Immigrant Trajectories through the Rural-Industrial Transition in Wales and the United States, 1795–1850

Abstract

Abstract This essay offers the first detailed geographical analysis of Welsh emigration and settlement in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. The analysis is based upon the wealth of geographical and historical information contained in 1,771 immigrant obituaries. They show that Welsh emigration was a predominantly rural phenomenon up to mid‐century, although emigration from industrial South Wales had begun by 1830 and important industrial settlements were well‐established in the States by 1850. These data also reveal distinctive regional historical geographies of emigration. The second half of the essay compares the spatial and social characteristics of rural and industrial migration by tracing patterns of internal migration in Wales and the United States and by examining the life‐paths of four individual migrants. This evidence suggests that many rural Welsh had some contact with industry and that their transition from an agricultural to an industrial way of life was more complex and prolonged than other studies have shown. In conclusion, the essay points to the need for further study of the rural‐industrial transition as a key aspect of the development of capitalism in rural places.

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