November 16^th, 1839

My potato farm is doing well, I’ve never seen so many potatoes in one place. It’s almost as if the gods have smiled upon me. My wife, Chenoa, and my son, Oliver, are doing fine too, but my son doesn’t understand what labour is. I need to teach him some lessons every once in a while. It’s almost like he never learns. There I go again, rambling away about my son and his problems. I’ve heard about all these people on their way to Canada to start a new life and I’m beginning to think I should too. This potato farm is really profitable but I’ve heard stories about Canada and how there’s tons of land and lots of different opportunities to make profit. I’m pretty sure that we’re going to move to Canada soon, I just need a sign that it’s the right move from the gods. As of now though, the potato farm is going well, the family is still good, but my son needs to learn. If we stay here I can teach him how to farm potatoes, but if we move to Canada, I could teach him how to carve out his own piece of the world. Plus if we move to Canada we could build our own bigger house. As of now though we are living in a small shack just barely big enough for the whole of us. The only problem is, I’m not even sure that we’d make it there in one piece. The journey there is probably the hardest part of the trip. At least I know that when I get there I won’t be alone. I’ll have my family and together nothing is impossible.

August 18^th, 1840

It has been about a year since my last journal entry. A lot has happened since then. There is a new disease spreading around, and it is not just affecting people, it is affecting their crops. Some people are starting to call this disease the potato blight. Unfortunately my potatoes have been affected by this disease and my farm is not doing as well as it was a year ago. I think this is the sign I was talking about before when I was talking about immigrating to Canada. I’m ready to immigrate to Canada. My family doesn’t like the idea of immigrating but I think it will be worth it in the long run. I think I’ve convinced myself, I’m going to immigrate to Canada and bring my family with me. I love them and don’t know what my life would be like without them. They weren’t happy about the idea of moving before, but this time hopefully they won’t be. The trip over is the hardest part, after that, we get to carve our own piece out of Canada and have the entire rest of our life to make money and be happy. The people there all live in pretty much one community and rely on that. I can’t wait to move there. I have a feeling my wife and son would love it. Although I’m pretty sure my wife doesn’t like the way I teach my son. He never learns so I beat it into him. Ah that’s neither here nor there. I just think it’d be great to move to Canada. If I made it there I think I’d start a tobacco farm. That’s one of the things that sounds popular in Canada, Tobacco. I’m going to go find a way to get to Canada now. After that I plan to tell my family.

November 20^th 1841

I started the journey about 6 days ago and I can already tell, this is hell on Earth. My son and my wife were placed on a different boat. I was the last one placed on this boat. I protested but my wife and son said it was fine and they’d be on the next one. I don’t know if I’ll see them again. They seemed reluctant to come in the first place, I pretty much forced them to. When I get there I’m going to start a Tobacco farm. Carve out a piece of Canada and make it my own. That’s later though. For now I have to worry about surviving this goddamn boat over to Canada. It’s full of disease and hunger. The health regulations on this thing must be really bad. It’s almost as if there are none. The disease on this boat is terrible, the food is the worst and the water isn’t clean at all. There are almost a thousand people crammed into this small boat. I’ve asked the crew, and they said that the trip would take under a year. I’m really excited to get to Canada and see my family again. I wonder what their experience on the boat is like. I hope my wife is doing fine. The crew in this boat isn’t very nice. They keep forcing me to clean the main deck. I don’t know why they don’t have people hired to do this, but I do know that I got the last ticket and the cheapest one at that. I’m glad to have at least gotten on the boat. My one goal is to get to Canada and find my wife and son.

November 20^th, 1842

I finished that long, sickening journey from Ireland to Canada about a year ago. My wife and son were placed on a different boat, I think. They might have not come on the boat. I’ve been waiting at the dock for almost 3 months now. Around a month ago I assumed they were dead. I met someone. She helped me get through the fact that my Wife and son might be dead. I think I fell for her. She treated me with the utmost respect and honour. She is beautiful, way more beautiful than Chenoa. Her name is Teagan. I met her in a bar. She actually worked there and served me my drink. I think I might marry her. The loss of my wife and son affected me, but not as much as I thought it would. It felt like they were already out of my life even when they were right beside me. This Teagan woman though, she’s the one I plan to spend the rest of my life with. I know I said the same thing about Chenoa but they betrayed me. I was here on this dock for almost 2 years, I would go to the dock every single day 4 hours a day. I’m pretty sure that they either stayed in Ireland or died at this point. My wife never liked the way that I taught my son. He just never learned though, I always had to beat the answers into him. Never mind that though. I have to move on now. They are out of my life and it’s time to start a new life. There’s not actually a lot of land here. Most of the good land is taken by the crown or clergy and the other land is taken by absentee landlords and land speculators. I’m going to find a nice big patch of unclaimed land that is good enough for me to farm corn on.

Reflection:

This story was one of the biggest I’ve written in my life! I loved writing this story, it was really fun coming up with the adventure of Rees Wilderness. I really thought I’d get a better mark than I did, but I guess I thought the story had to be more entertaining than educational. I don’t know. I guess I messed up. I don’t blame the teacher, Mrs. Kendal is great! I blame myself for not actually incorporating anything educational. Next time I’ll be sure to do that. If there is a next time. I really did enjoy this project.