Land and Labour

Land and Labour charts the controversial history of the Potters' Emigration Society from its founding in 1844 to its dissolution seven years later. The brainchild of a Welsh-born trade unionist and editor, William Evans, it was the most widely discussed project of its kind in the era of mass migration. The Society aimed to solve the problems of surplus labour by transforming potters into farmers on land acquired on the Wisconsin frontier. The study examines the industrial background to the emigration scheme, and the establishment of the first settlement in America, the duly named Pottersville. Short of funds and facing competition from Feargus O'Connor's Chartist Land Plan, in 1848 it widened its membership to other trades and regions, opening branches in Lancashire, Scotland, and London and other industrial communities. Over-ambition, relentless criticism and the inherent difficulties of long-distance colonisation brought about its collapse at the beginning of 1851. While many emigrant families remained and prospered, others found less success, with an undetermined number returning to Britain. Land and Labour is based on intensive research into British and American newspapers, passenger lists, census, manuscript, genealogical and other sources. Despite its failure, the potters' emigration scheme was not an unrealistic response to the anxieties and displacements wrought by industrialisation, including fears over mechanisation. Its history offers unique insight into working-class dreams of landed independence in the American West and significantly contributes to our understanding of the complex and contingent character of transatlantic emigration in the nineteenth century.