Eyewitness - Grosse Ile - 1847 

Les Éditions Livres Carraig Books, 1995, 438 pages

Historical volume.

Description :

Monograph published by Carraig Books and available in French under the title Les témoins parlent - Grosse Île 1847 at the same Publishing House. This book describes the year 1847 at the quarantine station of Grosse Île. That year, forced by the famine caused by a virus attacking potatoes, Irishmen, mainly small farmers fled their country and emigrated to America and particularly to Canada. Sick and poor, most immigrants were victims of typhus. Many died either at sea, or waiting to go ashore at Grosse Île or in the hospitals of the island.

The authors, Marianna O'Gallagher and Rose Masson Dompierre based their book on serious and extensive research. They included numerous original documents : letters of missionaries holding a post at Grosse Île in 1847, correspondence between religious and civil authorities, newspaper articles, Catholic and Anglican registers of Grosse Île, the list of passenger ships coming to Quebec, reports of the Executive Council of Lower Canada, of Dr Douglas, superintendent of the quarantine station of Grosse Île and of Mr Buchanan, Chief immigration officer of Quebec.

Based on authentic references, the conditions prevalent in 1847 regarding the reception of the immigrants and the ensuing results are well described. One can appreciate the generosity of Quebecers in these tragic circumstances.

Excerpt :

The priests wrote frequent letters to their bishops describing the every day occurences at the Grosse Île quarantine in 1847. It was a cruel, dramatic, urgent situation that plunged these men into a profound sense of powerlessness in their encounter with need of every kind on every hand.

Bernard McGauran, May 24, 1847 :

The sight, My Lord, is heart-rending; once these hapless people are struck down by this strange malady, they lose all mental and physical powers and die in the most acute agony.

Elzéar-AlexandreTaschereau, June 3, 1847 :

I saw a child playing with the hand of his mother who had just died.

Bernard O'Reilly, July 23, 1847 :

A sick nurse named Garneau, from Quebec, being attacked by fever, remained three days in a shed, not having any other aid than that which she received from the charity of Mr. Harper, one of the Missionnaries; and thus this woman, like many others, paid with her life the kind offices she had bestowed on the emigrants.

Bishop George Jehoshaphat Mountain, June 1847 :

Three orphans in one little bed in corner of tent full of baggage and boxes, one of the three dead, lying by his sick sister.

Dr. George Mellis Douglas, July 30, 1847 :

On mustering the passagers from the Virginius for inspection yesterday, it was found that 106 were ill of fever...the few that were able to come on deck were ghastly yellow looking spectres, unshaven and hollow-cheeked, and without exception the worst looking passengers I have ever seen; not more than six or eight really healthy and able to exert themselves. The Capitain and the first mate are dying.

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