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Newfoundland Potato Famine

At the time of the Great Famine in Ireland, a famine caused by the same potato blight struck what was then the British colony of Newfoundland. The two islands, similar in size and latitude, and facing each other on opposite sides of the Atlantic, had something else in common: both depended heavily on this single agricultural crop. Though acute, the famine in Newfoundland spanned a fewer number of years than the Irish Famine, which extended from 1845 to 1852. Beginning a year late in 1846, it ended with the prosperity of the local fisheries in the spring and summer of 1848.

Background and Context
The first known outbreak of the potato blight, phytophthora infestans, occurred in the eastern United States in 1843. As the blight spread to the north, it also crossed the ocean, reaching the potato fields of Ireland in September 1845, three months before completing its journey along the American coast and arriving on the southern shore of Newfoundland.

Although the blight destroyed potato crops throughout North America and Europe, most of the populated regions in the Northern Hemisphere maintained an agricultural diversity sufficient to withstand the loss of the potato. Ireland, however, suffered severely, with millions relying on the potato as nearly their sole source of sustenance. Newfoundland, much like Ireland, relied heavily on its potato crop but also received the benefits of its bountiful fisheries (seals in the spring, cod in the summer).

Prelude to Disaster

The famine in Newfoundland was preceded by an unusual train of disasters that greatly aggravated the effects of the blight when it arrived. The returns from the annual seal hunt in the spring of 1846 had been disappointing. In June a major fire in the capital of St. John's destroyed its waterfront and most of its mercantile premises. As the summer progressed, the returns from the seal hunt were matched by an equally unsuccessful cod fishery. Then, three months later, an unusually strong gale swept across the island, destroying fishing premises, boats and supplies, including winter provisions. With its mercantile establishments already in ashes, St. John's businesses were unable to deliver the supplies to the smaller villages that were essential to recovery from the series of disasters and to preparation for the harsh Newfoundland winter.

By December 1846, even before the blight had spread throughout the colony, numerous communities were reported to be without food, and there was little hope for the timely arrival of relief.(11) Most if not all of the island was inaccessible throughout the winter, with harbors frozen until the following spring, and the colony had no means of communicating with either Europe or mainland America.

Failure of the Fisheries When harbors re-opened in the spring of 1847, the traditional seal hunt began with thousands of Newfoundlanders sailing to the ice fields, in spite of having to labor under an acute shortage of provisions. Much as in the previous spring, many found no seals and returned to shore, several months later, "without a morsel of food or a penny in their pockets." This second unsuccessful seal hunt was followed by a summer cod fishery that was also as dismal as the previous year. With the failure of its fisheries for the second consecutive year, the population of Newfoundland fell into the same precarious position as those in Ireland, dependent for sustenance on a single agricultural crop.

Progress of the Blight

Until the fall of 1847, the potato blight in Newfoundland had been limited to its southern shore. In September, however, the disease rapidly advanced from the south coast and swept across the island, destroying the last significant source of nutrition. Potato fields that "had never been known to fail" were turned into wastelands. As the fall progressed, the potatoes that had been harvested while healthy suddenly succumbed to blight in storage. As the editor of the Harbour Grace newspaper stated, "The potatoes are gone; literally vanished; they are left undug; or thrown up in putrid heaps, poisonous to the very hogs that are suffered to touch them."

Arrival of the Irish

Compounding the tragedy that was unfolding in Newfoundland was the arrival of ships from Ireland filled with emaciated passengers who, hoping they had escaped starvation in the villages they left behind,  found that they had landed in a colony that itself was facing a severe shortage of food……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Failure of Relief Efforts

In November 1847, upon the total failure of the potato crop, the American missionary Robert Traill Spence Lowell made a widespread plea for relief. In correspondence to U.S. newspapers, Lowell described the Newfoundland fishery as "a deplorable failure" and wrote of the potato blight's "fearful ravages of the only staple crop on the Island." He urged the American people, in raising funds for the famished in Ireland, to "not turn away from the appeal of the wretched much nearer home."

Similarly, the editor of the Harbour Grace newspaper described the conditions in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, writing that "[T]housands of our population in this bay are in a starving condition – that it is painful – distressing – harrowing to meet them in the street – to have them at our doors -- to see them fainting at our hearths."

As one solution, the Colonial Governor proposed that the famished eat less, declaring a "Day of Public Fasting and Humiliation" in hopes the Almighty may pardon their sins and "withdraw his afflicting hand." Editors of most Newfoundland newspapers agreed and blamed the famine on the human weaknesses of indolence and improvidence. Many urged the denial of government relief, otherwise "the whole of the lower classes will become beggars by profession, and every principle of independence destroyed."

Comparison with the Irish Famine

In some respects, the Newfoundland potato famine differed significantly from the Great Famine in Ireland. Less burdened by overpopulation, Newfoundland didn't experience the mass evictions and emigration that dramatically impacted the Irish in the wake of the famine. Recovery in Newfoundland began sooner, with a successful seal hunt followed by the return of large quantities of cod in 1848; and, despite a return of the blight in the fall of 1848, recovery in Newfoundland was faster and its long-term impact less acute.

In other respects, the two famines were similar. Both experienced the same blight at the same time. At the height of starvation, both islands exported large quantities of food (grain from Ireland, fish from Newfoundland). The position of government leaders and the newspapers that reflected their views were strikingly similar, with the Times of London and the Times of St. John's both insisting that the famine was a gift from Providence, sent to cure the moral defects of an indolent people.

The deaths from the Great Famine in Ireland have been estimated to be in the range of one million, with two million more Irish leaving for other lands. The number of deaths in Newfoundland is unknown.