Early Irish immigrants worked in conditions resembling slave labor

Evidence

When they first began arriving here in large numbers they were, in the words of Mr. Dooley, given a shovel and told to start digging up the place as if they owned it. On the rail beds and canals they labored for low wages under dangerous conditions; in the South they were occasionally employed where it did not make sense to risk the life of a slave. As they came to the cities, they were crowded into districts that became centers of crime, vice, and disease. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 33

Categorization

• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Irish peasants emigrated under conditions comparable to American slavery — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 32; Contemporary labor migration parallels nineteenth-century indentured labor in exploitation — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in…, 81; English colonies first relied on Irish and German indentured labor, not Africans — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 586 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Irish peasants emigrated under conditions comparable to American slavery #corroborates (0.95) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 32
• The Irish were the prototype white servants later absorbed into a white racial identity #corroborates (0.82)
• English colonies first relied on Irish and German indentured labor, not Africans #corroborates (0.78) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 586
• Irish immigrants supplied Western Europe’s cheapest industrial labor #corroborates (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 254
• Irish migrants faced discrimination similar to later ethnic minorities #corroborates (0.72)
• Contemporary labor migration parallels nineteenth-century indentured labor in exploitation #corroborates (0.70) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 81