July 5th, 1847: The United States, while generous in sending food to Ireland, is unwilling at this time to become the home of the diseased and the destitute. Congress has virtually closed US ports to such immigrants.
New York and Boston are empowered to require masters of vessels to give a financial guarantee that no passenger will become a burden on the community. Boston also refuses to give ships carrying sick passengers permission to enter the harbour. Irish Catholics are regarded "with commiseration but also with disgust".
The despair of emigrants who, having endured the hardships of an Atlantic crossing in a crowded sailing ship, are ordered to put to sea again, breaks out in violence. The brig Seraph, for instance, with 118 cases of fever on board, is turned away from Boston. Her passengers are in such a state of starvation that the British consul provides food supplies. When ordered off to St John, New Brunswick, "or some other British port", the passengers try to land but are driven back on board.
Another ship, the brig Mary, also from Cork, is refused permission to land passengers and ordered to go on to Halifax in Nova Scotia. The passengers riot and cutlasses are drawn before the disturbance is quelled.
As a result of these defensive measures, the fever-stricken are almost invariably landed on the shores of British North America. But thousands of Irish cross into the US, "notwithstanding the exertions used to prevent their entrance there", writes a New Brunswick emigration officer. In his experience half the survivors of the Canadian epidemic make their way south of the border.
Able-bodied men go first. If they establish themselves in the US, their families will join them; if not, the families remain a permanent charge on Canadian charity.
Meanwhile, nine vessels have left Sligo carrying tenants from the estates of Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary. The first ship to arrive in St John raises a storm of protest; it is alleged that the Eliza Liddell has brought to the colony only widows with young children, and the decrepit.
George Mountain, Anglican bishop of Montreal, is touched by the plight of children during a visit to Grosse Ile. Among the dozens of waifs, two particularly catch his attention: a dying child, covered with vermin, in one of the tents; and the body of a little boy, who sat down to rest under a tree and died.
Up to 2,000 children are orphaned. Father Charles-Felix Cazeau, "priest of the Irish", oversees their future. While Catholic charities in Montreal and Quebec take charge of the children, priests go on circuit in the province urging parishioners to adopt them. Many orphans adopted by French- Canadian families are, magnanimously, allowed to retain their Irish surnames.