Irish Built Arteries: Ethnic identification along the canals and railroads of New York

Summary

This study explores the materiality of cultural boundaries manufactured around immigrant communities in industrial localities in New York State. The immigration of thousands of Irish to the United States throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was met with an intense animosity. Religious and economic differences combined with an anti-immigrant sentiment to provide the Irish-American with a continuation of the racist attitudes similar to the ones that plagued English Improvement. Using artifact data provided by the New York State Museum and documentary evidence, this study hopes to examine the trace materiality left by the actions of racialization. The material evidence left behind by actions inspired through racism may be able to indicate, more accurately than previous ethnicity-based studies, the defined social groups and their resistance to outside influences. The Irish immigrants who flocked to the sites of industry across New York helped build the infrastructure of the Empire State. As a result of their contribution to the success of New York, the history of Irish presence at sites along railroads and canals is incredibly important, and deserves thorough archaeological study to add to our understanding of their experiences beyond the documentary record.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage