Abstract
For an essay on quality of immigrant life in the age of sail objective data are rare. Here, a process of estimation is enhanced, and qualified, using stages of the emigration process. Two journals of the era, those of Scots, Janet Schaw, and John Harrower, provide a personal link to events in the three-stage model of the experiences of travelers, many of whom were indentured servants. With the information from the Scots’ journals and a stochastic model of emigration we come a little closer to understanding the quality of life experienced by vital, energetic people seeking a higher quality of life across the Atlantic, in the age of sail.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: John Harrower’s Wife and Bairns and the Plight of an Emigrant Male’s Dependents
John Graunt’s Life Table
Viz of 100 there dies within the first six years … 36 The next ten years, or Decade … 24 The second Decad … 15. The third Decad…08 The Fourth … 6 the next …3 The next …2 The next …1
From whence it follows, that of the said 100 conceived there remains alive at six years end 64. At Sixteen years end … 40 At 26… 25
At tirty (sic) … 16 At Fourty six …10 At fifty six …6 At sixty six …3 At seventy six…1 At eighty …()
(Graunt, 1662, p. 70)
Appendix 2: Numerical Estimate of Females Indentured to America, Quality of Life
Domain | Rating | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
−2 | −1 | 0 | +1 | +2 | |
Gender (M) | ☹ | ||||
Skills | ☹ | ||||
Single | ☺ | ||||
Convicted | |||||
Assets | ☺ | ||||
English-speaking | ☺ | ||||
Prior health | ☹ | ||||
Nearby port | ☺ | ||||
New climate | ? | ☺ | |||
Food at hand | ☺ | ||||
Barber-surgeon, physician, herbalist, et alii | ☺ | ||||
Sturdy vessel | ☺ | ||||
Kith and kin | ☺ | ||||
Property | ☺ | ||||
Urban settlement | ☺ | ||||
Appendix 3: Numerical Estimate of Males Indentured to America, Quality of Life
Domain | Rating | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
−2 | −1 | 0 | +1 | +2 | |
Gender (M) | ☺ | ||||
Skills | ◯ | ||||
Single | ☺ | ||||
Convicted | ☹ | ||||
Assets | ☺ | ||||
English-speaking | ☺ | ||||
Health | ◯ | ||||
Weather | ◯ | ||||
Nearby port | ☺ | ||||
Food at hand | ☺ | ||||
Barber/surgeon | ☺ | ||||
Sturdy vessel | ☺ | ||||
Kith and kin | ☺ | ||||
Property | ◯ | ||||
Urban settlement | ☺ | ||||
Indenture | |||||
– Discharged | |||||
– Fled | ☺ | ||||
– Cheated | ☹ | ||||
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Jordan, T. (2020). Seventeenth Century Immigrants to North America. In: Quality of Life and Early British Migration. SpringerBriefs in Well-Being and Quality of Life Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33077-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33077-4_2
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