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Thomas Kelly's Letter from Ohio (1828)

Emigration
1828

In 1827, Thomas Kelly wrote home from Ohio. His letter, published in the Manx Sun on 18 March 1828, was both an invitation and an indictment. He reported that a labouring man could earn in two days enough to keep a family of seven or eight for a week, and that the girls did not work in dunghills like slaves as they did on the Island. He named names — McCrone, the Duke of Atholl's chief tithe proctor. Every comparison between Ohio and Mann was a silent accusation of what Mann had become. Kelly dropped into Manx twice in the letter, the habits of a bilingual mind writing to people who would understand both languages. He recorded that on the first night thirty-three Manx people were in his house, and that Manx was spoken in plenty. The letter was read aloud, as such letters always were, and published in the newspaper — read again in homes and chapels across the northern parishes.

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Key People

Sources

  • Manx Sun, 18 March 1828
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