Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

PART II EMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE

British Emigration Commission 1861: BNA USA

Australia

Total 93,501 129,851 258,270 248,098 299,498

1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849

31,803 43,439

58,538 82,239

830

2,347 4,949 23,904 32,191

*109,680 *31,065 41,367

*142,154 *188,233 219,450

Emigration from Cork: BNA

USA

4,478 5,683

358

1,383 *4,360 *8,600 7,846

*13,159 *3,021

1,869

*Contrasts between BNA and US emigration after 1847 are apparent, and reasons were surely at the heart of emigrant discussions and planning by mid-century. Cork bucked the national trend in continuing to send more emigrants to BNA rather than the US until 1848, and that trend was likely related to the long-established timber trade and rapport between Cork and St John NB (1847 in Part l). 1850. Changing Demographics (US). Foreign-born in major USA port cities (US Census, Cohn, 2009, 172). Total Population - %Irish - %British - %German - %Foreign-born Boston 135,625. 26.0 3.0 1.3 34.4 New York 513,485 26.0 6.1 10.9 45.9 Philadelphia 408,045 17.7 5.1 5.6 29.8 Baltimore 165,983 7.3 1.6 11.7 21.4 New Orleans 99,071 20.4 3.6 11.5 49.1 Major ethnic change was disturbing for native-born residents who expressed their concerns with anti-emigrant, and anti-Irish sentiment. Foreign-born residents coalesced with the development of enclaves, ethnic societies and networks (both Irish and German) that disseminated news from host-countries back to Europe. Such was the Irish Emigrant Aid Society of New York, founded in 1841 , that published advice for Irish emigrants entering the US in the Dublin-based Nation newspaper. 1851. Terence Bellew McManus arrives in San Francisco (US). Terence McManus, the imprisoned Young Irelander, escaped from the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) at the end of February 1851 . Smuggled on the Elizabeth Thompso n, he arrived in San Francisco 5 June 1851. Huge demonstrations were held in his honour not only in that town, but also in New Orleans, Boston, and New York. Extradition treaties between Britain and America were not considered applicable to political prisoners by American judges. (Keneally, 2000, 233, 237) 1851-52. American Political Support for Young Irelanders (US). In 1851 a motion was read in the US Senate by Senator Henry Foote of Mississippi calling on England to free O’Brien, Meagher and their immediate associates, and offering ‘sanctuary on American shores’. On 7 February 1852, Senator James Shields , Irish-born Democrat, detailed in the Senate the sufferings the prisoners had endured, and Senator William H Seward of New York declared on the same floor that “Ireland was guilty of one

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