Below, find background information and immages about immigration in eary 19th century America, followed by Lincoln's "Letter to N. B. Judd, Rushville (October 20, 1858)" and accompanying questions for close reading.
In the 1840s, a potato famine brought thousands of Irish peasants, poor and starving, to the United States. Known as the famine Irish, they tended to settle in the port towns of Boston and New York where they took many low-paid jobs created by the growing textile industries in those towns. Established Catholic churches provided familiar rituals, education, and social networks for the newly arrived.
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Hon. N. B. Judd Rushville,
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Guided Reading Questions:
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