Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850

In 1845, a disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops, turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people. Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland. Susan Campbell Baroletti tells the compelling story of men, women, and children who survived against all odds: they defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds, walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs to earn meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and committed crimes just to go to jail, where they were assured a meal.