Cohn, Raymond L.

OUR SYNOPSIS: Raymond L. Cohn foregrounds the sailing ship migration experiences of European immigrants to the antebellum United States. He emphasizes that the length of these journeys usually meant moves were permanent and that European mass migration to the U.S. began on sailing ships in this period. These two factors of permanence and size differentiate antebellum immigration from the steamship-driven postbellum migration patterns. Overall, he examines “the economic causes and effects of European immigration to the United States during the period of mass migration under sail, or between 1815 and 1860.” (2) He finds that “immigration raised the rate of economic growth in the antebellum United States in a variety of ways, from adding to the stock of labor to increasing entrepreneurship by adding to the capital stock.” (7) Cohn delves deeply into the economic data of antebellum migration, especially focusing on census data, to illuminate these arguments. He shows that most arrivals in the U.S. during this period came from Germany, Ireland, and Britain and analyzes each case. European immigration increased in the late 1820s due to population growth in Europe and increased journey affordability. Growth in arrivals surged to even greater heights from 1830 to 1860 due to a complex array of push and pull factors. While immigrants were primarily skilled workers in the early antebellum period, increasingly by the 1830s and especially by 1850 most were so-called unskilled workers fueling the surging industrial economies of the United States.