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Abstract:
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My thesis begins in during the Irish Famine in 1847 , and follows Irish emigrants across the Atlantic Ocean to New Orleans where they faced disease , poverty , and prejudice . During the Irish famine , epidemics struck across class lines and locality , decimating the Irish population . In both the city and the country , the largest providers of care were church dispensaries . Set up in every parish , dispensaries provided care to those who otherwise would have had none at all . Like doctors at the time , dispensaries were unable to eradicate the epidemics , but because they were the most widely used medical facility , they were successful in helping some individuals . In New Orleans , the Irish continued to turn to the church for quality medical care . The established Irish community suffered from class anxiety and did not care for new Irish immigrants . Shunned by the Irish community , the ailing and recently arrived Irish turned to allopathic physicians for medical care . Unknown to Irish immigrants , allopathic physicians struggled against homeopathic physicians and they wanted New Orleans society to see them as legitimate providers of scientific medicine . When physicians failed the new Irish , the immigrants turned to the Sisters of Charity and the Howard Association for care . These two organizations countered the harsh methods of doctors and restored humanity to Irish famine immigrants . This thesis relied on three volumes of Famine and Disease in Ireland edited by Leslie A . Clarkson and E . Margaret Crawford and The Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science . To examine the Irish in New Orleans , this thesis employs numerous primary sources including Medical and Surgical Reporter , New Orleans Medical and Surgical , Medical And Surgical Memoirs : Containing Investigations On The Geographical Distribution , Causes , Nature , Relations And Treatment Of Various Disease , and a collection of papers from Charity Hospital . These sources are the basis for a new narrative about Irish famine immigrants , adding to the scholarly literature that to date has focused mostly on Irish immigrants in major cities along the eastern seaboard of North America . |