| Title: | P. Kennedy, Strasburg, Virginia to Vere Foster. |
|---|---|
| ID | 1605 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Kennedy, P/8 |
| Year | 1855 |
| Sender | Kennedy, P. |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | Protestant |
| Origin | Strasburg, Virginia, USA |
| Destination | prob. Belfast, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Foster, Vere |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | re emigration |
| Source | D 3618/D/8/9a: Deposited by the Late Mrs A. C. May. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9102033 |
| Date | 19/03/1855 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by JM 16:11:1993. |
| Word Count | 2039 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Strasburg. Va. [Virginia?] U.S. America. March 19th 1855. Vere Foster Esqre Sir, I see, by the Freeman's Journal, you want some information for the use of Emigrants, who may be inclined to come to this country from Ireland, England, and Scotland. I will give you an idea, as correct as I can. This winter is the worst for labourers and mechanics, they had for these last twenty years. The labourers on the railroads, cannot make their board money, as they can get only 75 cents per day, and cannot work three days in the week during winter, on an average. They have to pay $2-50c for board per week, out of the above pay; consequently they are mostly in debt. The contractors keep stores, and the working men have to purchase there, at an advance of 30 percent, and sometimes 50 over what they could buy the same goods in the country stores. Some of the contractors are an unprincipled set, and will take every advantage of the poor man when wages are low, and employment scarce, and will in fact skin him, that is, he will have his work for half what he can get it done in the summer. The spring is near now, and the wages will improve to $1 or perhaps to $1-12 1/2 cents, but provisions are very high at present, and consequently board is high. In cities board is $3 per week. Respectable persons ought never come to this country, without a good deal of money, as they have a good deal to suffer. The hardworking man is wanted here, who is able to handle the pick and shovel. Idlers cannot get along; a good sensible labourer, will do well if he keep from whiskey. _ I have seen many a labouring man, who left Ireland with perhaps £1 in his pocket who is now worth perhaps $30,000, but still there is a heap of misery. Many a poor woman I have seen on bended knees and uplifted hands calling the curse of God on Irish Landlords, and the British Government, who have driven them from their homes to be kicked about in a foreign land, where there is but little compassion for the poor particularily [particularly?] of late, as there has been a storm raised against them, that surpassed anything yet in this country. This very storm was caused by a set of Foreign Preachers, sent here from Scotland and England. #PAGE 2 Foreign Scoundrels will go into the parts of cities, inhabited by the Irish, and will commence a crusade against their religion, then a fight will commence, a person will be killed, directly there is a cry raised against foreigners, and it has turned out now against Protestant as well as Papist, although it was first got up to upset the Catholics. Scotland has sent more of those scoundrels, and the English Bible Society has sent the balance, the north of Ireland a sample as bad and if not worse than the others. The Editor of The New York Herald, owned and edited by Bennett, the Scotchman has commenced a tirade against adopted citizins [citizens?], worse than a native American, and it is really a fact, that all the Know-Nothing papers are edited by foreign preachers, who do any kind of dirty work particularily [particularly?] if it is directed against Catholics, but now it has turned against all foreigners no matter what creed they belong to. The Scotch Angel Gahiel did his part of the work. The poor man who comes here without money is badly off, for here he cannot travel without money, but once in employment, he can get along. Travelling on railroads is very high; in Southern States it is about 6 cents per mile and walk, a working man cannot do, as he will get no place to stop at except he meets an Irishman's place. Canada, at present is a good place, a man can get land cheap, but he must have money to keep him 12 months, as he will have to wait 12 months before he can raise anything on his farm. The Western States are good as land is cheap, a person can get a farm in Wisconsin for a few dollars per acre. Illinois, the land is very low, also Missonia land can be bought in Va. [Virginia?] within 3 miles of Alexa [Alexandria?] for 30 dollars per acre, but the land is not very good; the Western States are the best. Servant girls can do well in this country, they get from $6 to 7 and sometimes $8 per month; they get easily $6 to 7 per month, - Houses are very high in this country. You cannot get any kind of a house less than $6 and sometimes $10 per month. Clothing is very high, cannot get a good suit of clothes less than $20, but a man can buy very cheap clothes in Jews' stores that would do well. Fuel or firewood is very high in cities, in fact everything is high for a poor man. Mechanics have no chance of getting employment in cities, as the Americans will #PAGE 3 not work with them, and at present it is worse than ever. Milliners are numerous, so are tailoresses, and are poorly paid. Shoemakers can do nothing here for some time, as they have to learn to work quick, for here a bootmaker will make three pair of boots per day, and you can buy boots cheaper here than in Europe. The best thing a foreigner can do when he comes to this country is to try to get a farm of land, he can get that any day if he only has money. Land is cheap every where, and when he lands in New York, he will get every information he wants from the Irish Immigrant Society, no matter what country he comes from; they have agreements made with the Western railroads and Steamboats to carry emigrants to the western country cheap. They can get their ticket in the office, and they will be protected from land sharks, who infest New York. The northern and southern states are not favourable to Immigrants, but if they have friends before them, so much the better for them, they can go at once to them, no matter whether in the North, or South, or West. There is one class of persons who receive countenance in England and Ireland, and those very fellows will do all in their power to enslave the poor Emigrant who is white, while he does everything in his power to raise funds to assist the slave that is well fed and well clothed - I mean the Yankees. Mrs Stowe & Co. who make money out of the Yankee speculation, did not care if all the slaves in America were in h__ [hell?], if she & Co, could fill their pockets for their own private use. I have been in Virginia for 4 1/2 years, and I say that the slave in Va. [Virginia?] is better fed and better clothed than the poor Irish farmer. Oh! it would be well for the Irish labourer if he was half as well fed and taken care of as the slave. The master has an interest in the slave, if he is sick, he sends for the best doctor for him: there may be a few bad masters, but compare the conduct of bad masters with the conduct of some of the Irish Landlords who will drive out his tenant on the roadside to starve and perish of hunger, or drive him to America among strangers to drive a miserable existence, while the bad slave holder will perhaps sell his slave to a good master. Many is the curse that has been heaped on England, by widows and orphans in this country for not #PAGE 4 protecting the poor tenantry of Ireland from the tyranny of the agent or bad landlord when they (England) have the power of making laws to protect them. I believe their prayers have been heard, and England has been tottering to her foundations, and I trust in God, the Russians will despatch the balance of her army, so that she shall be left without a soldier to assist the Irish murderers (Landlords) to eject any more of the poor industrious Irish tenantry out of the land of their birth, and put sheep and cows to graze, where before lived happy and comfortable, the poor family who had toiled to keep the landlord in comfort. Many of the young scions have been despatched by the Russian bayonet. I hope they will despatch the balance. I do not include the French army. No, they are too honourable in France. Louis Napoleon Buonaparte [Bonaparte?] will not let the people starve. The Yankees who go to Europe on speculation to make money, talk about slaves and get many ladies in England to give them money while perhaps poor girls starving within a mile of their place, and will not assist them, while the American slave is well fed, well clothed, and taken care of. The American slave will not work for his master unless he gets bread, coffee, and meat three times per day. This is a fact. I have seen it, and those are the people that England gives so much money to assist, while people are starving at their own doors. There is as much difference between a Northern or Yankee and a Southern slave-holder as there is between a robber and an honest man. A Yankee will do nothing except he will make money, or that he will get money by it, and he is into any speculation that he can make money, while the Southern man is independent, and will not stoop to any mean act. This is a fact, and the moment a Yankee lands on English soil, he ought to be spurned out of society, no matter what shape or garb he comes in, whether a preacher or not, for they will enslave the poor Emigrant, burn his house of worship, and do everything in their power to injure him, in order to forward their business, so it is in its respect to slaves, if they can make money by it, they are into it, not for the sake of the slave, but for the sake of lining their pockets. If the hatred against foreigners continue, and now it is on the increase, emigrants will have to remain at home, and not come to this country - as persecuted they will be here. - A man that wants to purchase land in this country, should come himself #PAGE 5 first, or send a friend, so that he could look, and buy his farm, and have it ready for his family to go into it. It will cost about $20 to go to the West from New York, perhaps cheaper, if they take a deck passage, it will not cost half so much. I am afraid some of the above may be disagreeable to you, - you may be an English Gentleman by birth, or perhaps an Irish Landlord; one thing, I believe you are an honest gentleman, who is trying to assist poor emigrants, no matter what country they are from, and that you have nothing to gain by your trouble, except the prayers of some Irish woman, or man - for an Irishman never forgets a good act done for him. May God in his mercy reward you and your family for the trouble you have taken on behalf of the poor stranger who is looking for a home in this ungrateful country, is the prayer of a poor ejected tenant of Ireland from the land of my birth. Respectfully - P. Kennedy. P.S. The Boston Pilot, published in New York is a good weekly paper, it is the organ of the Irish in this country, and has a circulation of 80,000 a week to all parts of the Union and has always letters from every state giving the price of land & the best localities to buy, and everything wanted by the Emigrant. It is owned and edited by P. Donaghue, and price to Europe is only $3 per year - It is published in the city of Boston. |
