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Neal Campbell, Youngstown, Ohio, to brother, John Campbell, Dernagh parish, near Coalisland, Co. Tyrone, 30 October 1819
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Collection Campbell Letter
Title Neal Campbell, Youngstown, Ohio, to brother, John Campbell, Dernagh parish, near Coalisland, Co. Tyrone, 30 October 1819
Description This is an excellent letter, by a Catholic laborer from mid-Ulster, which encourages emigration and praises American economic opportunity and political freedom, interpreting the former as the natural result of republican ideals in practice. Campbell says that his relatives and former neighbors in Ireland demand "true accounts" of America, and so he provides detailed information about US economic conditions, wages in various occupations, land prices, prices of clothes, tools, etc. Surprisingly, however, Campbell never mentions the impact ofthe recent Panic of 1819. Is that because the Panic's effects had not yet been felt in eastern Ohio?-that's doubtful, given the Panic's dire effects of land prices and speculation. Or did Campbell suppress that and any other derogatory information about the US (except American women, whose "boldness" he did not appreciate)? Campbell also gives detailed information about immigration destinations and inland travel, mentioning Baltimore but focusing primarily on St. Andrews, Nova Scotia, and especially Quebec, where he himself had landed. He also provides advice on what his siblings and former neighbors should bring with them, both for their own use and to retail in America for profit. Campbell proclaims that industrious laborers can live in Ohio and other western states better than the wealthiest farmers in Tyrone. In America, he claimed, there was no parasitical aristocracy, but instead "universal freedom [and] equality," Ruthless landlords and perjuring informers could not live "under the shade of the tree of liberty." Oddly, he claims that the slave trade does not exist in Kentucky; that's his only reference to slavery. My suspicion is that Campbell was involved with the Defenders or Ribbon men in mid-Ulster, before his emigration. He appears to be a practicing Catholic, and notes the scarcity of Catholic chapels and clergy in his area (the nearest chapel was in Pittsburgh, 50 miles distant). However, he writes that this should not discourage his kinfolk and neighbors from emigrating.
Date 30/10/1819
Date Issued 27/03/2023
Resource Type Text
Archival Record Id p155/6/9
Publisher University of Galway
Extent 14pp
Topic Campbell Letter
Geographic Youngstown (city),Mahoning (county),Ohio,United States,Dernagh (townland),Tyrone (county),Ireland
Temporal Nineteenth century,Eighteen tens
Genre Transcript,Reproduction
Note Title, description and transcript text by Professor Kerby Miller.
Creator / Author Name Neal Campbell