ABSTRACT
The Joseph Cree letters are rather sad to read. The letter of 14 November 1848, written from Liverpool, records the dire and desperate circumstances of those who stayed behind in England and were suffering the economic troubles of the ‘hungry forties’. They could not even afford the postage to write sooner, and they are now terribly distressed, needing to sell off their hay crop to pay the rent. Their father was very poor and going downhill fast, but the family ‘cannot think of leaving him now he as [has] nothing. He has not a friend.’ ‘Everybody is getting poorer in this country’. The letter of 21 December 1853 is written by the brother and sister who stayed behind in England. They were comforting their ageing parents, and remark that ‘Times are very hard … trade is at a standstill’, this in spite of the fact that the British economy as a whole had improved by this time very markedly. They are grateful for the money that will be sent from America, and say ‘I should feel very much gratified to think I had one Brother that was a landholder’ in America.
