Themes in American History

As more immigrants started coming Philadelphia and New York, the population of African Americans started decreasing. Before coming to US, Irish immigrants were unaware of racial discrimination against African Americans.  After learning that fact Irish people refused to work with African Americans. As a result African Americans started losing their jobs and employment rate of Irish people increased. More European immigrants started moving in these cities due to development and job opportunities population of African American decreased. “African Americans had constituted over 10 percent of the population in New York City in 1810; by 1860, they represented only 1.5 % of all New Yorkers. In Philadelphia, more than 12 % of the population was black in 1830; by 1860, that proportion had dropped to less than 4 percent.” (Chudacoff, pg66).Between 1820 and 1830, ferries and bridges helped in developing cities, lands across Manhattan and Philadelphia get accessible and that increased the population of these areas doubled and tripled in just single decade. That was another reason of decrease in population of African Americans in these cities. Such a Large scale immigration of Irish people took place main due to potato blight. “The potato blight that struck Ireland in 1845-1847 destroyed the food supply for countless families “(CHUDACOFF, Pg 64). As a result 1.7 million Irish fled to US. By the 1850’s, more than half the residents of Boston and New York city were foreign born, and Philadelphia 30 percent of household heads were born in Europe.” (CHUDACOFF, Pg 64).

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