1 00:00:02,279 --> 00:00:05,440 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. Earlier this month that we did an 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: episode on indentured workers in the Caribbean, in particular Irish 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: indentured workers, and in that episode we made some references 4 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:18,639 Speaker 1: to other aspects of Irish history, including the famine that 5 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: struck Ireland in the nineteenth century after a blight that 6 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:26,239 Speaker 1: killed the potato crop for multiple consecutive seasons. Since we 7 00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: really couldn't get into the details of that in our 8 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 1: July episode, but it's relevant to the greater story there, 9 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:33,040 Speaker 1: we thought we would bring it out of the archive 10 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 1: for the next two Saturdays. This episode originally came out 11 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:44,000 Speaker 1: on June Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, 12 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:53,479 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to 13 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:57,320 Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Polly Fry. Polly, 14 00:00:57,360 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: can I tell you a story? Please do a little. 15 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,040 Speaker 1: When I was little, learned a history lesson about the 16 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:05,600 Speaker 1: Irish potato famine, and it was basically summed up as 17 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,320 Speaker 1: all the potatoes died and a lot of people either 18 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: starved or moved away. Right, that was sort of summing up. 19 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:14,959 Speaker 1: That's pretty much the way I was taught about it 20 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:19,160 Speaker 1: as well. Right, So my little kid question was, well, 21 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:22,760 Speaker 1: how come they didn't eat something else? I think a 22 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:25,200 Speaker 1: lot of little kids asked that question, right, And so 23 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:27,560 Speaker 1: now grown up me kind of looks back at little 24 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:31,960 Speaker 1: kid met and until I learned the whole story, I 25 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,119 Speaker 1: was like that that is a very privileged question, right, 26 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 1: because we were a pretty modest family, and we did 27 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:41,160 Speaker 1: grow all of our own vegetables, but we grew a 28 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: whole lot more than just potatoes, and we also generally 29 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: had enough food to eat. Uh. But it turns out 30 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:51,800 Speaker 1: why didn't they eat something else? Is a really really 31 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,400 Speaker 1: good question about the Irish potato famine, and that's what 32 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,800 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about for the next two episodes. 33 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,320 Speaker 1: This is a popular their request. You've gotten it a 34 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 1: lot of times. I actually ran into Katie and Sarah 35 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:08,200 Speaker 1: over the weekend and they said they had also been 36 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,320 Speaker 1: asked to talk about it very often, and that they 37 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: didn't have the heart to do it because it's not 38 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 1: exactly like a fun, jolly joy ride. No, it's one 39 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: of those things where it's clear from the beginning that 40 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:22,760 Speaker 1: it's not a jolly joy ride because about a million 41 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: people died, and about two million people left their homes 42 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:31,639 Speaker 1: and immigrated elsewhere. It's way worse than just that. Yeah, 43 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:34,480 Speaker 1: there's definitely a lot of suffering to the story, so 44 00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:37,920 Speaker 1: you know that going in, Yes, And it's also one 45 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 1: that requires a fair amount of background to understand why 46 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: it is that we got to this point that everyone 47 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:46,239 Speaker 1: was only eating potatoes. Um. So this is going to 48 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:48,399 Speaker 1: be a two part episode, and the first is going 49 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:51,600 Speaker 1: to really set the stage for many of the layers 50 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:54,440 Speaker 1: of what went terribly wrong here, and then the second 51 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:57,880 Speaker 1: episode will get into how all of that played out 52 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 1: in the history of Ireland. So we're talking about the 53 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:07,639 Speaker 1: mid eighteen hundreds in Ireland. Catholics were really deeply disenfranchised 54 00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:11,399 Speaker 1: in this point in Irish history. Ireland had been part 55 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: of Britain since eighteen hundred under the British Act of Union, 56 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 1: and under this Act, Ireland was granted representation in Parliament, 57 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:22,840 Speaker 1: but Catholics were not allowed to be members of Parliament, 58 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:28,240 Speaker 1: and Catholics were the overwhelming majority of the population of Ireland. 59 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:32,720 Speaker 1: So while Ireland technically had representation in Parliament the majority 60 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:37,160 Speaker 1: of its its population, we're not really represented, right, And 61 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: there had been a number of laws in place restricting 62 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: very basic aspects of life for Catholics, like owning property 63 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,120 Speaker 1: and having jobs, and some of these dated back to 64 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,600 Speaker 1: the sixteen hundreds when Irish Catholics sided with James the 65 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: Second in his battle with William of Orange for the 66 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: British throne. So lots of very old rules and laws 67 00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: and prejudices that were affecting these people in a very 68 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:01,680 Speaker 1: real way well, and things that we really take for 69 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: granted by like being allowed to get a job, ye, 70 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: Catholics were not allowed to do. Most of these laws 71 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: had been repealed in eighteen twenty nine, which is also 72 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:16,359 Speaker 1: when Catholics were allowed to become members of Parliament, but 73 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 1: by that point anti Catholic bigotry was really deeply entrenched 74 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:22,920 Speaker 1: in the Irish culture, and a lot of those past 75 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:26,359 Speaker 1: social norms about what people were allowed to do and 76 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: how they were allowed to practice their religion had been 77 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:33,320 Speaker 1: extremely slow to change. So while maybe things were legal now, 78 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:37,720 Speaker 1: it's still was not really easy for people to do 79 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:40,600 Speaker 1: things like get jobs, in in property. In Ireland at 80 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: this point was also extremely deeply impoverished as a nation. 81 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:48,479 Speaker 1: Only about one quarter of the population was literate, and 82 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: in a theme we've discussed another podcast, modernization had really 83 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,920 Speaker 1: stripped a lot of the working people there of their livelihoods. 84 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: The linen and wool industries, for example, have been industrialized, 85 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:00,599 Speaker 1: and so the people that made a living in those 86 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:04,840 Speaker 1: trades suddenly could no longer find work. In rural areas, 87 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,119 Speaker 1: large families were living in tiny mud cabins that didn't 88 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: have windows or chimneys, and most of them were subsistence farmers. 89 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:16,120 Speaker 1: None virtually none of them owned the land that they 90 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:20,440 Speaker 1: were farming. For the most part, they were overwhelmingly Catholic 91 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: tenants who were paying their rent to overwhelmingly Protestant absentee 92 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:27,279 Speaker 1: landlords who for the most part, we're living in England, 93 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:30,960 Speaker 1: not in Ireland, and many of these Irish families weren't 94 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:33,680 Speaker 1: paying their rent directly to their landlords, so there was 95 00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:36,240 Speaker 1: a level of complexity to it. Much of the land 96 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:39,280 Speaker 1: had been parceled out through a middleman system, which had 97 00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:42,560 Speaker 1: been in place since the seventeen hundreds. So a Protestant 98 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,840 Speaker 1: middleman would rent a sizeable piece of land from the landowners, 99 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: subdivide it and then rent that out to tenants, and 100 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:51,839 Speaker 1: the tenants paid the middleman, and the middleman paid the landowner, 101 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,800 Speaker 1: and so that inflated the rent and to raise their profits. 102 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:59,080 Speaker 1: Middlemen would divide the land into smaller and smaller parcels 103 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: and raise rent at the same time. So by eighteen 104 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: forty five, half of these little farms were on five 105 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: acres or less, and pretty much everybody had less than 106 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:10,560 Speaker 1: ten acres. Like, they were all really pretty small for 107 00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 1: a farm. So to add just another layer of ugliness 108 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: to this whole situation, a lot of these tenants were 109 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:23,040 Speaker 1: renting land that their families had previously owned but had 110 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:26,960 Speaker 1: been confiscated from them following Cromwell's invasion of Ireland in 111 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,560 Speaker 1: the seventeenth century. So you have people who really are 112 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:33,520 Speaker 1: pretty poor in terms of how much money they have, 113 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:36,279 Speaker 1: living on a tiny amount of land, paying inflated rent 114 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:39,920 Speaker 1: to people who own land that their own families used 115 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:44,520 Speaker 1: to own and don't anymore. Already, very uplifting story, I know, 116 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:56,080 Speaker 1: we'll just let that settle for a minute. Yeah, And 117 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,599 Speaker 1: there were some communal aspects to this setup. People often 118 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:02,360 Speaker 1: barter instead of using money, and those who couldn't afford 119 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: land would often find work with tenant families, and these 120 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:08,320 Speaker 1: labors would help with chores and help bring in the 121 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: harvest in exchange for being able to build their own 122 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:14,600 Speaker 1: cottage and plant their own little garden plot. And this 123 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:18,800 Speaker 1: brings us to the potatoes. Potatoes really thrived in the 124 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: Irish soil and climate. It was a reliable and pretty 125 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 1: nutritious food staple. Um. It. Although you know, potatoes get 126 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:30,280 Speaker 1: a lot of flak nowadays nowadays for their high carbohydrates 127 00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:33,880 Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff, very starchy food, but 128 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 1: they have lots of ittamin see, lots of other nutrients, 129 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: and so people who were living largely on potatoes a 130 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:42,160 Speaker 1: lot of times really were better nourished than people who 131 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:46,520 Speaker 1: were living mostly on save bread. Um. So the introduction 132 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:49,680 Speaker 1: of the potato had led the Irish population to double 133 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:53,680 Speaker 1: between seventeen eighty and eighteen forty five. So more people 134 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:56,720 Speaker 1: meant that they needed to grow more food, and as 135 00:07:56,760 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: the supply of arable land got used up, farms or 136 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:03,760 Speaker 1: get smaller and smaller to accommodate this increase in the population, 137 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: and of course smaller and smaller farms made it harder 138 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:10,400 Speaker 1: for farmers to grow enough food to feed their families. 139 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:13,800 Speaker 1: So doing this had required potatoes, which had a much 140 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 1: larger yield than any other food crop, with a good 141 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: harvest and a cultivated plot of land. A family of 142 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:22,640 Speaker 1: six could subsist for a year on an acre of potatoes, 143 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:26,280 Speaker 1: including potato scraps that they could feed their animals, and 144 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: it would take three times as much land to grow 145 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:30,880 Speaker 1: the same amount of grain, so enough grain to feed 146 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:33,920 Speaker 1: that same family would take a longer land. So people 147 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:36,080 Speaker 1: were planning potatoes because that was the only way they 148 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 1: could get enough food. Any Other land they rented was 149 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,200 Speaker 1: being used to keep animals or to grow crops, and 150 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:44,400 Speaker 1: those were grown to sell so that they could pay 151 00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:48,920 Speaker 1: rent rather than eating and providing them for their families. Right, 152 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:51,800 Speaker 1: so potatoes were for eating and everything else was to sell. 153 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:56,960 Speaker 1: Thanks to this combination of factors, by forty five, sixty 154 00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:00,320 Speaker 1: of the Irish food supply was potatoes, and the host 155 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 1: people in Ireland were living almost exclusively on potatoes. And 156 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:08,520 Speaker 1: most people were also planting the same variety of potatoes, 157 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:11,480 Speaker 1: which were called lumpers, and they gave a really high yield, 158 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:14,480 Speaker 1: but they weren't as nutritious as some other varieties. They 159 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:18,320 Speaker 1: plant around March and harvest round September or October, and 160 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:21,200 Speaker 1: then they could bury the harvested potatoes into pits where 161 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:24,560 Speaker 1: they'd keep until around July of the following year. So 162 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:27,240 Speaker 1: this meant that July and August were really rough and 163 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:30,560 Speaker 1: lean months, even in the best of times, and it 164 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:33,600 Speaker 1: also meant the diseases were really likely to spread easily 165 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:36,680 Speaker 1: because everyone was planting the same strain of potato. Yeah, 166 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:40,719 Speaker 1: there wasn't a lot of diversity to resist pathogens that 167 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:44,559 Speaker 1: came around. This also meant that life for farmers in 168 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: Ireland had some periods of intensely hard work during planting 169 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:52,240 Speaker 1: and harvesting, and some spans of relative leisure in between. 170 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:56,400 Speaker 1: The potatoes didn't involve they didn't require tons of upkeep 171 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 1: um and so even when people were farming other stuff 172 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:02,000 Speaker 1: a lot of times they a life that balanced hard 173 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:06,200 Speaker 1: work with periods of rest. Unfortunately, in many places of 174 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:08,440 Speaker 1: the world that we're not Ireland, people viewed this as 175 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:13,040 Speaker 1: laziness and idleness and shiftlessness, and that may have contributed 176 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:16,320 Speaker 1: to some of the reluctance to send help once help 177 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:20,640 Speaker 1: was really needed here. Uh So, to characterize the start 178 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 1: of the problems involving the potatoes, the Irish potato famine, 179 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:26,559 Speaker 1: which is what it's called in the rest of the world, 180 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:29,320 Speaker 1: but in Ireland it's called the Great Hunger or on 181 00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:34,559 Speaker 1: Gorth the Moore or the bad Life droo uh started 182 00:10:34,559 --> 00:10:37,360 Speaker 1: in a forty five when a blight destroyed part of 183 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:40,920 Speaker 1: the potato crop. The blight hit potatoes in other parts 184 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:43,960 Speaker 1: of the world too, and it had economic effects in 185 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:47,160 Speaker 1: other areas as well, but really nowhere else in the 186 00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:50,640 Speaker 1: world was relying as much on potatoes as Ireland was, 187 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:54,280 Speaker 1: so while the effects were much more wide reaching in 188 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:57,840 Speaker 1: terms of the food supply, Ireland was really hit the hardest. 189 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:01,640 Speaker 1: And this blight started by a acting the leaves and stems, 190 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:04,760 Speaker 1: causing them to turn black and rot. And the potatoes 191 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:07,080 Speaker 1: would look edible when they were dug out of the ground, 192 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:11,000 Speaker 1: but within days they'd turned slimy and black. The initial 193 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:14,160 Speaker 1: response from the government was actually kind of on the ball. 194 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:17,560 Speaker 1: The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, sent a commission to 195 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:21,080 Speaker 1: evaluate what was going on that October and the commissioner 196 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:24,000 Speaker 1: came back with the report that Ireland was probably going 197 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:27,560 Speaker 1: to lose half of its potato crop. The scientific community 198 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:30,680 Speaker 1: pretty quickly concluded that some kind of disease was to blame, 199 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:34,160 Speaker 1: but the people whose lives really depended on those potatoes, 200 00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:38,200 Speaker 1: as we said before, not a very educated community blamed 201 00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:41,920 Speaker 1: everything from static electricity to fumes from the newly built railroads. 202 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:45,160 Speaker 1: And this was by far not the first potato blight 203 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:47,760 Speaker 1: that had ever happened in history. Crops had failed certainly 204 00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:51,400 Speaker 1: before this, but even a whole season of crops had 205 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:55,120 Speaker 1: failed before. But Ireland had never seen anything on this scale, 206 00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:57,640 Speaker 1: and it had never encountered two years of light in 207 00:11:57,640 --> 00:12:00,640 Speaker 1: a row, which you can imagine was really devasty. Yes, 208 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:12,280 Speaker 1: so when Prime Minister Peel made some efforts to send relief, 209 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:15,280 Speaker 1: because everybody was kind of expecting this to be a 210 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,079 Speaker 1: temporary thing that would resolve itself with the next year's 211 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:22,800 Speaker 1: harvest um, it wasn't a huge governmental response. The general 212 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,400 Speaker 1: consensus was sort of things would be back to normal. 213 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:28,560 Speaker 1: This is going to be a short lived, difficult period 214 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:35,120 Speaker 1: that would resolve itself in another season. But unfortunately, in 215 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,760 Speaker 1: eighteen forty six, the blight returned, and to sort of 216 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:41,240 Speaker 1: add insult to injury, it was actually much worse the 217 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:44,440 Speaker 1: second year, thanks to the wet weather conditions and the 218 00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:47,880 Speaker 1: fact that diseased potatoes had been used as seed. It's 219 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:51,480 Speaker 1: spread farther and faster than it had in its initial incarnation, 220 00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:54,120 Speaker 1: so people didn't have enough to eat and they didn't 221 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:57,640 Speaker 1: have enough to feed the animals, and hunger related illnesses 222 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:00,600 Speaker 1: like typhoid and cholera started to spread it and since 223 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:03,359 Speaker 1: people had been getting most of their vitamin sea from potatoes, 224 00:13:03,760 --> 00:13:07,240 Speaker 1: scurvy also became a problem. The British government did a 225 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:10,040 Speaker 1: couple of things to try to help. Prime Minister Peel 226 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:13,280 Speaker 1: pushed through a repeal of the Corn Laws. These were 227 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:16,439 Speaker 1: laws that were meant to protect British grain growers from 228 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:20,400 Speaker 1: foreign competition by imposing really high tariffs on imported grain. 229 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:25,440 Speaker 1: So by reducing the grain supply, the Corn Laws caused 230 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:28,040 Speaker 1: British grain growers to be able to get a higher 231 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:31,880 Speaker 1: price for their crops. Repealing the Corn Laws was supposed 232 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:35,400 Speaker 1: to bring more grain into Ireland and drive prices down, 233 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,160 Speaker 1: but Ireland and the Irish people didn't really have enough 234 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:42,520 Speaker 1: money to buy the grain, even at the lower prices 235 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:47,520 Speaker 1: that spring. Prime Minister Peel, without going through Parliament, bought 236 00:13:47,559 --> 00:13:50,920 Speaker 1: maze from the US to be distributed as food. Maze 237 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:53,000 Speaker 1: was cheap, but it also needed to be milmed to 238 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:55,760 Speaker 1: be edible, and there weren't enough meals to actually handle it. 239 00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:58,559 Speaker 1: On top of that, Maze is a very sturdy grain 240 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:02,280 Speaker 1: that needed more process than other grains, so the mills 241 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:05,000 Speaker 1: that already were not numerous enough to process it were 242 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:07,480 Speaker 1: streamed even more because it took more time to process 243 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:11,080 Speaker 1: the amount that they could handle. Once it was milled 244 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:13,720 Speaker 1: into meal, the maze was going to be sold at 245 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:17,120 Speaker 1: the rate of a penny per pound, but just like 246 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:19,720 Speaker 1: with the imported grain, a lot of people who really 247 00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:23,120 Speaker 1: needed it just could not afford to buy it. Um 248 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:25,640 Speaker 1: This corn meal was also a lot different from the 249 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:28,360 Speaker 1: potatoes that the Irish were used to eating, both in 250 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: terms of nutrition and digesting it, and so diarrhea and 251 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:36,520 Speaker 1: scurvy became really common complaints among the people who were 252 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:40,480 Speaker 1: managing to buy this corn meal to eat. Additionally, the 253 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:43,600 Speaker 1: British grain industry was really angry over both the repeal 254 00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:46,360 Speaker 1: of the corn laws and the import of maze. The 255 00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:50,040 Speaker 1: Conservative government started to falter and Prime Minister Peel resigned 256 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:54,520 Speaker 1: on June twenty n The new Liberal government, also known 257 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,520 Speaker 1: as the Whig Party, came into power, and it really 258 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:00,960 Speaker 1: followed the principle of lais ay fair, which is basically, 259 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:03,120 Speaker 1: leave it alone and it's going to work itself out. 260 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:06,920 Speaker 1: The Liberal government was really reluctant to make decisions that 261 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:10,800 Speaker 1: would affect private enterprise. So once Prime Minister Peel was 262 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:13,520 Speaker 1: out of office, the British government did not do a 263 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:16,280 Speaker 1: lot to intervene in the blight. There were no big 264 00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:19,600 Speaker 1: influxes of food or monetary relief coming from the government. 265 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:24,880 Speaker 1: This is a concept that probably seems seems incomprehensible to 266 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:28,120 Speaker 1: the years of a modern audience in a world where 267 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:31,600 Speaker 1: disasters lead to immediate efforts at relief, but that's not 268 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:34,040 Speaker 1: what the ideology was like in the mid nineteenth century, 269 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:38,320 Speaker 1: and there were private fundraising efforts internationally, notably in major 270 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:42,040 Speaker 1: cities in the US and India. Quakers led fundraising efforts, 271 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 1: and the Choctaw Indians recently relocated during the Trail of 272 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:48,880 Speaker 1: Tears actually sent a donation as well. So while there 273 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,080 Speaker 1: was some international response and some relief on the part 274 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:55,680 Speaker 1: of private citizens, it still just was not enough. Under 275 00:15:55,680 --> 00:15:59,240 Speaker 1: the new Prime Minister John Russell, famine policy fell to 276 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:03,160 Speaker 1: Charles Edward Trevillian, who was the Assistant Secretary of the 277 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:06,880 Speaker 1: British Treasury. He had been involved in the famine response 278 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: during Peel's administration, but now he was basically running the show. 279 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:13,880 Speaker 1: He ordered an end to the sale of Maze and 280 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:16,760 Speaker 1: he rejected an incoming shipment of it, saying that he 281 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:19,320 Speaker 1: was going to try to prevent the Irish from becoming 282 00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:23,280 Speaker 1: dependent on government handouts. Apart from the laz a fair 283 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 1: principles under which the Whig Party was operating, uh Trevillian 284 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:32,080 Speaker 1: himself had a belief in divine providence, which also influenced 285 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:35,239 Speaker 1: his hands off approach to the whole situation. In the famine, 286 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:38,000 Speaker 1: everyone was sort of working under the assumption that private 287 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:41,040 Speaker 1: citizens were going to step up and provide relief, and 288 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:44,240 Speaker 1: that Ireland could use its tax revenue to fund public 289 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:48,280 Speaker 1: works projects that would employ Irish farmers. The farmer's income 290 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:50,760 Speaker 1: would be taxed, and that tax money would fund more 291 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:53,440 Speaker 1: projects and a cycle that would pull Ireland up out 292 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:56,680 Speaker 1: of poverty. But the Irish government didn't really have enough 293 00:16:56,680 --> 00:16:59,760 Speaker 1: money to start with. People's wages were too low for 294 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:02,800 Speaker 1: income tax to keep up with the need for government spending, 295 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:05,520 Speaker 1: and also really too low for people to actually meet 296 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:07,760 Speaker 1: their own daily needs. So in addition to they weren't 297 00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:11,040 Speaker 1: making enough money to buy things, their wages were not 298 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: enough too for the tax revenue to be adequipped for 299 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:17,240 Speaker 1: the government. So what happened instead was that public works 300 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: projects were flooded with way more workers than they could 301 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:24,639 Speaker 1: possibly use or pay. And so that's where we're going 302 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,760 Speaker 1: to pause on this part of the story. Uh So 303 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:32,200 Speaker 1: we're leaving at eighteen forty six. Ireland situation is extremely 304 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:35,359 Speaker 1: dire and Britain has taken a largely handsoff approach to 305 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 1: mitigating this crisis. So in the next part of this episode, 306 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:43,440 Speaker 1: we're going to pick up in eighteen forty six and 307 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,119 Speaker 1: eighteen forty seven and and tell how the rest of 308 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:56,280 Speaker 1: the the famine unfolded in Irish history. Thanks so much 309 00:17:56,280 --> 00:17:59,359 Speaker 1: for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode is 310 00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:01,400 Speaker 1: out of the archive, if you heard an email address 311 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:03,680 Speaker 1: or a Facebook U r L or something similar over 312 00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:06,320 Speaker 1: the course of the show, that could be obsolete now. 313 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:11,000 Speaker 1: Our current email address is History Podcast at i heart 314 00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:14,720 Speaker 1: radio dot com. Our old how Stuff Works email address 315 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:17,320 Speaker 1: no longer works, and you can find us all over 316 00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:20,920 Speaker 1: social media at missed in History and you can subscribe 317 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:24,080 Speaker 1: to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google podcasts, the I 318 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. 319 00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:33,000 Speaker 1: Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of 320 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:36,280 Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, 321 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:39,479 Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever 322 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,040 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.