Emigration From the British Isles to the U.S.A. in 1841: Part I. Emigration From the British Isles

In 1841 and 1842 emigration from the British Isles to the U.S.A. was larger than in any year before the great Irish Famine. Later in the century, depressed economic conditions in the U.S.A. reduced the flow of immigrants. In contrast, the increased immigration of 1841 took place under circumstances of depression in both the U.K. and the U.S.A. In this paper, samples of the passenger manifests of ships arriving in five ports in the United States during 1841 are analysed in the search for more information about the emigrants of that remarkable year. A new and more accurate estimate of immigrants according to nationality has been compiled. Profiles of the immigrants from each part of the British Isles are provided, according to their routes of emigration, the seasonal flow, their ages, sex, travelling companions and occupations. These are compared with the results of previous work on 1831, 1851 and the 1880s. The evidence points to some deepening of the emigration into more disadvantaged sectors of the popul...