The famine ships : the Irish exodus to America Edward Laxton

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Laxton, Edward.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Irish Americans--History--19th century.

Irish Americans.

Immigrants--United States--History--19th century.

Immigrants.

Famines--Ireland--History--19th century.

Famines.

Ireland--History--Famine, 1845-1852.

Ireland.

United States--Emigration and immigration--History--19th century.

United States.

Ireland--Emigration and immigration--History--19th century.

Ocean travel--History--19th century.

Ocean travel.

Physical Description:

vi, 250 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Edition:

1st American ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Henry Holt, 1997.

Summary:

Between 1846 and 1851, more than one million people - the famine emigrants - sailed from Ireland to America. Never before had the world witnessed such an exodus. Now, 150 years later, The Famine Ships tells the story of the courage and determination of those who crossed the Atlantic in leaky, overcrowded sailing ships to make new lives for themselves, among them the child Henry Ford and twenty-six-year-old Patrick Kennedy, great-grandfather of John F. Kennedy. Tracing the history of these years, The Famine Ships focuses principally on the poignant individual stories, such as that of a parish priest from Wexford who led eighteen families across the Atlantic and up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to found Wexford, Iowa, where their descendants still live. Edward Laxton conducted five years of research in Ireland and among the immigrants' descendants in the United States and Canada to write this book. Superb color paintings by Rodney Charman, facsimile passenger lists, and reproductions of tickets are among the fascinating memorabilia represented in The Famine Ships. -- "Publisher's description."

Contents:

From Dublin's fair city

Catholic persecution

Land of the free

Hunger and exile

The voyage of the Jamestown and others

The fords of Fairlane

In Widow McCormack's cabbage patch

A noble rescue

Comfort for the convicts

Joy of my heart

Surviving the icebergs

Flags for convenience

On the way to the White House

The famine ships sail again

A miraculous escape

Life in America

From Wexford to Wexford

The smallest in the famine fleet

The absence of evidence

Finding a scapegoat

Ship's cook for a shilling

The brave men of Nantucket

Ireland forever.

Notes:

Originally published: Great Britain : Bloomsbury Pub., 1996.

Includes index.

ISBN:

0805053131

9780805053135

0747535000

9780747535003

OCLC:

37509632