Shropshire Routes to Roots

3. A new life

Source

November 24 1850

I have had difficulties to encounter with and I had no one to advice me nor to help me when you come here you must not expect to find this country like England settled, it is principally wooded land here and I have 140 acres all wood but it is my own and if you come and like to farm as I farm you shall be made as comfortable as I am You shall have an house to your self and a situation to go to work at in some way so that you can make an honest living and be out of debt

[Shropshire Archive reference: 4543/5/3]

Questions

1. Why did John find his new life difficult?
2. What is the difference between the countryside where he is now, and that back in England?
3. How much land does he own now?
4. What will it be like for his brother when he comes across and starts out?

Background: Pioneers versus followers

Of course, The American Dream seems a much more solid idea now, than it must have done in the 1840s. For the pioneers who went over as the first members of their generation or family, the situation must have seemed overwhelming. Some travelled the three-thousand miles across the Atlantic, to find that they were so poor that they needed to borrow a shilling in order to cross the final hundred metres to shore. The hope that everything would be all right must have seemed a very faint one for those with empty pockets and stomaches.

Once there, however, comparisons with Britain were soon positive. Although on a personal level settlers must have missed their families at home, the financial and personal security brought by their move to America outweighed any sense of longing to be in Britain. By the 1860s, these immigrants were forced to recognise their new American identity when the America Civil War broke out.

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