Series 1 - John McBride letters

2 sub-series

Kerby A. Miller created his transcripts of the John McBride Letters from photocopies held in PRONI [reference number T2613].

The John McBride letters are based principally on Kerby A. Miller's typescripts of 16 letters written from North America either to James McBride, Sr., or James McBride, Jr., in 1819-1827 and 1848-1849. Most letters were written in 1819-27 by the former's son and the latter's brother, John McBride, a cotton weaver who emigrated in 1819 and lived and worked first in Patterson, New Jersey, but primarily in Watertown, Jefferson County, in upstate New York.
Per Miller, 'the letters in the John McBride Collection illuminate:

1. Economic and social conditions in the US and Ireland, including:
   a. The development of cotton manufacturing, especially handloom weaving, in the US, Ireland, and Scotland in the 1820s.
   b. The effects of economic depressions in the US (the Panic of 1819) and in Ireland.
   c. Labor disputes, between weavers and masters, in the US cotton industry.
   d. Skilled immigrants striving for ""independence"" (steady work, security, home, farm) in 1820s America.
   e. Farming in the US: advantages, obstacles, etc.
2. Irish immigrants' letters home: their role in encouraging further immigration; their reputation for trustworthiness or deception; blamed for luring unhappy immigrants to America.
3. Male emigration to escape responsibility for a wronged (and pregnant) woman.
4. Contrasts between US and Irish societies, governments, politics, land systems, opportunities, etc., to America's advantage. Immigrant eulogies of US prosperity, progress, liberty, religious tolerance, etc.
5. Great Famine immigration: its negative impact on the US unskilled labor market.'
   The series also includes the PRONI calendar of the McBride letters; Miller's research correspondence, primarily with archivists in Watertown, New York; Miller's research notes, mostly from Irish primary sources; and photocopied pages of histories of Irish and American cotton manufacturing, 1750-1850; of Patterson, New Jersey; and of Watertown and Jefferson County, New York.