A Scottish Farmer in North America: Patrick Shirreff's Tour of 1833
Resolved to examine the prospect before his younger brother emigrated, Shirreff undertook an arduous perambulation of the United States and Canada. G.E. Mingay describes events.
The 1830’s saw the opening of a very active phase of British interest in North America, when the continent came to be viewed increasingly as a land of vast opportunities for farmers and artisans, and as a new and better home for surplus population. Westward emigration was encouraged by the government itself, by Scottish and Irish landlords, by American land companies, British trade unions, and the local authorities under the New Poor Law of 1834.
Letters were published from recent emigrants, specialized journals were devoted to providing information for would-be emigrants, agents of land companies called public meetings, and private travellers set down their varied impressions of the new world.
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