Irish Immigration Reshapes Providence’s Labor Landscape
The mills needed workers, so recruiters turned to foreign labor. The first wave came from Ireland, especially from the mill towns of Ulster, with many arriving after 1845 to escape the famine. By 1865, one-third of Providence’s fifty-five thousand residents were Irish-born, with many settling near the east end of Atwells Avenue and further west around the mills in Olneyville.