Quarantine Island, 1847

“500 left for the new world. Over 350 were quarantined. The ones who tried to escape were shot on sight.”

On April 17th, 1847, nearly 500 emigrants left the port of Liverpool for the New World. But what was supposed to be an uneventful trip filled with the prospect of a brighter future turned into a nightmare. Typhus and Scarlet fever broke out, and when their ship finally arrived in Miramichi, over 100 people had already perished. Despite pleas for help from the mainland, the people of Miramichi refused to accept the immigrants at the risk of contaminating the population, and quarantined them on Middle Island. Anyone who attempted to escape was shot on sight. The fifth show in our Creative Collaboration series.