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Irish Immigrant
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Potato Famine
A famine which lasted 1845 - 1852. A disease infected Ireland main food, potatoes. This killed thousands of people and caused a spike in immigration to America. -
Starving, Poor, and No Future
The famine has passed, but Ireland is still hungry. Every night I go to sleep I go to sleep starving. Thousands of people died including my father. My mother is withering away and I'm losing my strength and will to try and feed us both in these conditions. It's a hard decision to make but I think I'll say "I love you" for the last time tonight just before she sleeps. I have a set of clothes packed with my mother's silver locket that'll sell for a nice price. Fiona Bell will live a new life now. -
Ellis Island Quarantine
I must’ve looked like a wreck when I arrived at the doors of Ellis Island because the moment the staff glanced at me I was whisked away to a cell. They called it quarantine. What? I’m not sick, but I must look like it. Even to myself im just a skinny sack of bones, dirt caking in every crevice, bloodshot eyes from sleepless nights, a poor excuse for a girl. A week later a proper doctor finally looked at me and released me. About time. I'm ready to take my first steps into America. -
The Slums
I came into America with a set of clothes and a small silver locket to sell for a few dollars; I thought it’d be enough of a kickstart to get me going on my new life. Oh yes, I got few dollars, but only enough for a small room in the slums. When I step out I see filth, I smell rotting food congealing with human waste, and I feel the crushed hopes with every pound of my boots on the road. I’m searching around for a decent job but everything is so hard. America is not what I expected. -
Sweat Shops
Living in poverty is difficult, and finding a good job seems impossible from the pit I’ve sunk into. I work in a sweatshop & the conditions are terrible, we’re packed into a small building like dead rats. I work so hard for so little money. The heat and dirty air sometimes gets to me, I feel light headed but I don’t dare stop. If my manager walks over here, in his shiny leather shoes that don’t belong on the moldy, crusty ground, he might take away my pay. -
Missionaries
I have found new hope! A lovely group of people called missionaries invited me to join them on their quest to spread religion to the West. I can leave the slums behind, I can leave my stupid job behind, I can start over in the West! My future seems very bright. -
Educating Natives
The missionaries and I travel around to Native tribes to teach them Christianity, but not only that! We built schoolhouses to teach them useful skills they never knew before, such as weaving and farming. I feel really appreciated by them, they seem so eager to learn! Some of the tribes have fully accepted Christianity, and some other adopted some customs into their own religion. The problem is that other tribes don’t take to us very well, and seem rather angry. I’m sure they won’t bother us. -
Savage Natives
Oh god I can’t believe what just happened. The tribe that was angry at us, they attacked us when we were asleep. I saw them kill all of my friends, those savages! They screamed that we were forcing our religion on them, that we were bad people that spread diseases. I luckily ran away while they were hacking away Maria, bless her soul. What will I do now? Where should I go? I think I saw a flyer about free land because of the Homestead act. Maybe I can start a new life as a farmer. -
Farming
It turns out they did have free land, and I got some. It was hard for me because I'm a woman so I got a lot of hateful looks with angry sneers when I got the land. I've already planted potatoes and rows of corn that are almost ready to harvest. I think farmlife is the life for me, and soon I'll be sharing with a another person, someday maybe a famiy. This is my ideal life.