Calvinists Incorporated: Welsh Immigrants on Ohio's Industrial Frontier (Volume 240) (University of Chicago Geography Research Papers)

ISBN: 0226448533

Author: Knowles, Anne Kelly

Condition: New

Bringing immigrants onstage as central players in the drama of ruralcapitalist transformation, Anne Kelly Knowles traces a community ofWelsh immigrants to Jackson and Gallia counties in southern Ohio. Afterreconstructing the gradual process of community-building, Knowlesfocuses on the pivotal moment when the immigrants became involved withthe industrialization of their new region as workers and investors inWelsh-owned charcoal iron companies. Setting the southern Ohio Welsh inthe context of Welsh immigration as a whole from 1795 to 1850, Knowlesexplores how these strict Calvinists responded to the moral dilemmasposed by leaving their native land and experiencing economic success inthe United States.Knowles draws on a wide variety of sources, including obituaries andcommunity histories, to reconstruct the personal histories of over 1,700immigrants. The resulting account will find appreciative readers notonly among historical geographers, but also among American economichistorians and historians of religion.