Famine Irish and the American Racial State Accounts of Irish racialization in the United States have tended to stress Irish difference. Famine Irish and the American Racial State takes a differ- ent stance. This interdisciplinary, transnational work uses an array of cul- tural artifacts, including novels, plays, songs, cartoons, government reports, laws, sermons, memoirs, and how-to manuals to make its case. It challenges the claim that the Irish “became white” in the United States, showing that the claim fails to take into full account the legal position of the Irish in the nineteenth-century US state—a state that deemed the Irish “white” upon arrival. The Irish thus not only fitted into the US racial state; they helped to form it. Till now, little heed has been paid to the state’s role in the Amer- icanization of the Irish or to the Irish role in the development of US state institutions. Distinguishing American citizenship from American national- ity, this volume journeys to California to analyze the means by which the Irish gained acceptance in both categories at the expense of the Chinese. Along the way, it contests ideas that have taken hold within American stud- ies. One is the notion that the Roman Catholic Church operated outside of the power structure of the nineteenth-century United States. On the con- trary, F amine Irish and the American Racial State argues that the Irish-led corporate Catholic Church became deeply imbricated in US state structures. Its final chapter discusses a radical, transnational Irish tradition that offers a glimpse at a post-national future. Peter D. O’Neill is an assistant professor in the Comparative Literature Department at the University of Georgia. Routledge Advances in American History 1 The Origin of Organized Crime in America The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931 David Critchley 2 Science, Sexuality, and Race in the United States and Australia, 1780s–1890s Gregory D. Smithers 3 Public Health and the US Military A History of the Army Medical Department, 1818–1917 Bobby A. Wintermute 4 Exploring the Next Frontier Vietnam, NASA, Star Trek and Utopia in 1960s and 70s American Myth and History Matthew Wilhelm Kapell 5 America’s Vietnam War and Its French Connection Frank Cain 6 Famine Irish and the American Racial State Peter D. O’Neill Famine Irish and the American Racial State Peter D. O’Neill First published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Taylor & Francis The right of Peter D. O’Neill to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN: 978-1-138-22813-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-39346-9 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC To Diane and Tiernan Contents List of Figures and Table ix Acknowledgments xi Permissions xiii Introduction: Famine Irish and the American Racial State 1 1 Black and Green Atlantic Crossings in the Famine Era 32 2 Irish Catholic Empire Building in America 55 3 The Writin’ Irish; o r , Catholic Irish America’s Famine-Era Authors 91 4 A Code for the True American Catholic Man or Woman 117 5 Gender Laundering Irish Women and Chinese Men in San Francisco 147 6 In California, Workers Divided 184 7 An Irish Worker’s Post-national Horizon 224 Conclusion 253 Appendix 267 Index 271 Figures and Table Figures 0.1 The Cunard liner S/S Africa. Illustrated London News , 1851. 4 0.2 Foucault’s Governmentality Triangle . 9 1.1 “Emigration Vessel.—Between Decks,” Illustrated London News, 10 May 1851: 387. 36 1.2 “Frederick Douglass.” 1845. 41 1.3 “The Ignorant Vote—Honors Are Easy.” Cover of Harper’s Weekly , December 9, 1876. 49 2.1 “Archbishop John Hughes.” Currier & Ives. Circa 1864 . 56 3.1 “Mary Anne Sadlier.” Undated photo. 102 4.1 “Dr. Maurice Francis Egan.” 1923. 135 5.1 “The Marriage of Loo Foh to Miss Mahoney in St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.” Page 320 of T histleton’s Illustrated Jolly Giant , February 12, 1876. 148 5.2 “The Great Fear of the Period.” Lithograph by White & Bauer, San Francisco, made between 1860 and 1869. 152 5.3 “Immigration East and West.” Pages 136–37 of The Wasp , August 26, 1881 . 153 5.4 Cover of T histleton’s Illustrated Jolly Giant , December 26, 1874 . 157 5.5 “A Distinction.” Page 165 of T he Wasp , October 16, 1880 . 158 5.6 “Another Bar Down.” Back cover of The Wasp , March 3, 1887. 163 5.7 “The Servant Question.” T he Wasp , Volume 9 (July–Dec. 1882; Call No. 311:440–41). 167 5.8 “The Consequences of Coolieism.” The Wasp , November 7, 1887 . 169 6.1 “The East and the West. The Orient and the Occident Shaking Hands after Driving the Last Spike,” in Crofutt, George A., Crofutt’s Trans-Continental Tourist’s Guide . New York: George A. Crofutt, 1873: 118. 185 6.2 “Denis Kearney,” undated photo. Call No. 2 cop. 1; filename I0045251a.tif. 194 7.1 James Connolly, 1868–1916. 231 Table 6.1 Irish and Chinese Population in Late Nineteenth-Century San Francisco 190