HIST 150: Unlearning US History (Fall 2023)

The article discusses the emergence of publications such as the "Weekly Caucasian" and the "Old Guard," which, according to the author, attempted to shape public opinion in the U.S. that the abolitionist cause would lead to race mixing, promulgated the concept of white supremacy and contributed to motivation behind the 1863 New York City race riots.

This article will draw attention to one of the underlying sentiments heard in many
of the Civil War ballads produced during the conflict by and about the Irish experience of
living, serving and settling in the Union states in the mid-nineteenth century. Out of the
approximately 11,000 songs written during the conflict, over 200 related directly and
indirectly to the Irish involvement on the front-line and home front. Of these, several sang
directly about how America had become an Irish home nation, and that its cities and
regions were now homes to live in and to defend while Confederate secession threatened to break up the country. As the war came to a close, these songs reflected how willing the Irish diaspora was to help build and shape the country after 1865. This article will show how Irish American Civil War songs reveal the fact that the United States had become home to the diaspora by the outbreak of the conflict.