- Quinn makes a comparison between the slave trade and the Holocaust and the Famine emigration only to reject it later on, why?
Peter Quinn’s first reference to the slave trade and holocaust was to show the difference between the migration of the Irish Potato Famine immigrants as compared to the migration of immigrants to the United States in other situations. He compares the size and impact of the slave trade and Holocaust to that of the Irish Famine, rather than the reasons why the Famine Irish left to the reason why the slaves left Africa and the Jewish left Europe. Quinn tries to make a point that the Irish were involuntarily forced to leave their homelands just like the slaves and the Jews. That is the reason why the “sheer volume of passage” (p 46) of the Irish migration was unlike any America had seen before. Quinn is saying that the only thing similar to it in size was the migration of the slave trade and Holocaust Jews. In other periods of immigration, the migrants had more of a choice and therefore there were less quantities of them.
Later on, Quinn doesn’t necessarily reject his previous comparison between the Holocaust Jews and Famine Irish, instead he contrasts the two migrations. In a way he just seems to be covering himself so that his point isn’t taken in an incorrect nature. He acknowledges that the real reason the two groups left their homes are not on the same level. Overall Quinn just wants to let people know that the reason we don’t have so many first hand accounts from the Famine Irish is because just like the people of any group who has faced adversity to its worst degree (e.g. the Jews and African Americans), they would rather be silent and not relive those horrific moments. All we have is the facts and the history, Quinn wants to know the memories because it is from those that we can characterize history.
