Introduction to Immigration and Migration Prior to 1845

From 1750 to 1845, emigrants to the United States predominantly came from the nations of Western Europe. Before the American Revolution, most were from Great Britain—then composed of England, Scotland, Wales, Ulster, and Ireland. By 1790, Germans were the second largest immigrant group in the United States. Revolution, warfare, crop failures, economic instability, and religious and political persecution fueled immigration to the Americas from 1790 to 1845. Whether fleeing revolution in France or following economic opportunity from the ports of Holland to the streets of New York, immigration to the fledgling United States boomed bringing. From 1812 to 1850, nearly five million immigrants arrived in the United States.

This chapter features a range of sources from informational pamphlets for newly arrived immigrants to immigrant narratives. Also included is a brief survey of the first attempts to address immigration through U.S. law and policy.

While many emigrated voluntarily, many more individuals were forced to migrate to Europe and the New World. This chapter covers the zenith, and the eventual curtailment, of the trans-Atlantic African slave trade. No accurate records exist that document the number of African slaves brought to the Americas; many historians estimate between ten and fifteen million. "Plan of a Slave Ship's Hold" illustrates one of the many horrors of the slave trade, the dreaded Middle Passage across the Atlantic that claimed over three million lives.

Convicts and prisoners also became forced migrants during this period. Some English convicts were sentenced to penal colonies in Australia (as in "The Arrival of Prisoners at Botany Bay Penal Colony"); others were given the option of prison in England or exile to convict colonies abroad. Some convicts were given the option of indentured servitude as an alternative to prison. "Freedom from Indenture or Prison in Australia" features the reward for those who survived their tenure, freedom papers noting the fulfillment of the indenture and repayment of passage. In exchange for paid passage abroad, thousands of emigrants also signed voluntary contracts of indenture.