In the 1840s potato famine a quarter of the irish population emigrated!. How did people who were penniless and starving to death manage to have the fare to the US and Canada!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>History> The Irish Potato Famine?Question: The Irish Potato Famine!? In the 1840s potato famine a quarter of the irish population emigrated!. How did people who were penniless and starving to death manage to have the fare to the US and Canada!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Hi S During the famine, responsible landlords, for instance, Lord Bessborough and Lord Monteagle, advanced money and paid the cost of passages for tenants to emigrate!. Lord Monteagle, in particular, believed that in emigration lay the solution of Ireland'sfamin and population problem, and the Monteagle Papers contain a number of letters from grateful emigrants; he was also responsible for setting up the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization, that is, emigration, in 1847!. Another landlord, Mr!. Spaight, of Limerick, a well-known ship broker, bought Deify Castle, in Tipperary, for ￡40,000 in 1844, and found `a dead weight of paupers'!. As he was engaged in the passenger trade, he offered free passage and provisions to those willing to emigrate, and the value of two pounds on landing, provided the tenants 'tumbled', that is, pulled down, their cabins!. He made the offer only to entire families, and said he had 'got rid of crime and distress for ￡3 10s!. a head'!. The first failure of the potato was followed by a number of landlord emigrations, and a total of more than a thousand tenants from various estates reached Quebec in 1846, those arriving early in the season being reasonably healthy and, on the whole, adequately provided for!. The fatal year 1847 brought a change!. In January the Government announced that the whole destitute population was to be transferred to the Poor Law, to be maintained out of local rates at the expense of owners of property, and the only hope of solvency for landlords was to reduce the number of destitute on their estates!. Emigration began to be used as an alternative to eviction, and Sir Robert Gore Booth, a resident landlord, was accused by Mr!. Perley, the Government emigration agent at St!. John, New Brunswick, of 'exporting and shovelling out the helpless and infirm to the detriment of the colony'!. Sir Robert in reply put forward the landlord's point of view, declaring that emigration was the only humane method of putting properties in Ireland on a satisfactory footing!. The country was overpopulated, and it was not right to evict and turn people out on the world!. To emigrate them was the only solution!. Emigration also saved money; the cost of emigrating a pauper was generally about half the cost of maintaining him in the work-house for one year, and once the ship had sailed the destitute were effectually got rid of, for they could return only with immense difficulty!. In 1847, therefore, the temptation was strong to ship off as cheaply as possible those unfortunates who, through age, infirmity or the potato failure, had become useless and an apparently endless source of expense!. No attempt was made to regulate landlord emigration, but the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners did warn landlords that each tenant should have at least one pound landing-money, and provided the necessary organization for remitting money to British North America!. No money, however, was sent!. I hope this helps!. If you would like to read more, please check out the following sites!. larkspirit!.com/history/famine!.htm www!.geocities!.com/CapitolHill/Congress!.!.!. Good luck my friend, Cathorio!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It was mainly the younger members of a family who emigrated!. The first one would scrape together the fare, make the journey, get a job and then send part of their wages back to their family in Ireland, which would allow another member to emigrate!.Www@QuestionHome@Com One member of the family went first, maybe selling or pawning things to get the fare, then with the wages they earned abroad paid for their brothers or sisters or maybe their parents to come over!. also, sometimes landlords would give discounts on the fare, although this was quite rare!.Www@QuestionHome@Com They stowed away, and some got jobs working on the docks, while their wives and children went on th ship, paid by the mans wage!. Many people didn't really make it far in the US and Canada!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The really poor ones didn't!. That's why most ended up in Liverpool, like my ancestors!.Www@QuestionHome@Com the father went first and sent money back!. some of the landlords gave the people money to go!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Sold their children!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |