Chapter 6

Chapter 6 begins with distinguishing between who the old immigrants are and who the new immigrants are. The old immigrants according to the book are “the British Isles and north-western Europe who came before the 1880s, were very much like the settlers of the colonies and were relatively easy to assimilate. The new immigrants were persons from the southern and Eastern Europe who came after the 1880s, were of very different ethnicity who spoke strange languages and worshiped strange god—that is, they were not Protestant.” (pg. 121) I see race and different culture playing a part in separating people already.  People should NOT be separated based on the language they speak or their religion. People should only be judged by the content of their character. However, no matter what you do or what time in society you live in people are always going to judge you. That’s how I feel about the people who were considered to be new immigrants were being treated. For being a little different the new immigrants were judged.

The main reason for Irish migration during the 19’th century was either because of the potato famine or famine in general.  During the 1840s and early 1850s the “great hunger” was a major push factor.  Up until the 1921, Ireland was not a free nation. I thought that was really interesting. If you think about it every nation had their own problems of why people were trying to leave it. It’s all about survival and people were migrating to survive. They were migrating to help support their families.

I love potatoes! So reading about the Irish and they survived on potatoes was very interesting for me.  It all started after Emancipation Act of 1829 when rent grew higher.  When I read that an “acre of a half of potatoes could feed a family of six.” (pg.133) I can’t believe that these poor people survived just on potatoes then again it was survival. I think if you are put in that situation then you no choice and that’s what happened to these people. For poor people, potatoes were the bulk of their diet.  I didn’t know that potatoes has a disease called Phytophthora infestants or otherwise known as potato blight. The potato blight was horrible. For some potato was the main crop they ate. I wonder how this fungus was contracted. Nowadays there’s no secret that we have a lot of chemicals put into our foods to preserve it. I also wonder if it still happens nowadays or with all the chemicals they put into the food that doesn’t happen. That is something to wonder.  Either way the safest way to eat vegetables is to grow them yourself or unless you know its organic.