St patricks day!!!

[fredk]

On 5/10/2022 at 5:28 AM, Sheilajeanne said:

Very true! All of us except for indigenous people were immigrants at one time, . . . .

Even they are immigrants, the first of many, about 17,000 - 16,000 years ago!

On 5/10/2022 at 3:43 PM, chuck123wapati said:

 

. . .  Many countries sent their criminals and poor to the Americas to get rid of them, Germany and the UK especially. Many of Irish decent came as indentured servants, ( nice name for a slaves) and were thought at the time lower or as low in stature as the African slaves. . . . 

Very little is made of this. During the 'Highland Clearances' from about 1680 to 1850 tens of thousands of Scots were forcibly sent to the Americas [ all of the American continent, Welsh were sent to South America ] mostly as 'indentured' servants. Several thousand never survived the sea journey. The ships used were on their last journey, The Scotch land owners chose cheap ships for the job. Upon arrival in the Americas the slaves were to be sold and the ship broken up and sold as scrap. These ships were small, about 120 ft long at the water line and 40 ft wide at the beam. Hundreds of people were crammed on to them - in the same manner the black-man was transported

My home town participated in this slave trade. The town was a major sea port back then and ships from Scotland called in for fresh provisions before making the Atlantic crossing. It was chosen for this as the land owner and harbour owner was Scotch and was involved in the 'clearances' himself.

The people of this town saved at least 1700 people on one occasion. The ships used to just stop and anchor off-shore. But on this occasion a terrible big storm came up, the 3 ships were beached and the slaves taken off and housed in local farmers barns until the storm passed. Over the next 4 days 1700 people, all the slaves, 'disappeared' ! The local magistrate fined the local people for the 'loss of the cargo due to not securing the barns',  but as the barns were actually owned by the local land lord he had to pay the fine to himself !

And these 'indentured' slaves got their own back - the Scotch and Irish were present in great numbers in George Washington's Continental Army which beat the pants off the British in the AWI [1775 - 1783] 

[Sheilajeanne]

My husband's family were victims of the Highland clearances. Fortunately the leader of their clan, Lord Hamilton, was a member of Parliament. He petitioned the government to help those who had been displaced, and was refused.

So, using his own money, he bought a ship, and chose those he though were best able to adjust to life in the New World. The plan was for the immigrants to reach Niagara-on-the-Lake, but the owner of the boat hired to take them to Lake Ontario* was a real scoundrel. He let them off in the middle of the wilderness and told them Niagara-on-the-Lake was just over the hill!

The whole party would have died if the local indigenous people hadn't helped them and shown them how to survive. My husband still had a letter in his possession where one of the women wrote back home, saying, "We had a slightly better winter this year. One bairn survived..." He remembers his mother showing him that letter and saying, "YOU are descended from that 'one bairn'!"

This group of immigrants went on to found Hamilton, Ontario. 

I forgot to mention earlier that my husband was a cadet with the RCAF, and went through university on the Reserve Officer Training Plan. When his training was finished, he decided not to accept a commission. 

He also worked as an engineering draftsman on the DEW line in Labrador during the Cold War.

*The rapids in the St Lawrence River were impassable, so it was necessary to travel overland, then hire a second boat. The St. Lawrence Seaway solved that problem!

Edited May 14, 2022 by Sheilajeanne