ABSTRACT
William Watts wrote these letters from his new home in Ypsilanti, Michigan, to his family and friends. They are classic immigrant stories, with details about the voyage from London, the traumatic fight between the ship captain and sailors, sea sickness, the quarantine upon arrival and detailed observations of their entry into New York City. Most significantly, Watts observes that some of his fellow English immigrants ‘were hired before they left the ship, others got work directly’. Also, Watts attended a Methodist Chapel, in which he ‘saw several Englishmen’, a good indication of how the church was a source of familiar culture and adjustment. In other places he refers to other English immigrants; clearly he did not feel totally alien in the new land. Careful observations of Michigan immediately before its statehood in 1837 and the wages and conditions of labour make these letters especially valuable. And Watts’s detailed account of his wife’s illness, death and burial, and the support of his neighbours, adds drama and context.
