What is known about the voyage to the American colonies?
The answer to the question receives little attention in the histories of the Scotch-Irish that often begin with their arrival in the colonies, followed by accounts of westward migration. But what factors induced a person to emigrate, leaving family and friends behind? How would transportation be financed? And what were the conditions of a voyage lasting eight to ten weeks aboard eighteenth century sailing ships? To the Ulster Scot, the tie of their adopted Ulster was weak and the tradition of emigration strong. Their resentments did not themselves produce emigration, it helped the waverers to make their decision. Resentful as the Presbyterians were, it was scarcity of food and increases in rents that drove people from Ulster to a land where poverty was said to be unknown and where every man could become his own landlord. Life in America sounded better. The heaviest Ulster migrations between 1729 and 1771 took place in years of scarcity and famine. There were significant profits in the
