Paper Summary:

This paper specifically explains the immigration of the Irish to Connecticut and New England. Much of the information was developed by the Works Progress Administration, a Depression-era organization that initiated projects to keep writers employed. The author points out that, before the American Revolution, there was Irish immigration, but much of it was in the form of indentured servants who were regarded as only marginally more worthy than slaves. The paper states that the "massing of the green" aroused the New Englanders' fear of Catholicism because many Yankees thought only Protestantism was compatible with democracy and that the "Papists" would want a theocracy or religion-friendly monarchy.

Table of Contents
Mythical Images
Poor Huddled Masses
Native Fears

From the Paper:

"The Irish had come, whether the early indentured servants who had little choice, the second wave of the 1820s, or the third wave of the 1840s, in search of jobs. By 1870, they dominated the labor pool in the textile mills and such trades as bookmaking. The fact that they had come penniless and in search of jobs meant that, unlike settlers who had come with some money (some of the early Scandinavians and Germans, for example), they needed to settle in urban areas to perform those jobs. By 1860, about 21 percent of Hartford's population was Irish. By 1870, there was a similar contingent in New Haven."

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