Five points

Sean and William O’Connor

1895 from dublin
Political, religious persecution, and economic situation (poor)
Work as factory workers

Gilded Age Photos

Photo 1
Sean and William O’Connor both 14 fled religious persecution and the dire economic
situation in Ireland and immigrated to America with their mother in 1895. They swapped
Dublin and everything they knew for the Five Points neighborhood in New York City. Many
other Irish immigrants and their families fled Ireland and came to America because of similar
reasons.

Photo 2
Like many other immigrants of many other former nationalities, Irish Immigrants were
reacted poorly towards in the largely Christian Protestant United States. They were seen as
job stealing, disease spreading aliens. They were accused of bringing crime to the United
States, and William and Sean O’Connor played an active role in committing minor crimes on
the streets of Manhattan.

Photo 3
Like many other poor immigrant children, William and Sean O’Connor had to forsake their
education to work in factories to support their family, earning slim wages while working in
horrid conditions for long hours. Unable to organize they were unable to negotiate with their
employers and improve their situation.

Photo 4
They lived in a tenement where living conditions were cramped, dirty, creature-infested and
disease ridden. Although the tenements were terrible places to live, they provided cheap
living for newly arrived immigrant families. By 1900, two thirds of the population of new york
inhabited 80,000 tenements.

Photo 5
After arriving in New York, their mother contracted yellow fever, she died a week later.
Already fatherless, the children would have to learn to fend for themselves. Life as a
homeless immigrant orphan was a constant struggle. They slept on the streets in ragged,
worn clothes and the little money they earned from their factory jobs went to buying food.

Photo 6
The streets upon which Sean and William O’Connor slept were cold and crime-infested not
to mention the shady characters who wandered the streets at night.The boys could barely
afford one pair of shoes, and often swapped them between the two.
Present day photos

The descendants of William and Sean, William and Ethan O’Connor live in Silver Spring,
Maryland, a DC suburb, and attend Montgomery Blair Public High School. They don’t need
to go through the daily struggles their ancestors faced in New York over 120 years ago.

Unlike their ancestors, they are able to receive a good education and succeed in life. They
have lots of opportunities and modern luxuries to benefit their living experience. They never
have to worry about when their next meal will come or where they’ll sleep. They’ll never have
to work in a factory where losing fingers are common or live in a creature infested, disease
ridden tenement.