Judy started by giving some statistics. The population of Britain between 1760 and 1820 rose from 7 to 15 million. Between 1760 and 1776, 125,000 people had emigrated to America. Although some were indentured servants, mainly at this time they were from the middle and upper classes, the only people who could fund their own passage.
Judy showed a map of the various destinations to which people emigrated in the eighteenth century. Before 1780 we could see that most people went to the British Colonies, 64,000 to the Caribbean, 173,000 to southern Colonies and 83,000 to the northern Colonies. Of these approximately 60% were from Scotland and Ireland. Between 1788 and 1800 nearly 8,000 went to Australia. This number increased between 1790 and 1815 to about 150,000 emigrating from England and Wales and 32,000 from Scotland.
After 1718 the Transportation Act sent convicts to America. Although, convicts had been sent in the early1600s, transportation was unregulated before the Act. After the American Revolution in the 1780s, transportation to the United States stopped but convicts continued to be sent to Australia. The last Convict ship left the UK in 1867..
After the Napoleonic war conditions were particularly hard for the poor. Prices were high, harvests were bad, there was decline of some domestic industries. Farms were becoming more mechanised, Soldiers were demobbed, swamping the labour market. Whereas prior to this time labourers were hired for the year or as live in staff, the trend now was for day labour. All of this meant that the demand for Poor relief soared. The Swing Riots in 1830 highlighted how bad conditions were for the agricultural Labourers.
Some local schemes paid for labourers to emigrate but these were few, the costs were high and many Parishes would not be able to afford this. The Government started to look at assisted emigration schemes although several MPs were against this. By 1829 Shipping companies were contacting Parishes offering to take emigrants, the average price was four pounds ten shillings per adult and two pounds five shillings per child under twelve.
In 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act came in and Parishes started to help the poor emigrate to reduce long term cost. Although, a lot of people were afraid to go. There was the stigma of transportation, being parted from family members permanently and the journey was risky. When they did go often it was as part of a Family or a Church Group.
Between 1820 and 1830 Canada was offering free land grants as a ”carrot” and although this stopped in 1832 land was still very cheap. In Australia funding was given by money raised from the sale of land by the Government. Between 1837 and 1840, the Government chartered ships to take 13,000 people selected from the Workhouses and also from poor agricultural workers. In 1837 a “Bounty” scheme was introduced. Colonists would pay for labourers to come out to work for them and then they would be reimbursed by the Government.
Judy then showed us letters sent home by emigrants and stories of the voyage with all its terrible hardships. Of those who went to America, if they stopped in the eastern Cities life could be very hard but if they continued overland to the Western states they could often become very successful as long as they were prepared to work hard. Initially Liverpool was the main port of departure but by the 1860s more southerly ports were being used. The crossing to America took about 35 days although often ships would have to turn back due to storm damage. If going to the west coast of Canada ships would sail around Cape Horn and up the Western coast of the Americas. Despite this a voyage to Australia was much longer than an Atlantic Crossing although the Atlantic was much more dangerous.
Report by Sheila Harris - Speakers Secretary for Kent FHS