Black Powder, White Lace: The Du Pont Irish and Cultural Identity in Nineteenth-Century America

Between 1802 and 1902, over 2000 Irish emigrants, mainly Catholics from Ulster, relocated to northern Delaware, where they found steady employment in E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company’s black powder yards. Explosives work was dangerous, but the du Ponts, perhaps best described as sincere paternalists, provided a host of benefits, including assisted migration, free or low-cost housing, interest-bearing savings accounts, and widows’ pensions. As a result, the Irish remained loyal to their em…