{"id":56,"date":"2020-02-01T14:23:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T18:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/?p=56"},"modified":"2020-02-24T19:24:25","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T23:24:25","slug":"united-irishmen-and-jefferson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/2020\/02\/01\/united-irishmen-and-jefferson\/","title":{"rendered":"United Irishmen and Jefferson?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we look at the migration of the Irish into the U.S, their presence greatly influenced the dynamics of american law and politics. I found it quite interesting learning about their impact on American politics and their commitment to President Thomas Jefferson. According to Whelan, the Irish were \u201ca driving force in the creation of the Republican party cohering around Thomas Jefferson\u201d. It is important to note that the Irish, during this period, are making a transition into \u201cwhiteness\u201d. Not only is the concept of whiteness problematic, but their odd attraction with Jefferson is also questionable. For example, Whelan notes that the Irish viewed Jefferson as \u201cthe first man of purity of character, talents, and amiable manners in the Republican world\u201d. There is no doubt that Jefferson, during this time, was the most logical choice for leadership in the country, however, I wouldn\u2019t give him that much credit. Thomas Jefferson is viewed as one of America\u2019s \u201cgreat\u201d founding fathers, along with being a founder of American enlightenment. Yet, in my opinion, his controversial view on slavery only makes him the greater of two evils. While the Irish never participated in the traditional form of slavery, in some sense, they were still affected by it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jefferson frowned upon the idea of slavery, and even viewed it as inhuman, still he continued to hold human beings as property his entire life. In addition, although he made some legislative attempts against slavery, he also profited directly from the institution on slavery. With that being said, I would agree that Jefferson\u2019s intent to question the status quo did spark a civil movement, however, for a man who thought that \u201call men [were] created equal\u201d it seems bizarre that the Irish put so much support behind him. Did they not see how blacks were treated? They must\u2019ve been aware of their hierarchical position in American. So why would they support a man of \u201cfalse promises\u201d. It is interesting to see how the Irish were able to get more traction in regards to freedom and opportunity than blacks, especially since the two were once viewed equally by the majority. I begin to question, with their many similarities, why African-Americans and Irish-Americans weren\u2019t able to form their own union.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we look at the migration of the Irish into the U.S, their presence greatly influenced the dynamics of american law and politics. I found it quite interesting learning about their impact on American politics and their commitment to President Thomas Jefferson. According to Whelan, the Irish were \u201ca driving force in the creation of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “United Irishmen and Jefferson?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}