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The Great Migration from
the north of Ireland (Ulster) to America began in 1717. In some instances
Ulster families had immigrated to the New World before 1717, but those
instances were few and isolated.
Some families left Ulster
in search of religious freedom, but most left in response to economic
hardships. The English Parliament began to impose trade restrictions on
the manufacture and sale of woolen articles in the late-1690s. Up to that
time, Ulster had thrived on her wool and linen industries and had
prospered more than any other province in Ireland. The arrival of the
French Huguenots (French Reformed Church) in the 1680s to Ulster had
strengthened her already strong wool industry by introducing some new
methods for the manufacture of linen from flax. The prosperity Ulster was
experiencing was seen as a threat by the English who, in 1698, petitioned
the King to protect their own interests. The Irish Parliament, at the
King's urging, passed the Woolens Act in the following year. The Woolens
Act prohibited the exportation of Irish wool and cloth to anywhere except
England and Wales. The Woolens Act resulted in a period of economic
depression throughout Ulster.
Coupled with the economic
hardships spawned by the Woolens Act, was a legal practice known as
rack-renting which was instituted in the early-1700s. Rack-renting was the
practice whereby a renter could legally raise the rent when a lease had
run out. Although that practice does not seem unusual in this day and age,
it was quite a departure from the traditional practice during the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The traditional practice was for a
lease to run approximately thirty years with the option of being renewed
at the same rate. The renter would be inclined to improve the property
under the assumption that he would be able to reside there indefinitely
and then pass the lease on to his own sons. Money was hard to come by and
rack-renting forced many renters to default on their payments. A
widespread hatred of the practice and those landlords who employed it
swept through Ulster. Having received favorable reports from others who
had gone to America, many families resolved to leave Ireland.
The final development which led to the Great
Migration came in the form of a severe drought that stretched from 1714 to
1719. The drought affected not only food crops, but also hindered the
growing of flax and thereby adversely affected the linen industry. Lack of
sufficient grass for grazing, and the disease known as rot, killed the
sheep needed by the wool industry. Most Ulster families came because of
the droughts and the failing economy in their homeland. Altogether, nearly
250,000 people, mostly Protestant and primarily the descendants of
Lowland/Border Scots and Northern English who had settled in Ulster
earlier, left Ulster and sailed for America between 1717 and 1775. They
initially chose the colony of Pennsylvania as their destination but later
moved on to the southern colonies in search of cheaper land. Their
contribution to the founding of our republic was incalculable. |
