audiobook Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan: Letters and Memoirs from Colonial and Revolutionary America; 1675-1815 by From Kerby A Miller in History

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Chock full of Historical Documents!By DJI usually purchase books that will help me in my Genealogy and Historical Research. I like to know the context of my Ancestors lives; the affect on them and then to me. I review books that really contribute to my groups research; and don't bother buying books that I haven't inspected online for useful content. This one really delivers. These are a few of my favorite and most useful in understanding the Scottish and Irish Traders with the Indians and early Southern Settlement. These books is so helpful and I find useful stillProminent Irish Colonialists and the Indian Trade notes from this book.Chapter 5; Merchants; Shopkeepers; and Peddlers.Francis Camble (Campbell) 1737-1742P317In the eighteenth century fewer than 10 percent of white Americans-and probably a smaller proportion of Irish immigrants-engaged primarily in business or commercial trading. They were a diverse group: in Seaport towns they ranged from fabulously wealthy transatlantic merchants and financiers to modest traders; petty retailers; clerks; and other employees: in the country side they included a few affluent traders but primarily a host of less prosperous; often part-time and inn-keepers; factors and other middlemen; hawkers; and peddlers; Yet despite their small numbers and varied functions; eighteenth century traders played a crucial role in the American economy’s remarkable expansion; beginning especially in the 1740s; as soaring British; West Indian; and souther European demands for American produce generated in turn an enormous growth in colonial consumption of British imports. The result was what the historian T. H. Breen has called a transatlantic “empire of goods”-the transport; advertising; and marketing of which increasingly linked the most modest households in rural America to the richest counting houses in Philadelphia and London. And; as eighteenth-century American society became more commercialized- and more stratified as well; despite the general rise in white colonist’ living standards-another consequence was that merchants; traders and their professional retainers 9especially lawyers0 became increasingly dominant socially; culturally; and politically-particularly; but not exclusively; in the Northern and Middle Colonies. From the 1740s eighteenth-century Ireland also participated in this economic growth; especially through its export trades in linens and agricultural goods;. Indeed; prior to the American Revolution- and despite Mercantile restrictions-both direct and indirect trade between Ireland and the mainland colonies steadily increased. However; Ireland’s commercial expansion was punctuated by frequent depressions; moreover; Irish Society’s widespread poverty; especially among Catholics; and its relatively rigid social; religious; and political stratification made it particularly vulnerable to such crises and; in general; inhibited both investment and consumption. Thus; economic advances could not keep pace either with Ireland’s demographic growth or with the ambitions that commercialization generated among its nascent middle classes. One result was a small but significant emigration to the American mainland by entrepreneurially minded Irishmen who; formerly; had often pursued careers in Europe or the West Indies.1. Some were agents of Irish trading concerns: of provisions merchants in Southern Irish ports; for example; but more commonly of linen merchants and manufacturers in Ulster and Dublin. Others were theNote 1 Indeed; among eighteenth-century Irish immigrant entrepreneurs; Catholics (such as Stephen Moylan of Philadelphia0 often represented earlier Irish merchant enclaves in France; Spain; or (as in the case of the Blakes’ descendants and perhaps John o” Kelly (RI) the West Indies.P318Sons of commercial farming families that were themselves branching into trade and industry; Irish capital and connections often helped establish and sustain these immigrant traders in the New World; as considerations of profit usually overlapped with those of family; religion; and; increasingly; shared ‘national’ identity. This was especially true for those who engaged in transatlantic commerce; but ethnoreligious linkages-with Irish-American networks and communities. For Example; Irish-born entrepreneurs enjoyed great social prestige and political in fluenced; as well as economic leverage; in the heavily Iris-settled districts of the colonial backcountry; where they functioned as crucial intermediaries between the farmers and the seaport merchants-a significant minority of whom ere also of Irish birth or descent. To be sure; the colonial frontier’s most famous Irish traders; Sir William Johnson (see below his section) and George Croghan; specialized in commerce and diplomacy with the Indian nations; More typical; however; was Francis Campble (or Campbell); a pioneer merchant in Shippensburg; a fledgling town in Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Valley-the inhabitants of which were; during most of Campble’s career; overwhelmingly of Ulster birth or descent. Like his customers; Campble was also from the north of Ireland. He was born about 1700-1705 near the town of DUngiven in County Derry; the third son of Arthur Campble; who had returned to Ulster and purchased a farm with the “ Considerable wealth” he had acquire in the West Indies. Francis received a ‘collegiate education;’ perhaps in Spain; but his father’s death in 1733 obliged him and on older brother to emigrate to Philadelphia in the summer of 1734. For two years Campble assisted his brother in trade in Philadelphia. In the 1730s; however; Irish Merchant Networks in American seaports were still too small and undercapitalized to absorb and promote ambitious; newcomers; and so it was the patronage of the Boston-born Edward Shippen (1703-1780) that furthered Campble’s career and directed him to Pennsylvania’ frontier…….P322 Francis Campble flourished as a trader; surveyer; and farmer; eventually owning a minimum of five town lots; over six hundred acres of farmland24; a popular tavern and hotel named “The Indian Queen” Twice married; Campble had at least nine children 25. In the late 1750s; during the anti-“papist’ hysteria occasioned by the French and Indian War; rumors spread that Campble had been born a Catholic and even educated in Spain for the priesthood. Perhaps the allegations were true-Campble’s first wife was reportedly “a Spanish woman’-but in Shippensburg he fully conformed to his neighbors’ faith; was an elder of the Middle Spring Presbyterian church; and educated one of his sons for the ministry. According to an early biographer; Campble was “tall and slender in person…. Graceful in his manners; .. dignified in all his intercourse with his fellow men: and an ;elegant and forcible writer” with wonderfully brilliant conversational powers. On at least one occasion Campble employed these qualities to mediate among his neighbors and prevent mob violence; and in 1764 and again in 1768 he was appointed a county magistrate. Campble served in the militia during the French and Indian War; and with the onset of the Revolution he helped form the militia companies in which two of his sons served. He died on 1 March 1790; leacing a personal estate( including a sizeable Library and six slavelsn valued at 648 l and having witnessed Shippens’ burgs; growth from a cluster of cabins to a thriving village of six hundred inhabitants.N24. In 1778 Francis Campble (listed as Campbell) was taxed 41 L 7s for 483 acres in Cumberland County’s Hopewell township; second only to Edward Shippen’s assement of 196 L for one hundred acres in the same township. In the same year; kinfolk James; Martha; Patrick; Robert; and William Campbell held a total of 635 cares in Peters townshipN 25 By his first wife (name unknown) Cambple had two sons: John (1752-1819) educated at Princeton; an Episcopalian minister at Yourk; later at Carlisle: and Rovert and officer in the Revolution; who died in the militia riot at “fort Wilson;” Philadelphia; on 4 October 1779. By his second wife; Elizabeth Parker; Campble had seven children: Francis Jr (d1808); a merchant in Shipppensburg; Ebenezer; a merchant in Shippensburtg; later in Washington Co Pa and in Ohio. Nancy who married Robert Tate; James a lawyer in York; Pa and Natchez Miss :Parker died 1824 a lawyer in Washignton Pa; Elizabeth died unmarried sometimes after 1821 and George; alive in 1790 when mentioned in his father’s will..There are several pages on Camble I just extracted mostly for the highlighted area but following these pages you get the gist of what an Irish Trader might have beenI might have Campbell Ancestors with McAlister; McNeil in MS; ALUnder P 323 Robert Phillsonn; 1764“Despite the Naavigation Acts’ restrictions; trade between Ireland and Britain’s North American Colonies doubled between 1730 and 1760 and doubled again by the outbreak of the American Revolution; as Irish linens; salted beef and pork; and indentured servants were exchanged for American Flaxseed; rum wheat and flour; staves; and lumber.By the mid-eighteenth century; sizeable communities of Irish merchants had emerged in the Major American ports-especially in Philadelphia; New York; and Baltimore-organizing and servicing this transatlantic commerce and providing economic opportunities for ambitious new immigrants such as Robert Pillson. ………41 John O. Kelly this note for nowSurname indicates that he emigrated from County Galway; where the O;Kellys had been disposed in the Cromwellian confiscations. In the late 1760s Irish emigration from Galway port to North America had resumed; after a hiatus of nearly four decases; and it is likely that O’kelly made his way to Rhode Island via the trade in Irish provisions and West Indian molasses that linked Galway; Jamaica (where several Kellys and O’Kellys were lawyers; planters and merchants) and Newport; then the fifth Largest seaport in the Mainland Colonies. In any case; prior to the Revolution John O’Kelly combined school teaching with shiprightings and especially; storekeeping; purchasing flaxseed from local farmers and forwarding it either to Newport or to Providence merchants; depending on price and demand. P’Kellys letter does more than illustrate one aspect of the flaxseed trade. Eighteenth centure commerce;both with the colonies and foreign ports; was based almost entirely on credit; and consequently; on networks of personal contacts and trust that were largely shaped by familial ties and ethnoreligious affinities. The lack of such linkages; plus legal disabilities; helps explain why it was so difficult for Irish Catholic immigrants to secure credit and engage in profitable trade; especially in New England where commerce and Capital were monopolized by Puritan or in Newport Anglican obligarchies whose members as “O Kellys letter to Champlin suggest ; were instinctively hostile to Irish Catholics; or at the least; suspicious of their honest follows Letter.This Okelly in RI doesn’t seem to be mine but from the same clan in Ireland.P 331 In the colonial era; aspiring Irish entrepreneurs generally enjoyed greatest success when they could avail themselves of commercial networks on ethnoreligious and familial lines- and/or when they could specialize in branches of trade not already controlled by exclusive; no-Irish merchant obligarchies. Thus Francis Campble could flourish on Pennsylvania Scots-Irish frontier; and even John O’Kelly could find a small but modestly profitable nich in New England’s flaxseed Trade…P 604 Indian Trade Knoxville; TN.According to Family tradition John Nevin of Couty Antrim. Landed in Charleston; SC; but soon moved west to Knoxville; the frontier capital of the new state of Tennessee. Admitted to the Union in 1796; by 1800 TN had nearly 106;000 inhabitants; about a third of Scots-Irish descent; concentrated primarily in the mountainous east; along the tributaries of the Tennessee River. Knoxville’s population was merely one thousand; but its merchants conducted a lively trade in flour; cotton; and whiskey with New Orleans; via the Thennessee; Ohio; and Mississippi rivers; and sent huge droves of cattle and hogs to eastern searports. Nevin became and Indian Trader; licensed by the War Department to trade along the Tennesse River with the Cherokees and Creeks; exchanging flour and what he called “other articles’ (probably-and illegally-including whiskey) for the cattle that he drove down the French Broad River into North and South Carolina; probably encountering James Pattonns brother in law; Andrew Erwind of Asheville en route. From Knoxville in 1804 John Nevin wrote to his siblings his only surviving letter from the new World. To his brother James in Kilmoyle; Nevin rejoiced that he now lived under “a Real Republickan Government and the Best in the Woreld” thanks to the election of 1800 of Thomas Jefferson; whose patronage to former United Irishmen probably aided Neving to secure his trading license. However; although Nevin’s letter suggests no estrangement from the Indians; he was clearly disturbed by the religious behavior of the local Scots—Irish and other settlers; as their frenzied revivals; spared by the recent camp meetings at nearby Can Ridge; Ky deeply offended his faith in a “ God of Order and not of Confusion’ follows letter.Letter is 2 pages he mentions having seen a M Stewart from the Garden a few days a Go on his way to Natchez which left Ireland in Nov (muct be a ship.)…..You mentioned your desire to know my Business in the Ingin Nation and also in Charelston in South Carolina I went Down the Tennessee river with a Boat Loaded withFlower and a Number of other articles Sold that to the Ingis Bouught Steers off them And after stallfeeding the oxen Drove them to Charelston-And I just Now am waiting the Arrival of a Boat I have Bough to Go Down the river again and Expects to go in three Days from Now-No Dout you will think that a Dreadful Business to Tread (Trade) with the Ingins But you are Intirely Missinformed Respecting the Tread you Expect that we that Go there must have Ingi wifes- True the white Men that Lives in the Nation has Mostely red women but that is their Pleasure (desire; choice). I have my Licence from the Agent of War for one year and I can gGo and Come at my pleasure During that Term without. Either woman or Man or what company I see Cause to Take along.. continues discussing religion.10 John Rea; 1765P82Although family ties and the market for indentured servants were of primary importance in encouraging or facilitating early Irish Migration; some movements from Ulster to colonial America were organized and promoted as business ventures by Colonial land speculators and their Irish agents. The cooperation of the brothers John and Matthew Rea (or Rae) offers and excellent example of this pattern The eldest son of David Rea; a farmer at Bally creen; John Rea was born about 1708 and raised near the linen market town of Ballynahinch; in the religiously mixed parish of Magheradrool; in the barony of Kinelarty; County Down;. By 1764 his brother Matthew lived twen miles north in the solidly Presbyterian parish of Brumbo.1 Upper Castlereigh baron; in the Lagan Valley near Lisburn2. In 1734 john Rea and his wife; Catherine emigrated to Savannah and settled on the Georgia frontier; where he became a prosperous rancher and Indian trader; dealing with the Creeks and Cherokees in his private fort near Augusta and investing his profits in cattle; land speculation; and slaves.4 As he aged hie withdrew from the “Fatigue” of frontier trading; left a half-brother ; Robert; in charge of his Augusta concerns; and moved south to the viciity of Savannah; where in 1760 he purchased an estate; Rea’s Hall; managed his rice plantations and other businesses in and around the colonial capital and earned the title “Esquire” by serving as justice of the peace as well as an occasional term in the Georgia Assembly. After 1763; when the Peace of Paris ended Spanish threats to Georgia’s borders; Rea and another Ulster-born Indian Trader; George Galphin(d1780); developed a scheme to colonize Ulster settlers in the empty lands along the Ogeechee River; forty miles southwest of Augusta and the South Carolina border; following precedents set in 1731 and 1761 when South Carolina’s colonial legislature had made land grants to attract Ulster Protestants and other colonists to frontier regions. In 1764-1766 Georgia’s Assembly adopted a similar policy; to extend the colony’s narrow band of settlement along the Savannah River westward; and in 1764-65 Rea and Galphin secured land Grants totaling about eight thousand acres along Lamberts Creek; just across the Ogeechee from the Indian territories. Immediately Rea began his promotional efforts; which included the following letter that. His Irish brother Matthew published in the 3 Sept 1765 Issue of Ulster’s newpaper; the Belfast News-Letter; after appending his own assurances to prospective emigrants.3 Catherine Rea’smaiden name is not known; but she and John Rea had six; perhaps seven children; Jane (born 1739 married John Sommerville; later one of Rea’s business partners): John Jr (born ca 1740) William (Killed by Indians in 1760) Mary; Elizabeth; Isabella; and perhaps Peter. 4 as early as 1738 Rea; then a river trader between Savannah and Augusta; had joined in petitioning Georgia’s Trustees to legalize slavery; in 1739 Rea owned at least 36 slaves; and during the next decade he bought considerably more.P 83John Rea; Esq; Rea’s Hall; near Savannah; Georgia;To Mathew Rea; Drumbo Parish; County Down 15 May 1765 Rea’s Hall; May 15; 1765In my last lLetter to you by Way of Londo; I informed you that I had procured a Grant from the Governor and council of Georgia for fifty thousand Acres of Land in this Province; for any of my Friends and Country ment that have a Mind to come to this Country and bring their Families here to settle. The Land I have pitched upon lies on a find River called Ogichey; near to which I have my large Cow-pens of Cattle Settled; which will be very convenient for new-Comers-in; to be supplied with Milk Cows; I can also furnish them with horses and Mares; any Number they may want. I am likewise in Hopes of obtaining a Bounty at their Arrival; but as this is a young Colony; and of Course not rich; they cannot expect so much as Carolina gave to the People who come over with my Servants6 who are all well and hearty. The land I have chosen is very good for Wheat and any Kind of Grain; Indigo; Flax; and Hemp will grow to Great Perfection; and I do not know any Place better situate for a flourishing Township than this Place will be. Now; Brother; if you think a Number of good industrious Families will come over here I will do every Thing in my Power to assist them; for nothing will give me more Satisfaction than to be the Means of bringing my Friends to this Country of Freedom; there are no Rents; no Tithes here; only the King’s Quit Rent7 which is only two Shillings Sterl; per hundred Acres: Who would desire a cheaper Rent” WE have settled a firm Peace with the Indians around us and have agreed on Boundary Lines betwixt us and them; so that all Is settled with themThe Method of granting Lands to Settlers in this Country; is one hundred Acres to the Head of the Family; be they Man or Woman; and fifty acres to every Person in the Family; big and little. The Distance of this Township from the Sea will be about one hundred Miles; that is to say; the Town of Savannah where the Shipping8 comesN6 my servants: In the October and November 163 issues of the Belfast News-Letter; John Rea advertised for “six or eight young men; Tradesmen or Labourers; and two young women; well recommend for making good Butter and Cheese; both Men and Women well testified:. They will find the following Encouragement by applying to Matthew Rea of Drumbo; who is wrote to by said John for to pay their Passage and indent with each Person for Four Years Service: they will be paid 4 pounds Sterling yearly; Bed and Board; they are also to receive their own Bounty; which is four Pounds Sterling and one hundred Acres of Land for each Person” 7 Quit Rent: a small rent paid to the landlord; who was sometimes the sovereign in lieu of services8 Shipping: Ships (in particular; those calling regularly at a given port)P84 to; which is the Capital Town of the Province; and it grows very fast; and soon will be a great Place of Trade. I have Lots and Houses in Town; and Rea’s Hall is about 4 miles out of Town; but a Ship can come up the River Savannah to my door. And large boats go from hence to my House at Augusta; which is two hundred and seventy miles by Water.The Township is about forty miles from Augusta; near this way. (in this direction toward Savannah) Now I have told you the Encouragement (the attractions) and Situation of the Township. I now say something of the Climate: Which is that it is very hot for four Months June; July; August; and September; and in these last. People that live on the low Land near the Sea are subject to Fevers and Agues (chilles) but up high in the Country it is healthy and fine Springs of Good Water. Goes on some more if you have a need for more ref on John Rea I will type it later…..Concludes his township was called Queensborough and failed due to some changes in GA law before they arrived.“Despite Queensborough’s failure one thousand emigrants came to Savvannah on the six relevant voyages; and in the early 1770s Matthew Rea acted as agent for other sailgs to Charleston and continued his efforts to persuade those emigrants to move further south to GA. Between 1760 and 1770 the colony’s white population increased from around 9;000 to over 25;000 and by 1790 GA had a white population of 82;5000 and the highest proportion of inhabitants of Irish birth or ancestry in 13 states.My research in Georgia Area relates to Indian Trade later in Natchez Spanish West FloridaArthur Carney had a Cowpens in the Area mentioned below. Found in Bartrams Travels.[...][...]Page 81He lodged that night at a cowpens; identified by Francis Harper as belonging to Arthur Carney; a prominent planter in that sparsely settled region; planter in that sparsely settled region; later recruited by Lachlan McIntosh to ...raise a company in defense of the Georgia Borderlands.This after the Rev War. See below Gen Mcintosh I had already sent you ...0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. I found it very useful in that regardBy Rob BurgoonThis book consists of immigrants letters and commentary. It is a valuable insight to understanding the lives of the Irish in their new homes. I found it very useful in that regard.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Couldn't put the book down!By DanTransports you to the 1700's through the letters of people missing their family and filling them in on everything that is happening!A great way to get interested in history or to make history come alive!Also kinda cool that the first two letters were from an ancestor to Sheppard family relatives here in South Jersey!