Stepping stones to the New World: Islandness and migration from Southeastern Ireland to Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and the Miramichi of New Brunswick 1700 - 1850

Abstract

The purpose of this case study is to investigate the role islands play in their own colonization and settlement by human societies. It examines the early nineteenth century colonization by Southeastern Irish of two islands – Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island – and a section of the mainland, the Miramichi River Valley of New Brunswick. The aim of this nissological (study of islands) examination is to increase the knowledge of the history of the Atlantic portion of British North America and the role islandness (characteristics of islands) played in this history. As Ian Ross Robertson warns, the history of an island cannot be understood without considering the role of the history and heritage of the ethnic groups that settled there.1 Furthermore, it cannot be understood without also studying the interactions of the settlers with their island environment or in their mainland environment. The methodology is to isolate the role of islandness by establishing the parameters of a “controlled” retrospective historical study based on the research of John J. Mannion.2 He examined the cultural transfer and adaptation of Southeastern Irish immigrants to Newfoundland Island, the Miramichi River Valley and an area near Peterborough, Ontario. This current study expands his methodology to Prince Edward Island and the additional role of islandness in the settlement of the three study areas. (The area near Peterborough is not included in this current study.) Following a chapter on Ireland, each study area has its own chapter, taking a brief look at the natural history of each study area and its history of European settlement with the focus on the Southeastern Irish in the first half of the nineteenth century. This includes an examination of the initial pattern of settlement, a brief description of the ethnic and social makeup of the study area and then a short focus on the elite controlled, resource-based economy of each study area. The final chapter makes comparisons of the study areas and draws conclusions about the effects of islandness on them. My thesis will attempt to show the actual effects of islandness on the historical development of the study areas. The significance of the inclusion of the Miramichi is that it acts as a control for the hypothesis: that for the Southeastern Irish migrants, the immigration experience, settlement patterns, ethnic and social makeup, and elite controlled primary resource economy on the islands, differed from their compatriots on the mainland, precisely because they had settled on islands with characteristics of islandness. By examining migrants who emigrated from the same place, for the same reasons, by the same means and about the same time period we are performing a controlled experimental study. The major conclusion to this research is that in fact the evidence does support the hypothesis - islandness did have an impact on the evolution of the settlement of the island