EARLY FIGURES OF IMMIGRATION

1807 -1848

The principal immigration, in 1807, and some years fol¬
lowing it, was from Ireland, but in comparison with the
number it has since reached was quite insignificant—but
still so considerable, that it was a subject of comment in
our newspapers, as the large increase of immigration. In the
year 1817, the immigration at this port amounted to 7,634.
In the year 1819, the Hon. C. D. Colden, Mayor of the
city, in answer to inquiries made by a committee of the
Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, stated, that from
the 1st day of March 1818, to the 1st day of November
1819, 18,930 foreign immigrants arrived in the city of New
York, and were reported at his office, being a period of
20 months, or an average of nearly 947 per month, making
for 10 months in 1818, 9,465 ; and for 10 months in 1819,
9,465. In the year 1820, the immigration amounted only to
4,662. The writer has no data by which to account for this
apparent falling off, except that in 1819, there was a slight
revulsion in business, which doubtless, affected the immi¬
gration of 1820. In that year the total population had only
reached 123,706, and on the completion of the New York
and Erie Canal in 1825, the population amounted to 168,000.
From that time forward, immigration gradually began to in¬
crease, until the French revolution of 1830 and the troubles
which followed in different parts of Europe, in Warsaw,
Antwerp, &c., caused a more rapid increase; so that in 1831,
1832, and 1833, the writer from his place of business in
South street, opposite Albany basin, has seen many ship¬
loads of passengers, comprising whole families of men,
women, and children, with their household goods, their
farming utensils, wagons, &c., bivouac for days and
nights on the wharf, until the towboats from Albany
were ready to leave with them on their journey to the
West. Many of these immigrants were Swiss and French,
from the province of Alsace, on the Rhine, and some of
the smaller German states. In this tide of immigration,
many preferred remaining in our city; and in the east¬
ern section of it, may now be found a large German
population, with all the habits and manners of their own
country. The immigrants with means, generally preferred
going West with their families, purchasing land and
working it. Many, in a few years, have become inde¬
pendent  and  wealthy.

[265]