How the Irish became white

This dissertation looks at how Catholic Irish, an oppressed race in Ireland, became members of an oppressing race in America. Focusing on the nineteenth century, it opens with the reactions of Irish Americans to the 1841 appeal made to them by Daniel O'Connell, "The Liberator," to join with the anti-slavery forces in the new country. It then reviews the status of Catholics in Ireland and some of their ambiguous contacts with American race patterns after emigration. The career of an Irish revolutionary who became a political activist in Pennsylvania is used to show how the Democratic Party became the main instrument by which Irish gained entry to the "white race." Looking at the Irish tradition of labor protest, it explores how Irish in America used unions and other labor organizations to protect themselves from the competition of Afro-Americans in the labor market, thus gaining for themselves a preferred racial status. It examines the Irish role in the wave of anti-Negro violence that swept the country in the 1830s and 1840s, and its effect on the perpetrators as well as the victims. By tracing the career of an important, if little known Philadelphia politician, it recounts the Irish triumph over nativism and shows how that triumph marked the incorporation of the Irish into the dominant group in a racially polarized society. Finally, it contains a review of some of the relevant literature and a critique of the New Labor History.