The Land of Promise
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1718 Emigration
Good day to you. I bring you greetings from Merrymeeting Bay in Maine on the east coast of America.
My name is Summersett McFadden and I live here at Merrymeeting Bay. I was born here, but my parents and older brother Andrew are from a part of Ireland called Ulster. My mother and father told me a lot about Ulster and why they decided to come to America, what the journey was like and what happened when they arrived.
I’d like to share this story with you.
My parents lived in a town called Garvagh, not far from a place called Somerset on the River Bann near the town of Coleraine. Our new home in Merrymeeting Bay reminded them so much of that place that they named me after it. They travelled here with many other families in the community. When they settled here, they named places here after places in Ulster.
Read My Story
Faced with religious intolerance and hardship, families and communities left Ulster to settle in America.
The journey by sailing boat was long and uncomfortable. The weather was dreich, food was scarce, fresh water was limited.
New opportunities awaited the settlers but many challenges remained as they established themselves on the frontier of a new land.
Useful Links
A range of more 20 multimedia classroom based activities available of the Ulster-Scots Agency’s Learning Platform
A number of primary schools in Northern Ireland have been involved in a pilot programme involving teaching ‘Land of Promise’ – a curriculum-based teaching and learning experience developed by the Ulster-Scots Agency based on 18th century migration of Ulster-Scots to the north-east of America (present day Maine).
