Irish Potato Famine
Arriving in Boston
In 1847 alone, 37000 Irish refuges landed in Boston, on the edge of death and despair, impoverished and sick. "Native Bostonians might have been willing to send money and food to aid the starving Irish as long as they remained in Ireland," wrote historian Thomas H. O'Connor, "but they certainly didn't want them coming to America." The newcomers moved in along Boston's waterfront, packed together in damp cellars and overcrowded hovels. "Children in the Irish district," wrote Bostonian Lemuel Shattuck, "seemed literally born to die."
Submitted by Debbie Chachra