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Midterm Essay #2: Topic #2 "Irish and African Americans" In the period of vast immigration into the United States and within it, the Irish and African Americans are very closely related in their experiences as immigrants and their experiences during and after their immigration. Their origins, flows, economic incorporation in the United States, settlement and socio-political adaptation was a little different but it had some similarities. Both groups were "pushed" and "pulled" out of their native lands by the same type of factors, and the problems that they faced were similar. The Push Pull theory and the Network Theory can explain their experiences as immigrants. The Irish migration to the United States was caused by many factors, but there were a few major ones that caused most Irish citizens to consider the migration to the new world. The Irish came from Ireland to escape many hardships that plagued them. First and foremost was the potato famine that was wide spread throughout Ireland. A fungus ate away most of the potato crop (I, 146) and since most of the economy was based on agriculture and the potato crop was a key product, the economy took a tremendous hit. Widespread unemployment, food shortages ran rampant thr
Also a black owned newspaper based in Chicago called the Chicago Defender, informed blacks of the new opportunities in the industrial cities and that the old way in the south was wrong (II, 343). Since they were white, they were able to get citizenship more easily than other immigrants. Black business, political and religious leaders preached to the black community to take the money that they earned and spend it within the black community. (IV) The location that the settlement of Irish immigrants in the U. The African American migration was different from that of the Irish in terms of geographic location, but the factors leading to their decisions to move from their "homeland" to more prosperous areas was very similar. Now they could elect Irish politicians into local, state and national offices, thus putting Irish influence into the political arena. This was the norm in the city of Boston. So not only were the Irish being "pushed" out of the country by hardships, but also they were being "pulled" into America by the industrial surge occurring in the United States, a surge that promised the Irish a better and happier life. Industrial companies became alarmed at this development and immediately sent labor recruiters into the southern states. Sharecropping caused the farmers to gain more and more debt as the years progressed, since they had to buy all their supplies from the "company store", which was owned by the white landlord. For Irish immigrants, they found their employment to be typically manual labor.
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