Personal Narrative: Entry Of Irish Immigrants

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Entry of a Subordinate March 27, 1850 My name is Marybeth O’Malley; I am what some would call a “Potato Famine” immigrant. If I do not live beyond this day, I would like others to know of the fight we Irish immigrants had to survive this new world. In 1847, Ephraim Peabody (an English Puritan descendent) announced our immigration to America, the Boston area to be more specific, as “nothing short of an unwanted social revolution”.¹As we stepped off the boats, people would point and giggle at us. Our clothes were very out of style and threadbare from the long, crowded journey. Our language was the same, except for the accent or dialect. We all had the same “American dream”. This we would find was to be a journey in and of itself. The was the beginning of the “American Wake”.² My family and I settled in Boston, Massachusetts, while some of our friends settled in New York. I will tell you about them later. As for my family, my husband took any job he could find. We are proud people, but not too proud to work for our families. John, my husband, found work cleaning stables and yards. I myself found work as a housemaid with a very wealthy Bostonian family. We were lucky. Because of the need for a job, immigrants and…show more content…
Our landlord is very cruel and charges us as much as he can for the shelter he provides. We live in what some would call “squalor”. Our rent is $1.50 a week for a single small room with no running water, sanitation, aeration, or light. This is very typical for our area¹. Like I said in the beginning, “If I do not live beyond this day…” this is because of the conditions in which we live are so unsanitary, it is a virtual breeding ground for diseases such as cholera. Nearly sixty percent of the Irish children born in the Boston area during this time will not live to see their sixth birthday. Adults, such as my husband and I, are not expected to live six years after coming on

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