper could capitalize.
• Italians were referred to as brutes, fiends, and ravishers in the newspaper which in turn created bad connotations for a race of people.
• Well’s was accused of working with the wrong type of crowd, which would not help the efforts that she was trying to accomplish.
• Wells in the 1890’s was very vocal with her anti=lynching efforts while being present in England
• There was an assumption to the idea that rape was something that primarily black people were prone to do as a crime.

Louisiana

• Italian immigrants were welcomed into Louisiana after the Civil War
• The planter class was in desperate need of workers that will work for low pay and will replace black people.
• Seemed like an answer to create settlers that support White supremacy.
• The love for Italians was not there after seeing that they also wanted to have better work environments.
• Italians were living with each other, established store fronts that were for black people and were known to intermingle.
• White folk would view the Sicilian population as not truly having a pure lineage.
• Italians were being treated with less worth of humans and were getting treated poorly and even lynched.
• There was an idea that Sicily and African-Americans were criminal.
• A news story came out in 1887 and the title was "dago joe" which spread lies and false context that was not rooted in truth.
• The idea of an individual being mixed and has all the bad qualities from both sides of genetics.
• A suspect claimed that Hennessy was killed because "dagoes" had shot him one night.
• Once the claim was made, there were 19 Italians that were found to be found with the chief's murder.
• With being said there were a lot of evidence that proved that 6 of the 9 that were on trial were not found guilty.
• Once the truth was revealed the community decided to still act out in violence.
• This violence would be directed toward hard-working Italians who were not seeking harm and just running their business’ but they were threatened by white mobs to not seek that justice.
• President Harrison was going to be hands-off with the violence towards the Italian's until the victims who were lost was deemed valuable.
• After seeing that the Italian government was not going to rest until justice was served Harrison started to show the situation support and had to pay as well from the harm that had been delivered.
• Harrison pushed the narrative of wanting to stand up for the immigrant community and to protect them from violence.
• In the late 19 century, more focus was put on people like Christopher Columbus.
• The media started to create stories about how the New Orleans lynchings were necessary.
• They argued criminals should not be a harm to the community.
• The community then saw these people as not true Americans.
• Italian immigrants made connections with Columbus to ensure that people would acknowledge their accomplishments.
• There was an effort in accepting Columbus and a desire to join the Italian and Catholic heritage which birthed from the US.
• The Italian immigrants were given the name "founders” which took away the term immigrants.
• Columbus was honored in many ways to show praise of the immigrants of the 1960’s and were fighting hard to get rid of the bad name that these people were receiving.
• There was a group of Italian New-Yorkers that supported supporting the sons of Columbus.

Sons of Columbus

• Formed a group to celebrate the life of Columbus.
• They would mingle with people like the Irish who had created a seventy-six-foot statue of Columbus in the center of New York.
• The Irish had the assistance of "whiteness".
• Italian and Irish collaborated to create a new foundation where all nationalities can come together and share what their family and culture is known for.
• They lobbied to establish October 12, as a legal holiday.
• By 1912 it was celebrated in 14 states.
• Twenty years after Roosevelt made it a federal holiday.
• Cabolt lodge was big on speaking on immigration and offered notes regarding the situations that was at hand.
• The jury was the problem, not the community expressing out rage. He claimed.
• Believing people does not make them right or wrong. Just because one believes one thing does not mean we have to treat them fairly.
• Congress decided that if you had "whiteness" privileges did not mean you were not being treated badly when it came to the law.