Beginning in 1845 with the infamous potato famine, around two million Irish immigrants entered the United States during what would be known as the Second Wave of Immigration. In addition to the loss of this invaluable crop, illness flooded the country, adding to economic and social turmoil. However, once the Irish reached the United States, they were met with oppression for their religion, Catholicism, and were cast away to live as unskilled workers in impoverished tenements. Many Irish resorted to vocally disparaging the black freedmen and slave populations of the United States in an effort to join forces with other white Americans, lessening oppression against them.