Bind the Republic Together : Immigrant Labor and American Progress

Railroad construction labor has historical ties to the worst types of “common” or “unskilled” wage labor and to the labor of enslaved peoples and convicts. It is linked, as well, to canal construction labor. Charles Dickens, writing to a U.S. audience in 1842, noted that without Irish immigrants, “It would be hard to keep your model republics going . . . for who else would dig, delve, and drudge . . . and make canals and railroads, and execute great lines of internal improvement!” Railroad officials and contractors enlisted a moving army of “wild” Irish immigrants and Famine-era refugees, luring them from County Cork and County Longford in Ireland, from Canada, and from neighboring canal and railroad projects in America. Augmented by indigenous peoples, African Americans, and Asian immigrants, the results of this movable construction labor force were impressive

Dirty Work: Hop-Picking Cultures and the Perils of Diversity in the Pacific Northwest

A presentation by Eastern Oregon Professor of History Ryan Dearinger. The early Pacific Northwest hop industry featured a seasonal, low-wage labor force that was notable for its diversity. Americans, American Indians, European and Asian immigrants, children, entire families, tourists, convicts, and even prisoners of war toiled as hop-pickers throughout the region. In turn, settled and itinerant populations from the Puget Sound to the Willamette Valley (and beyond) carved out spaces, constructed cultural traditions and identities, and created sites of inclusion despite the persistent segregation of fields, tasks, and opportunities. Over time, the cyclical boom-and-bust nature of the hop industry, shifting ideas about the value of hop-picking, and popular narratives of white American labor, citizenship, and progress merged with ongoing anti-immigrant campaigns to physically and metaphorically transform the Northwest’s hop fields