Equality

“...People that Cuts a great dash at home when they come here [to America] the[y] tink it strange for the humble Class of poeple to get as much respect as themselves [but] when they come here it wont do to say I had such and was such and such at home [for] strangers here the[y] must gain respect by there conduct and not by there tongue... I know poeple here from [Ireland] that would not speak to me [there] if they met me on the public road [but] here I can laugh in there face when I see them...”

Extract of a letter from Patrick Dunny, Irish immigrant to Philadelphia during the Irish potato famine, dated 1847.