Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan

Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan is a monumental and pathbreaking study of early Irish Protestant and Catholic migration to America. Through exhaustive research and sensitive analyses of the letters memoirs and other writings the authors describe the variety and vitality of early Irish immigrant experiences ranging from those of frontier farmers and seaport workers to revolutionaries and loyalists. Largely through the migrants own words it brings to life the networks work and experiences of these immigrants who shaped the formative stages of American society and its Irish communities. The authors explore why Irishmen and women left home and how they adapted to colonial and revolutionary America in the process creating modern Irish and Irish-American identities on the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean.