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Massachusetts State Seal
Commonwealth Museum   Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin
Commonwealth Museum Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin

Boston Before

Old City Hall - 1850: Boston before the 1850s was a well-established, prosperous city.
Boston before the 1850s was a well-established, prosperous city. 
Irish Clam Diggers - Boston Ma. 1882

Irish Clam Diggers  - Boston Ma. 1882

While many American cities around the time started with immigrants, Boston had already been prosperous for quite some time. It was filled with old families, literary talents, and a weighty history. Bostonians were proud of this history, and their religion, and were uneasy at the arrival of Roman Catholic immigrants.

 Irish immigrants moved in with friends and relatives near the waterfront, creating, in the minds of the Bostonians, a “lump in the community” with unsanitary living conditions.