White Ethnic Groups: Assimilation and Identity—The Twilight of Ethnicity

1. White Ethnic Groups: Assimilation and Identity—The Twilight of Ethnicity • Assimilation and Equality: Should White Ethnic Groups be Considered “Minority Groups”? • Industrialization and Immigration • European Origins, Conditions of Entry and the Campaign against Immigration • Northern and Western Europeans • Emigrants from Norway • Emigrants from Germany • A Successful Assimilation • Emigrant Laborers from Ireland and Southern and Eastern Europe • Gender • Ethnic and Religious Prejudice • Upward Mobility • Eastern European Jewish Immigrants and the Ethnic Enclave • The Enclave and Upward Mobility • Anti-Semitism • The Campaign Against Immigration • Developments in the 20th Century: Mobility and Integration • Degree of Similarity • Ethnic Succession • Secondary Structural Assimilation • Labor Unions • The Catholic Church • Other Pathways of Mobility

2. Percent of Irish Arriving in the United States, 1820-1850 Source: Reports of the Immigration Commission, Statistical Review of Immigration 1820-1910, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911.

3. Why did the Irish come to the US? • Push and Pull • Famine Emigration • Economic Opportunities • Chain Migration • Family already here • Communities of Irish ready to accept them

4. Population of Washington, D.C., 1800-1850Source: United States Census, 1800-1850

5. What was Washington, DC Like? • Southern town • Slave town • Immigrant town • Caste system • Part of the first Catholic Diocese in the US

6. Acceptance and Assimilation • Not always accepted by locals • Blamed for social and medical ills • Considered ape-like and ignorant • Even educated and skilled found menial jobs upon arrival

7. Irish Immigrants by Ward, Washington,D.C., 1850-1880Source: USMC and Published Census Materials, 1850-1880.

8. Geographic Mobility • Initially the Irish lived together in primarily poor neighborhoods • Some ghettoized neighborhoods • Lived alongside other impoverished minority groups

9. Female Population in Washington, DC 1850-1880Source: USMC and Published Census Materials, 1850-1880

10. Irish and Foreign Women in Washington, D.C., 1850-1880Source: USMC and Published Census Materials, 1850-1880

11. Issues of Gender • Even though the African American and slave women outnumbered Irish women, they were still hired alongside them in homes and public institutions • Still better to see the appearance of white upfront in the businesses • Although not an industrial town, opportunity structures of hotels and boarding houses uniquely suited Irish women

12. Marital Status of Irish Women Over Fifteen Years of Age, Washington, D.C., 1850-1880Source: USMC, 1850-1880

13. Social Mobility • Irish women quickly adapted to their new home and found husbands. • Marriage, as part of assimilation for women, has not changed. • This is still the primary means of assimilation. • Married primarily Irish and 2nd generation Irish men

14. Birthplace of Men who Married Irish Women, 1850-1889Source: USMC, 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880; and Annual Report of the Board of Health of the District of Columbia, 1872-1876, Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1877; Report of the Health Officer of the District of Columbia, 1878-1890, Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1891; Marriage Records of St. Peter’s Catholic Church, 1850-1871, St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Washington, D.C.; Marriage Records of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 1850-1871, Trinity Archives, Georgetown University Archives, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.; Marriage Records of St. Aloysius Catholic Church, 1871-1902, St. Aloysius' Catholic Church Archives, St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Washington, D.C.; District of Columbia Marriage Records Index, District of Columbia Marriage Records and Sampling of District of Columbia Marriage Certificates, District of Columbia Archives, Washington, D.C.

15. How did they get there? The Catholic Church • St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum • Bona Mors Society • Private school education • Vocational Training to Wife Training • Benevolent Associations