Immigrants and the Free-Labor Ladder
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Key Factors
The risks and uncertainties of free labor did not deter millions of immigrants from entering the United States during the 1840s and 1850s. Almost 4.5 million immigrants arrived between 1840 and 1860, six times more than had come during the previous two decades (Figure 12.1). Nearly three-fourths of the immigrants who arrived in the United States between 1840 and 1860 came from either Germany or Ireland.
In America’s labor-poor economy, Irish laborers could earn more in one day than they could in several weeks in Ireland. In America, one immigrant explained in 1853, there was “plenty of work and plenty of wages plenty to eat and no land lords thats enough what more does a man want.” But many immigrants also craved respect and decent working conditions.
Amid the opportunities for some immigrants and native-born laborers, the free-labor system often did not live up to its promise. Many wage laborers could not realistically aspire to become independent, self-sufficient property holders, despite the claims of free-labor proponents.
German and Irish Immigrants
> German and Irish Immigrants
| Germans | Irish |
| 1.4 million German immigrants entered the United States between 1840 and 1860. | Nearly 1.7 million Irish immigrants arrived between 1840 and 1860. |
| Majority were skilled tradesmen and their families. | Nearly all were poor and often weakened by hunger and disease. |
| Roughly one-quarter were farmers. | Potato blight caused a catastrophic famine in Ireland in 1845 and returned repeatedly in subsequent years. |
| Many were Protestants. | Almost all were Catholics. |
| Relatively few worked as wage laborers or domestic servants. | Roughly three-quarters worked as laborers or domestic servants. |
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Question
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What factors contributed to the United States’ “industrial evolution”?
How did the free-labor ideal account for economic inequality?
What factors spurred westward expansion?
Why did the United States go to war with Mexico?
How did reform movements change after 1840?
Conclusion: How was white freedom in the West and North defined?
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