Maurice J. Bric

Although the outlines of Irish emigration to America in the eighteenth century are clear, this paper attempts to analyze the specific characteristics of the flow of people at the end of the century, after the American Revolution. Later emigrants came during a period of more organized, commercialized, passenger travel, and the agents involved in carrying emigrants to America became less directed toward carrying indentured servants and more attuned to the possibilities of paid passenger travel. For their part, migrants themselves were overall more able to deal with the exigencies of such travel, both on their own and with the aid of ethnic-based groups founded to help travelers, which in turn contributed to a growth of national feeling among the emigrants.

[WP #96021]