Western land was financially out of reach for most Irish laborers.

Evidence

Free Soil did not imply free soil. Taking into account the costs of land purchase, clearing and fencing, implements, seed, and livestock, as well as travel costs and the cash needed to survive until the first crop was brought in and sold, a minimum of $1,000 was required to equip a family farm in the West—a sum so far beyond the reach of the savings possible on a laborer’s wage that the available land for settlement might as well have been located on the moon. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 331

Categorization

• XREF: Shows whiteness privilege (free soil) was inaccessible to the poorest — useful nuance for category theory. — connects to: America recruited displaced Irish as its unskilled labor force — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 137