FAR AND AWAY

The movie Far and Away provides a fairly accurate portrayal of the experience of immigrants arriving in America at the turn of the 19th century.

Industrial Revolution and immigration

young factory worker

During the 1890s when irish immigrants came to the United States looking for work.

During the mid to late 1800’s over 2 million Irish immigrants traveled to America. The majority of these Irish immigrants were tenant farmers (farmers who did not own, but paid rent for land) driven from their homeland by potato crop failures and a devastating famine in the 1840’s.

Joseph Donnelly, a young Irishman, lives with his father and two brothers as tenant farmers paying rent to their wealthy landlord Daniel Christie. The land, however, is very unfertile and, though Joseph does his best, the family cannot grow enough crops to pay their rent. As a result of this he decides to go to the United States in search of work and land. Upon his arrival to Boston Joseph has to find work. Throughout his journey Joseph works his way through the system by making connections with people and making a name for himself. By doing this Joseph is able to make a living. He works in a factory cleaning the chickens. This part of the movie shows how poorly the factory workers were treated and how unsanitary the working conditions were in the 1800s.

The movie Far an Away shows how immigrants that were not rich had trouble finding jobs and getting land.

immigrants coming to america in the late 1800s