Corkonians And Fardowners: Irish Activity And Identity In The Rural American South, 1850-1860
Author(s): Amanda B Johnson
Year: 2018
Summary
During the 1850s, the Blue Ridge Mountain Railroad Company recruited 2,000 Irish immigrants to work an area 20 miles west of Charlottesville, Virginia, carving out tunnels and cuts for an emerging rail line. The grueling and dangerous work transformed the physical landscape and turned a transient immigrant population into a vibrant semi-settled community. This paper explores the identities of the two groups of Irish laborers involved with the construction of the Blue Ridge Railroad Tunnel, the Corkonians and Fardowners. Although these two groups are not unique to the Blue Ridge Railroad Project, the semi-permanent nature of their encampments allows for an in-depth study of these populations of transient Irish laborers. Drawing from both archaeological and historical evidence, this paper will examine how they came to work on the "Great Tunnel," their experiences in a community that did not welcome them, and their continued connection to the larger Irish Diasporic community.
Cite this Record
Corkonians And Fardowners: Irish Activity And Identity In The Rural American South, 1850-1860. Amanda B Johnson. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441131)
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Keywords
General
diaspora
•
irish
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Railroad
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
19th Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 577