Broadside entitled 'Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope'

Commentary

This public notice begins: 'HER MAJESTY'S Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners HEREBY GIVE NOTICE, THAT they are prepared to receive applications from Persons of the Labouring Classes, who may be desirous of Emigrating to the CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, with the intention of working there for wages, but who are unable to defray the whole expense of their passage.' The notice is dated 20th January 1849, and was published by J. Durham of Dundee on behalf of the Government Emigration Office in Dundee.

This is a government notice inviting applications for assisted emigration to the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa. Emigration Societies were formed across the United Kingdom during the nineteenth century, to financially assist people who wished to emigrate to Canada, Australia, or Africa. The places most associated with assisted emigration schemes are Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. In these areas livelihoods were still heavily dependent on an unpredictable rural economy, and many landowners were keen to clear the land of people to develop large-scale livestock farming. This advertisement, however, is aimed at people in Dundee and Forfarshire.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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