Des morts sur la Miramichi : réactions de la population à l’arrivée d’immigrants malades au Nouveau-Brunswick au milieu du XIXe siècle

Abstract

Early in the shipping season of 1847, an unanticipated schooner arrived in the Miramichi River, at Chatham. The Looshtauk ought to have gone to Quebec City, but fate intervened in the form of a devastating typhus epidemic on board. Historians have looked closely at the experiences of migrants who arrived at ports in a state of serious ill health during the nineteenth century. Yet to date there has been little discussion of the myriad ways in which the host communities established around immigrant-receiving ports were affected by, and responded to, the arrival of sick and dying newcomers. The arrival of these immigrants threatened communities with contagion, encouraged them to respond to instances of compelling human need, and provided them with opportunities for employment. This paper explores relations between host community and immigrant populations through the 1847 Looshtauk case study.