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The Canadian Response to the Irish Famine Emigration of 1847

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The Canadian Response to the Irish Famine Emigration of 1847 THE CANADIAN RESPONSE TO THE IRISH FAMINE EMIGRATION OF 1847 by LESLIE ANNE HARVEY B.A. (Hon.), University of Victoria, 1971 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Historjr We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 1973 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of /-/•t^tar The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada ABSTRACT In 1847, 215,00 Irish fled their famine-stricken and diseased homeland, and of this number, some 90,000 headed for the shores of Canada. It was both the largest and most diseased and destitute emigration that Canada had ever received, and it caught the colony almost totally by surprise. Many Canadians had been able to follow the course of the potato blight and famine in Ireland, but very few appeared to have considered their impact on the emigration to Canada. They had the assur• ances ox those best informed about the condition of Irelandj the Imperial Government, that, no extraordinary measures would be needed; why should their.word be doubted? In the first weeks of the Immigration season, Canadians discovered that the Imperial authorities were wrong; the colony found itself forced to deal with an abnormal immigration -with only the meagre st preparations, Canadian emigration officials spent the rest of the sea• son attempting to recover from the shock of those first weeks; all they could do was attempt to. relieve the sufferings of the immigrants to the best of their ability. Stop-gap relief measures were authorized by the Canadian Government for as long as distress and disease were preva• lent; private charitable institutions stepped in to provid shelter and care for the helpless among the immigrants. In the end, the colony'succeeded, despite its financial difficulties, both in enabling the Irish to regain their health and in making them producing members of the community, something which few Canadians, at the height of the crisis, felt would be possible. This successful 'absorption' of the immigrants, however, had been accom• plished only with difficulty and at great cost. This thesis examines the Canadian response, and particularly that of the various levels of government, to the immi• gration crisis which it faced in 1847 and the strains which this crisis placed upon the relations of the Imperial and Colonial governments. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface: ix Introduction: 1 I: Famine and Flight 14 II: Canada - The Prelude 50 III: Canada - The Deluge 72 IV: Aftermath and Conclusions 145 Bibliography: 139 V TABLES 1. Table Showing the Number of Clergy, Medical 93 Men, Hospital Attendants and others who con• tracted Fever and died during the season, in attendance upon Sick Emigrants at Grosse Isle. British American Journal of Medical and Physical Sciences, Vol. Ill, No. 11 (March, 1843}, p. 285. 2. Official Report of Burials in Montreal from 119 June 5 to August 7, 1847. La Minerve. August 19, 1847. 3. A comparison of Canada's Emigration Expen- 149 ditures with that of the Emigration Commit• tee appointed by the Legislature of New York. Papers relative to emigration, H.C, I848 (932), Vol. XLVII, p. 7. Extract of a Report of the Committee of the Executive Council on Matters of State, December 3, 1847. 4. The Manner of .the disposal of emigrants 152 arriving at Toronto during the 1847 season. Papers relative to emigration, H.C, 1848 T932), Vol. XLVII, p. 22. Enclosure in Elgin to Grey, February 19, 184C 5. Distribution of emigrants who arrived in the 155 Province of Canada during the year 1847 as near as can be ascertained. - Papers relative to emigration, H.C, 184-8 T964J, Vol. XLVII, p. 25. A.C Buchanan Annual Report, March 31, 1$48. 6. Return of the number of Admissions into 157 Hospital, Discharges and Deaths of Emi• grants who arrived in Canada during the season of 18*47. Papers relative to emigration, H.C, 1848 (964), Vol. XLVII, p. .23. A.C. Buchanan Annual Report, March 31, 1848. vi TABLES 7. Return of the Number of Emigrants Em- 159 barked, with the Number of Births and Deaths during the Voyage and in Quar• antine, the Total Number landed in the Colony, distinguishing Males from Fe• males and Adults from Children. Papers relative to emigration. H.C., 1848 (964), Vol. XLVII, p. 21. A.C.Buchanan Annual Report, March 31, 1843. 3. Return of the Trades or Calling of the 160 Emigrants who landed at the Ports of Quebec and Montreal during the Year 1347. Papers relative to emigration , H.C., I848 (964), Vol. XLVII, p. 24. A.C. Buchanan Annual Report, March 31, 1343. 9. The total expenditures for emigration I69 purposes to March 1, I848. Papers relative to emigration, H.C., 1843 T964), Vol. XLVII, pp. 18-9. A.C. Buchanan Annual Report, March 31, I848. vii ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Ireland in I848 19 2. Quarantine Wharf, Grosse Isle 51 3. Quarantine Station and Buildings, 51 Grosse Isle 4» Roman Catholic Church and Presby- 52 tery, Grosse Isle 5. Old Cemetery, Grosse Isle, where the 52 Victims of 1847 Are Buried 6. Quebec City in 1845 83 7. Montreal in 1839 86 8. Toronto in 1834 91 '9. The Province of Canada and Its Water- 96 ways about. 1848 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . I would like to thank Dr. J, Winter and Dr. M..M. Tolmie who first suggested this topic to me. I am very- grateful for the patient and helpful assistance which my thesis supervisor, Dr. R.V. Kubicek, has offered. ix PREFACE I fear that in the course of my thesis I have left many questions unanswered. I have not described the nature of the immigration in any more detail than was necessary for the understanding of the problems which it posed for the Canadian community, and thus, the immigrants figure as little more than distressed and diseased statistics. It was not my intention to describe the process of assimilation of these immigrants, for such a study would require much more time and far greater resources than I had at my disposal. The immigrants themselves are perhaps the most difficult aspect of the study of the assimilation process to research, for they appear to have left very few records; only by choosing one community and spending a great deal of time there, ransacking its various archives, cari. one attempt a proper study of the acculturation of a group of Irish immigrants. Also, for such a study one must be able to develop an intimate knowledge of the immigrants' host community (something again which is very difficult to achieve without spending a great deal of time in the community Itself)-. What I have done is to lay the ground work for such a study, for I have brought the immigrants to Canada and, I think, demonstrated the immediate problems which they posed for the Canadian community, as well as the Canadian responses to and solutions for these problems,. The next step in the study of the Irish Famine Immigrants (which I hope to be able to under• take) would be a detailed examination of their assimi• lation in one Canadian community (perhaps using Oscar Handlin's Boston's Immigrants as a model) over a period of thirty to forty years. INTRODUCTION 1 Between March and September of 1847, more than 95,000 Irishmen left their blighted and diseased homeland for the shores of Canada; this represented nearly three times the number of immigrants which Canada had received during the course of any previous year,-*- But the magnitude was not the only unprecedented aspect of the immigration; the Irish immigrants of 1047 were by far the most destitute and diseased population which Canada had eyer seen. Typhus and dysentery; had accompanied the Irish Famine immigrants to Canada; by the end of the year, at least 20,000 Irish had died in Canada, while another 17,000 souls had never reached her shores, perishing during the crossing.^Very few of the immigrants who survived the ordeals of the crossing and the quarantine had any resources or skills to fall back upon, and those who did usually passed on to the United States. This meant that Canada had not only to pay for the care of those who had fallen sick, but also had to provide some form of relief for the destitute. Unfortunately, thi3 disaster had struck a Canada which was unprepared to cope with such a large diseased and destitute immigration. In order to better understand the problems which this immigra• tion of 1347 presented to Canada, as well as the Canadian colonists* efforts to deal with these problems, it is necessary first to examine briefly the nature of the society of pre-famine Ireland, the early movement of the Irish into Canada (1815-44) and Canada's ability to absorb them. 2 With the help of this study (as well as the benefits of hindsight} the reader will be able to follow the develop• ment of a course of action, or inaction, on the parts of the Canadian, English and Irish peoples which was to climax in the disaster of 1847.
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