PART II EMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE
nimbly as their German and English counterparts, but the author believes that demographic statistics will validate these assertions. In 1820 , 4% of Americans lived in cities or towns and by 1830 the percentage increased to 7%. Then the urban population grew by 552% (from 1.1 million to 6.2 million) between 1830 and 1860 , which was the fastest rate of urbanization the nation had ever experienced, paralleling growth in the manufacturing sector, which would dominate agriculture after the Civil War (Miller, 1987, 31-2, 48-9, 57). Boston. Observations from Boston Passenger Arrivals (M277) In the 1820s, Boston with about 200 ship arrivals a year, saw a trickle of Irish emigrants on ships from Liverpool, and on small vessels from Halifax, St John, and St Andrews. By the mid-1830s arrivals sometimes exceeded 300 immigrants per vessel and traffic from Liverpool increased, with emigrants mostly from England and Ireland, while many schooners from St John and St Andrews NB brought mostly Irish emigrants in small groups to Boston. St John-Boston shipping was quite busy at this time. Emigrants from Halifax tended to be of mixed ethnicity – English, Scottish and Irish. 1841 recorded 486 Boston ship arrivals, and that year St John became one of the busiest Boston trading routes. The main Boston transatlantic port was Liverpool, and the Irish became the dominant emigrant group arriving from there in the 1840s.
Fig. 27.
The Port of Boston with State House and Bunker Hill Monument
Impact of Irish immigration on Boston and Massachusetts 1850 US Census):
Total Population - %Irish - %British - %German - %Foreign-born.
Boston
135,625 994,514
26.0 11.7.
3.0 2.1
1.3 0.4
34.4 14.5
Massachusetts
122
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