Baxter Street

Synopsis: BAXTER STREET:

April 1863. Five Points area, lower Manhattan, New York City. Three months prior to the NYC Draft Riots, one of the deadliest in US history.The Civil war rages and many of the Irish immigrants who joined the Union Army in the “Fighting 69”, have been killed or severely wounded in the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. President Lincoln has signed the Conscription Act, mandating that able-bodied male citizens and immigrants intending to become citizens, are liable for military service in the Union Army. A provision of the act allows for exemptions, or for the hiring of substitutes for $300. Tempers within the Irish immigrant community are flaring, as many feel their dreams of again fighting for Irish freedom are being betrayed, and, unable to pay the $300 fee for a replacement, now see the fighting as a “rich man’s war”. Irish immigrants, still fleeing the long-term impact of the famine, pour into New York and are recruited into the Union Army by the promise of a quick path to citizenship and an offer their basic needs will be met as soon as they deboard the ships. The emancipation proclamation, signed months earlier, does not directly ensure citizen status to Blacks, and therefore most, not yet being considered citizens, are exempt from conscription. The Nativist or “Know Nothing” political movement, with mayors elected in major cities across the East Coast, are targeting Blacks both ex and enslaved, immigrants, and most of all, Irish Catholics, as a threat to native-born Protestant Monarchy establishment in America. Nativists with economic investments in the South and affiliated with Tammany Hall, hold sway within the political ranks of New York City, and many of their lower ranks use their positions to exploit and play on the tensions, pitting groups against each other.

The Sullivan family of County Kerry Ireland now live within the Irish immigrant enclave of Baxter Street. They operate a laundry service, rent out rooms in their tenement building and run a side brothel to cover the costs of transporting relatives still in Ireland, offering them exit from the suffering within the social ruins of post-famine Ireland. This is chain migration. Matriarch Catherine Sullivan is a hardened guilt-ridden woman, with a commanding presence, whose mental stability is slipping after surviving famine, immigration, and harsh survival in the New York City Irish slums. Her mission in life is to maintain the chain migration out of Ireland, and when news comes of the pressing need to support the migration of her young nephew, her urgency builds. Her brother Eugene, a tough wheeler dealer with a soft heart, has learned to play New York politics like a finely tuned piano. Niece Katie dreams of having a life as a performer with her partner, Rory. Daughter Elizabeth, tough, street wise yet vulnerable, is longing for more in life but is repressed by fear. At the mercy of her mother’s wishes, she does laundry and provides sex work to support the mission of providing money for chain immigration. Enter James, yearning for a new life with only a little bit of money in his pocket. He’s just off the boat from County Kerry where his large family were tenant farmers. Due to the harsh social control and land management policies instituted in County Kerry after the famine, only the oldest son was allowed to marry. James, hungry for a wife, was more than happy to emigrate to America. Together these Irish immigrants struggle against harsh social and economic barriers as they attempt to hold onto hope in a search against the odds for love and meaning.