Panic of 1819

Austin had been involved in lead mining and banking in Missouri.

And like a lot of Americans, he was hit hard by the Panic of 1819.

He needed another opportunity.

And Texas looked like one.

Austin returned to East and began advertising.

And people responded.

Why wouldn't they? America was still recovering from the panic of 1819.

People had lost farms.

It's 1818.

What changes, Kirby? Well, I was just thinking, as Brendan was reading the letter, the one thing that changes is just one year later, one year after Poland would have written that letter, the United States experienced its first major financial crash and its first major industrial and agricultural depression, the great panic of 1819.

And there's another letter that we have in the book, which is written by a fellow named McIntyre, as I recall.

And he describes how how thousands of people are walking the streets of Philadelphia and New York and unable to find employment.

You know, 10 years later, he's living on a nice farm and working as a craftsman in upstate New York.

So it worked out.

But the panic of 1819, I discovered in many, many letters, was sort of the beginning of a cycle of enthusiasm versus disillusionment among Irish immigrants because their lives were so dependent upon the, you know, the employment market.

that was available or not available, depended as well on the price of land.