The Irish Diggers
photo taken from nola.com
The history of New Orleans changed drastically in the mid 1800s, as hundreds of thousands of immigrants began to migrate to the United States. By the mid 1840s, New Orleans became almost like a mini New York City as far as the number of immigrants received. They came from all over the world, including: Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Canada, and Africa. This led to an amazing growth in population for the Crescent City, going from approximately 46,000 people in 1830, to over 100,000 people merely ten years later in 1840. The majority of the immigrants that were coming to New Orleans were from the European country of Ireland.
The reason why so many Irish people began to immigrate to the United States was due to the deadly Potato Famine that struck the Irish countryside in the late 1840s. The Irish population began to grow so much, that by 1850 one in every five residents of New Orleans was an Irish immigrant. The Irish who lived in New Orleans were spread throughout the city, not living in one specific area in seclusion from everyone else. The Irish channel was even ironically home to a majority of German immigrants. The Irish immigrants were employed in commerce, professions, and laborers.
Almost every single Irish immigrant that came to America was at the bottom of the social ladder in Ireland, so now more than ever, they truly had nothing of value. They had to spend everything they had just to get a ticket for the ship to take them there as it was. The ship ride over was often called riding the coffin ship, because a good amount of people who were courageous enough to take the risk to leave their homeland never made it over. The conditions were horrible, and if they did survive across, they would arrive quite ill. They possessed no education or specific job skills as well, making them pretty much able to perform only one type of job.
These laboring jobs were so dangerous and risky, that residents did not even want slaves to participate in them because it wasn’t worth the risk of losing a valuable good. They did not want to deal with slaves if they were to become injured, ill, or dead. Therefore, the Irish were placed as a solution to this problem that the people were facing, and they were hired for 5 cents a day. At that time, 5 cents a day was good enough for a loaf of bread. As far as management for the Irish immigrants, the employers did not have to house, clothe, or provide medical care for them as they had to for slaves.
As it turned out, this was a double win for the employers. The workers were then put to work digging gutters to drain the streets throughout the city, but mostly in the Garden District. This was without a doubt, one of the toughest jobs one could get, and it made most of those workers discouraged about America, just shortly after they thought they had made it to the promised land. A large number of workers died right in the ditches where they were digging. Since they had no money to afford proper burial services, these workers were buried at the spot where they died, in the ditches.
Particularly at the corner of Second Street and Camp Street, there are great examples of the square-cut gutters with stone linings built for those who died. Under these are the remains of hundreds of Irish men and boys who died while working in the ditches. These spirits must be quite restless, as their final resting place is within the foundation of the stone linings that line the streets of New Orleans. Residents in the area report hearing the sounds of shovels, and pitching gravel and soil during the late night and early morning hours, when few people are out or awake. People also hear tools being dragged along the street, as if there are a group of men walking to a site to work their shift. Legend has it, that on the nights of a New Moon; a blue mist can be seen rising from the gutters.
(Source: Dwyer, Jeff. Ghost Hunter’s Guide to New Orleans. 2007.)
