“Alas Poor Ireland!”: British Prejudice, “the Irish Precedent, ” and the Origins of the American Revolution

Of all the claims in the Declaration of Independence, its surety about the existence of an intentional British “design to reduce” the colonists “under absolute Despotism” is perhaps the most questionable one to modern ears. Contemporary historians have largely dismissed such language, and the accompanying concerns about an alleged British plot to “enslave” its Atlantic possessions. However, this paper argues that such a view fails to properly consider the role of “the Irish precedent” of English imperial exploitation in sparking American resistance and rebellion. Namely, through a careful study of what American colonists read and wrote about in the lead-up to the American Revolution, this paper establishes that many of them were surprisingly attentive to the plight of “poor Ireland.” Moreover, during the Imperial Crisis, American colonists across social classes shared a surprisingly extensive concern about whether that “Irish precedent” would soon be applied to them. In the early stages of the Imperial Crisis, however, the colonists mainly worried about suffering the fate of the Protestant Anglo-Irish. Yet later on, those same colonists apparently began to fear being treated like the “degenerate” Old English Irish Catholics. Certain key events in the Imperial Crisis—such as the Quebec Act and the purported application of tactics used in the conquests of the Irish to British America—exacerbated those anxieties. Eventually, a group of ordinary people on the Massachusetts countryside, convinced that the British ministry intended “to reduce this Country to the wretched, slavish State of poor Ireland,” launched what later scholars would call “the first American revolution.” In short, “the Irish precedent” played a significant role in spurring armed conflict between the thirteen colonies and the British Empire. Hence, understanding “the Irish precedent” in the context of America’s War for Independence will help Revolutionary historians better uncover the war’s anti-colonialist implications. HIS 490-001

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