For Want of a Potato
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.
For want of a horse, the soldier was lost.
For want of a soldier, the battle was lost.
For want of the battle, the war was lost.
… Traditional Saying
Between 1845 and 1851 an estimated one million Irish citizens starved to death. An equal number fled Ireland and emigrated to America (Kinealy 295, 297). This national disaster in Irish history resulted from neither war nor pestilence. Rather, the seemingly innocuous tuber known today as the “Irish potato” determined this devastating period of Irish economic and sociopolitical life, and wrought significant changes in the course of American history as well.
The “Gardener’s Chronicle” in 1845 claimed that “4,500,000 persons in Ireland are fed upon Potatoes alone.” Potatoes, supplemented by a little milk or butter, or, on rare occasions, by a little meat, served as the staff of life for thousands of poverty-stricken peasants in Ireland (Dodge 87, 97). Solanum tuberosom, a nearly perfect food, provided plentiful carbohydrates, protein, calcium, niacin, and a considerable amount of vitamin C. Low in fat and delicious in taste, the potato could be prepared with ease and versatility. It could be stored simply and for long periods of time. No part of the tuber went to waste, not even the water in which it was cooked (Hughes and Hughes 1, 2).
Other advantages made the potato a valuable foodstuff to the Irish peasant. The underground crop more easily escaped the notice of plundering English soldiers and could not be set afire as wheat fields might be. Nor did potatoes need to be taken to a mill to be processed, but could be eaten raw if necessary or simply boiled and eaten (Dodge 86, 87). The potato proved ideal for the long-suffering, poverty-ridden Irish peasants—until “the blight.”
In September of 1845 the normally healthy, green leaves of the potato plants all across Ireland began to wilt and turn black. Upon digging the tuber, that part of the plant where excess food is stored, alarmed farmers found black, shriveled, putrid masses. In some cases, plants which aboveground looked green and luxurious yielded similarly rotten and foul-smelling potatoes. Potatoes which had seemed free of defect when dug decomposed into fetid black masses after storage. Approximately one-half the potato crop of Ireland fell victim to “the blight” (Kinealy 31, 32). A prevailing opinion across the panic-stricken land bemoaned a “curse of God upon Ireland” as the cause of perishing crops. But the pronouncements of eminent botanists targeted the fungus Botrytis infestans as the culprit of the disease, for which there was no known cause or remedy (Dodge 94).
Suddenly there was nothing to eat in Ireland. Dependent solely on the potato and living in rented cottages on English-owned land, the wretchedly poor Irish peasants possessed few resources to fall back on. Mass starvation resulted over the next five years, as a new fungus each successive year caused widespread potato crop failure throughout Ireland (Miller and Wagner 27). The authors of Out of Ireland describe life during the “potato famine”:
Thousands of peasants starved to death in their cabins or by the roadsides, their mouths stained green by the grass they had eaten in a vain attempt to stay alive … Still others wandered about, frantically looking for food. (Miller and Wagner 27, 28)
Fleeing starvation, thousands of Irish citizens emigrated to other countries. Between 1846 and 1851 more than one million Irish crossed the Atlantic under wretched conditions en route to America. Often traveling in steerage¹, men, women, and children of all ages huddled together without air, without light, wallowing in filth and stench in what came to be known as “coffin ships.” Countless thousands died before reaching America (Miller and Wagner 30, 31).
Although Irish immigrants had been coming to America since colonial times, the influx of such a great number of destitute Irish on American shores made an immediate, and not always positive, impact. Because of the anguish that farming the land had proved in Ireland, most Irish immigrants shunned farming and stayed lumped together in industrial and port cities. Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois became the destination for more than half the total Irish population. In cities such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, the penniless, unskilled refugees took whatever jobs they could find, for any wage (Watts 35, 43). The Irish lived in shacks and faced insults about their “shanty-towns” (Griffin 62, 63). Americans derisively labeled the Irish laborers as “paddies,” because many of them had been named after St. Patrick. In America, the new immigrants encountered derision regarding their dress, their speech, their superstitions, and their religion (McDonnell 54, 55, 58).
Despite its derisive treatment of the Irish immigrants, America needed them. The growing country needed workers. Some historical analysts hold that the American economy of the 1850s would not have survived (let alone expanded) were it not for the plentiful, cheap labor force provided by the Irish immigrants. “Paddies” dug the Erie Canal, built the Brooklyn Bridge, and laid most of the tracks of America’s first transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific. They dug coal in Pennsylvania mines and, along with women and children, went to work in garment factories and as domestic workers (McDonnell 54-60).
In addition to filling America’s labor needs, the Irish impacted American life by becoming a leading force for the organization of unions. Often exploited as workers, Irish laborers at first took matters into their own hands, forming secret societies to fight for better working conditions and fair wages. From these beginnings came lawful, organized labor unions, like the Teamsters’ Union and the Transport Workers Union, which improved conditions for all workers (McDonnell 61, 62).
As they became assimilated into American society, Irish Americans involved themselves influentially in the areas of civil service and politics. In police and fire departments they became familiar figures. So many Irish-Americans served as police officers that “paddy wagon” became the term used for the vans that transported prisoners (Greenleaf 61, 62). In the political arena, the majority of Irish aligned themselves with the Democratic Party and rose to power in urban areas. Tammany Hall, New York City’s “Big Boss” political machinery, became the focal point for Irish domination of America’s largest city through the 1860s (McDonnell 65-68).
The potato famine dramatically changed Ireland. Population statistics for 1993 cite Ireland’s population as 3.5 million, still well below the pre-famine level (“Ireland”). “For want of a potato,” a common and unassuming brown-skinned tuber, the Irish suffered one of the greatest tragedies of their history. Their flight from famine and emigration to America impacted American life and history with a powerful and enduring significance.
Footnote:
Works Cited
Dodge, Bertha S. Potatoes and People: The Story of a Plant. Little Brown, 1970.
Greenleaf, Barbara Kaye. American Fever: The Story of American Immigration. New York City, Four Winds Press, 1970.
Griffin, William D. A Portrait of the Irish in America. Scribner’s, 1981.
Hughes, Meredith Sayles, and E. Thomas Hughes. The Great Potato Book. Macmillan, 1986.
“Ireland.” Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia 1996.
Kinealy, Christine. This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52. Boulder, Colorado, Roberts Rinehart, 1995.
McDonnell, Virginia B. The Irish Helped Build America. New York City, Julian Messner, 1969.
Miller, Kirby, and Paul Wagner. Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America. Washington, Elliot and Clark, 1994.
Watts, J. F. The Irish Americans. Chelsea House, 1988.
Litzanger, Susan. “For Want of a Potato.” Model Student Essays, Prentice Hall, 1998, pp. 44-47.
Susan Litzanger was a student at Penn State, Altoona Campus, when she wrote this.