Fleeing the Famine : North America and Irish Refugees, 1845-1851

The Irish Potato Famine caused the migration of more than two million individuals who sought refuge in the United States and Canada. In contrast to previous studies, which have tended to focus on only one destination, this collection allows readers to evaluate the experience of transatlantic Famine refugees in a comparative context. Featuring new and innovative scholarship by both established and emerging scholars of Irish America and Irish Canada, it carefully dissects the connection that arose between Ireland and North America during the famine years (1845-1851). In the more than 150 years since the onset of Ireland's Great Famine, historians have intensely scrutinized the causes, the year-by-year events, and the consequences of his human catastrophe. Who was to blame? Were the hunger and misery inevitable? Did the famine have revolutionary effects on the Irish economy? How did it change the nature of Irish religion? This new study complements the wealth of existing literature on the social, cultural, and political aspects of the Famine and invites the reader to consider the fate of the Irish refugees in their new home lands. Irish Famine Emigrants And The Passage Trade To North America / William A. Spray -- The Ties That Bind : The Family Networks Of Famine Refugees At The Du Pont Powder Mills, 1802-1902 / Margaret M. Mulrooney -- The Spirit Of Manifest Destiny : The American Government And Famine Ireland, 1845-1849 / Timothy J. Sarbaugh -- An Unprecedented Influx : Nativism And Irish Famine Immigration To Canada / Scott W. See -- Celtic Exodus : The Famine Irish, Ethnic Stereotypes, And The Cultivation Of American Racial Nationalism / Dale T. Knobel -- Irish American Drama Of The 1850s : National Identity, Otherness, And Assimilation / Stephen Watt -- In The Famine's Shadow : An Irish Immigrant From West Kerry To South Dakota, 1881-1979 / Kerby A. Miller -- The Legacy Of Irish Emigration To The Canadas In 1847 / Cecil J. Houston And William J. Smyth. Edited By Margaret M. Mulrooney. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contents Preface Introduction Part I: Migration 1 Irish Famine Emigrants and the Passage Trade to North America 2 The Ties that Bind: The Family Networks of Famine Refugees at the du Pont Powder Mills, 1802–1902 Part II: Responses 3 The Spirit of Manifest Destiny: The American Government and Famine Ireland, 1845–1849 4 “An Unprecedented Influx”: Nativism and Irish Famine Immigration to Canada 5 “Celtic Exodus”: The Famine Irish, Ethnic Stereotypes, and the Cultivation of American Racial Nationalism 6 Irish American Drama of the 1850s: National Identity, “Otherness,” and Assimilation Part III: Memories 7 In the Famine’s Shadow: An Irish Immigrant from West Kerry to South Dakota, 1881–1979 8 The Legacy of Irish Emigration to the Canadas in 1847 Index A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U W Y About the Contributors