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Emigration and the Labouring Poor: Australian Recruitment in Britain and Ireland, 1831 60, by Robin F. Haines; pp. xvi + 397. London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, L47.50, $69.95.
Emigration histories, for the most part, can be divided into two groups: those that tell us about the number of arrivals and those that reveal the individual's experience of migration. Robin Haines, in her book Emigration and the Labouling Poor has successfully married these two styles.
Central to the supply of government-assisted emigrants to the Australian colonies was not only the arrival of a controlled stream of bodies, but assessments to determine whether each individual would become a valuable member of the new society. It is the "mechanics" of this emigration system which Haines examines. She traces emigrants from their initial decision to apply for a passage, and follows them through the turnstiles of applications, references, and medicals, until they boarded ship. At the same time, she examines the official and philanthropic bodies administering assistance, what they required from the emigrants, and what each organization provided in return.
Unlike passenger manifests for the United States or the inward shipping lists for the Australian colonies, records for government-assisted passengers to Australia are rich in detail. Commonly they contain name, sex, marital status, occupation, literacy (read and/or write), religion, and place of origin. Minutes of the local Poor Law Board of...