From Belfast to America

BELFAST AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY by Jonathan Bardon


'for the next sixty years there was a spectacular out-pouring of ‘Scotch-Irish’ to America. By the middle of the eigthteenth century it was reckoned that 12,000 were leaving Ulster every year.

Belfast was the most important port of departure,even though the most distressed areas were in the west of Ulster. Between 1750 and 1775 at least 143 emigrant vessels left Belfast for America,65 of them with Philadelphia as their destination. For many,America was indeed,as one advertisement put it, ‘the Land of Promise’; a notice in the ‘Belfast News Letter’ in 1766 informing the public that the ‘Falls’ was shortly to sail from Belfast and called on readers to embrace ‘such a favourable opportunity by settling themselves to advantage by removal to that country,a removal which cannot fail to give freedom,peace,and plenty to those who now wish to enjoy those blessings’. America was a land of limitless opportunity to Ulster Scots,where their skills in taming a wild country would be highly valued,and where the Presbyterian work-ethic would receive its just reward,as de Crevecoeur wrote invitingly in 1782:

Welcome to my shores….bless the hour thou didst see my verdant fields,my navigable rivers,and my green mountains!- if thou wilt work,I have bread for thee;if thou wilt be honest,sober,and industrious,I have greater rewards to confer on thee – ease and independence. I willl give thee fields and clothe thee; a comfortable fireside to sit by,and tell thy children by what means thy has prospered…

‘The humour has spread like a contagious distemper,and the people will hardly bear anybody that tries to cure them of their madness,’ Boulter observed. He continued: ‘The worst is,that it affects only Protestants and reigns chiefly in the north,which is the seat of our linen manfacture.’ Catholics had not the inclination to go to the colonies which were still overwhelmingly Protestant.

A prolonged depression – as in the 1770s – could lead to a sudden increase in emigration. Ulster Protestants deeply resented the commercial restrictions designed to protect the mother country’s interests when they had done so much to defeat the Irish Jacobites. Besides,earnings from linen were not enough to compensate for rent increases:

For the rents are getting higher,and I can no longer stay,
So fare well unto ye bonny,bonny Slieve Gallon Braes.
For these days are now all over,for Iam far away,
So fare well unto ye bonny,bonny,Slieve Gallon Braes.

The journey from Belfast across the Atlantic could be perilous,especially when fever broke out on board,or when ships were delayed by calms and contrary winds. In 1729,175 people died on board two vessels from Belfast during the crossing. In 1741 the ‘Seaflower’ sprang her mast en route from Belfast to Philadelphia; forty-six passengers died and six of their corpses were eaten in desperation by the survivors. A fortnight of storms drove the ‘Sally’ off her course from Belfast to Philadelphia in 1762,and sixty-four passengers died. John Smilie survived this voyage and wrote an account of it for his father:

……Hunger and Thirst had now reduced our Crew to the last Extremity; nothing was now to be heard aboard our Ship but the Cries of distressed children,and their distressed Mothers,unable to relieve them. Our Ship now was truly a real Spectacle of Horror! Never a day passed without one of our Crew put over Board; many kill’d themselves by drinking Salt Water; and their own Urine was a common Drink; yet in the midst of alll our Miseries,our Captain shewed not the least Remorse or pity…..