"What right have they to claim the soil which was never their own; When thousands now are starving and evicted from their home?"

Coming from an Irish background, it was really interesting for me to read the chapter Emigrants From Erin. It was startling to read about the struggles Irish immigrants had to go through even before they came to America. I couldn’t imagine having the only form of substance and income, vanish before my eyes. “By 1855, some one million people had died from hunger and sickness.” What was even more astounding to me was that half the people of Ireland could have been fed by English exports. The English had the ability to help the Irish and did nothing to do so. The treatment of Irishmen by the English was so cruel, but what was even more surprising to me was how the Irish immigrants could treat African Americans with the same cruelty. On page 150 this mistreatment is explained clearly, “Frederick Douglass criticized the Irish immigrants for abandoning the idea of ‘liberty’ they returned in their homeland by becoming ‘the oppressors of another race’ in America”. It amazes me that Irish immigrants could mistreat African Americans after experiencing unfair treatment first hand. Blacks couldn’t understand the Irish immigrants hostility, “They resented being told by immigrants to leave the country of their birth and ‘go back’ to Africa, a place they had never seen”.

            It was also intriguing that the Irish would then aid in the expansion of America into Mexican land. I did some research and found that the PBS website had an abundance of information on the Mexican-American war. This war really reminds me of the struggles the Irish endured from the British, “Mexico struggled to maintain control over the vast expanses of land it had inherited from Spain following its long war for independence. Lacking the resources to settle much of its territory and suffering from deep internal political divisions, Mexico looked to the past for its sense of meaning, back to a time when ‘New Spain’ had once promised to be the continental power of the New World.” How could Irish immigrants experience a lifetime of mistreatment from the English and then treat others just as poorly? Were they threatened by the African Americans? Did they feel that they had to act tough in order to survive? How would I treat others if I felt I had to fight to for everything I had? 

http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/ 

What would I have done?

“The Giddy Multitude” opened my eyes to the practices of slavery. This quote astounded me, “What was happening was evident: Africans, unlike whites, were being degraded into a condition of servitude for life and even the status of property.” (page 57) It is so amazing to me how one person could own another person. What is even more surprising to me is how quickly African Americans were separated from the white slaves. White slaves receive less punishment than the black slaves simply because they were different. It didn’t even matter if they behaved better than the white slaves, blacks were still singled out. What even scares me the most about this time is that I have no idea how I would have treated others if I lived back then. I am a young white woman with English and Irish heritage. Slavery was simply accepted, so it scares me to think that I could have easily been a part of this injustice. Here is a quote I pulled from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her ... hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon.” I don’t know how slavery would have changed me if I was a slave owner. Even a woman who treated slaves respectfully fell under the power of ownership. How would power affect me if it was considered to be normal? Many people today are against discrimination, but can all of us say that we would have stood up against white colonists to protect the slaves? We will never be able to know for sure.