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The Immigration of Anna Bransen
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Arrival in America
One week ago my brother Shaun and I arrived in America, after a long voyage at sea. We decided to move here after our home was burned to the ground by Irish rebels, who are against us because we are their landlords, and they are not happy with us. We brought my mother's gold locket, and money hidden amoung our luggage. Today, Shaun and I bought a house of our own, after we sold the locket, and Shaun began work for in a bank, where he was accepted only for his money. But work is work. -
Pride and Prejudice
Something terrible has happened. Shaun was walking home from work tonight, and a group of five drunk men who believed in prejudice against the Irish beat him, and left him injured in the streets. He died of his injuries ten minutes after I found him. Now I am alone in America, and I have nothing. My money has run out after Shaun and I bought the house, and we relied on his money. I now live on the streets. And the prejudice lives on. -
Looking up
I began work in a hat factory just last week, and have been earning little. It is better than the streets though, as I have gotton board with a very kind Irish family who had a spare room. This hat factory is one of the few who will hire Irish, and there are many of us working here. Among the workers is a former Irish potato farmer named Tom O'Reilly, and I'm sure that he has fallen head over heels for me, and I for him. Just yesterday he asked me to marry him. And of course I said yes. -
Looking West
Nearly two years have gone by since I left Ireland, and what intresting year they have been. Today Tom proposed that we leave New York, and travel west to Washington, where there are many farming opprotunities. We have been working in the hat shop for a long while now, and nearly saved enough to start a new life in Washington. -
Moving West
Today we have left New York to start a new life in Washington State. But I know that the road will be long. Tom and I have nothing except the clothes on our backs, and the spare money hidden in our shoes. We have already felt resentment all around us in our traveling party. Even people in the same boat as us can't help but carrying on hating us for being Irish and Catholic. But things are looking up a bit. Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862, and Tom and I want to apply for it. -
The Ozark Mountains
We have reached the Ozark Mountains today, and oh, what sight. They are beutiful. Today Tom applied for job working on the railroad so that we can earn more money for the farm. We need everything that we can get. Although I wanted to go on west, I agreed to it, and we plan to stay for seven months. I will make myself useful around camp. Tom earns more than he was in the hat factory, but I don't like it. Tom has to do the most dangerous jobs, and there is always the feeling of hate around us. -
Washington
We are here. In Washington, finally! We have settled in the Columbia Basin, where other Irish have set up one of the first agruculteral communities. It is so beutiful here. Tom and I have now got an application free plot of land, and we have marked it all out. It is perfect. We have advertised it in the paper, and tomorrow the race for the land will start. -
Home
We have our land. There were only one other challenger for the land, but we outraced them. Now we have our whole future ahead of us, Tom and I, and we intend to make a new life for ourselves here. Oh, how far and away I am from Ireland. Washington really is quite remarkable, only just today I saw a strange four-legged creature with horns. The land officer said it was a deer. -
The future
We have been successful. The farm has flourished, and we are earning more then two years worth of hat making combined in a year. Of course, there are hardships, such as flooding, and fire, and the occasional misquito bite, but we have secured a future for ourselves,Tom and I. By now Tom and I have four children; Mary, the eldest, then Liam, Catherine, and one year old Patrick. They all love it here.
