From Antagonism to Tolerance: Irish Laborers and Illinois Settlers-1840-50's

FAIN: RS-*0169-78

Illinois State University (Normal, IL 61790-0001)
Walker D. Wyman (Project Director: August 1977 to October 1990)

To understand the interaction between the Irish immigrants who dominated the construction of Illinois' canals and railroad s in the 1840s and 1850s, and other major population groups. Conflict between people of Irish and Yankee stock eventually gave way to tolerance by the 1860s. How conflict between groups is resolved, an ancient question for the humanities, will be the focal point of this work, which will interest students of labor and frontier history.