PART II EMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE
craft to Savannah, sold it to the Confederates, and sailed it in May 1861 as a blockade-runner, disguised with British colors, to Queenstown Cork with Confederate officers and money to purchase ships in Liverpool for the Confederate Navy. Subsequently, the vessel was trapped by Union gunboats up the St John River Florida and scuttled. On 13 March 1862 she was found by Union forces, salvaged, armed, and attached to the Federal Blockade Squadron off Charleston, South Carolina, where she performed admirably, prior to being retired to Newport, Rhode Island, as a training ship for midshipmen. She was sold to General Benjamin Butler in 1873 and remained in the Butler family until 1917 (Sutton, 2017). It’s notable that while the Irish population in Louisiana increased between 1850 and 1860, Louisiana was one of four states in the country that was ‘migratory’ (more Louisiana native- born residents left than native-born residents from other states arrived), with those outward- bound migrants favoring Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, and California (1860 US Census report). *********************** CHAPTER 4 IRISH EMIGRANT DISPERSION Problems of dispersion commenced when emigrants stepped onto the docks in the North American host countries. The few arrival ports had limited ability to absorb the glut of humanity funneled into their midst, and in BNA there were only two major ports, Quebec and St John, since Halifax did not receive many transatlantic emigrant ships – in fact fewer than 20 emigrant ships on the Cork Lists during this 1815-1860 study. In the US the larger size and number of arrival ports allowed for greater, but limited, urban dispersion, with New York become the dominant port, yet Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans continuing to attract large numbers of immigrants CHAPTER 4A IRISH EMIGRANT DISPERSION IN BNA. The industrial revolution was associated with major increases in manufacturing and urban growth during the 19 th century, drawing job-seeking emigrants to population centers. Although 90% of BNA emigrants entered through the Port of Quebec, opportunities there were limited, and most emigrants moved promptly on to the hub city of Montreal, from where most proceeded to the cities, towns, and countryside of Canada West, where their settlement is well documented. Regional BNA population totals in 1806 : Lower Canada - 250,000 Upper Canada - 70, 718 Nova Scotia - 65,000 New Brunswick - 35,000 Newfoundland - 26,000 Regional changes in BNA populations when compared to 1806 baseline: 1830 1840 1850 1860 Lower Canada: x2 x2.5 x3.3 x4.4 Upper Canada: x3. x6.2 x11.8 x20 Nova Scotia: x2.3 x3 x4 x5 New Brunswick: x2.6 x3.7 x5.3 x6.7 Newfoundland: x2.6 x3.2 x3.8 x4.8
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