From which country did most pre-Civil War immigrants come?

1 Answer
Bob K.
May 6, 2016

Ireland

Explanation:

Ireland had a couple of different waves of immigration. In colonial times, the Irish accounted for a quarter of a million indentured servants, 90% of all indentured servants in some colonies. Prior to 1845, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from Ulster formed a substantial immigrant group. But a potato famine from 1845-1852 caused an even larger wave of Irish Catholics.

Another simultaneous famine in Germany brought a comparably large wave of German immigrants, also mostly Catholic, during the same time period. Germany was not a single unified country at this time, though.

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