Emigration and the Coffin Ships

Active simulations help students grasp the harsh realities of emigration by making abstract data tangible. When students pack trunks or role-play ship conditions, they internalize the scale of suffering and resilience in ways passive reading cannot achieve.

• 4th Class
• Explorers and Empires: A Journey Through Time
• 4 activities
• 30 min–45 min

Learning Objectives

1. Explain the primary causes of mass emigration from Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries.
2. Analyze the living conditions and dangers faced by emigrants aboard coffin ships during the Atlantic crossing.
3. Identify specific contributions made by Irish emigrants to the social, economic, and cultural development of host countries.
4. Construct a detailed list of essential items a family might have packed for a transatlantic voyage, justifying each choice.

Role Play

⏱ 30 min·Small Groups

Packing Simulation: Emigrant Trunks

Provide groups with sample trunks and categorized items like clothing, food, tools, and heirlooms. Students discuss and select 10 essentials based on historical accounts, justifying choices for a family's survival and new life. Groups present selections and compare priorities.

Prepare & details

Explain the dangers faced by emigrants during their journey across the Atlantic.

Facilitation Tip: During the Packing Simulation, set clear time limits to mimic the urgency emigrants felt when preparing for uncertain journeys.

Setup: Open space or rearranged desks for scenario staging

Materials: Character cards with backstory and goals, Scenario briefing sheet

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Role Play

⏱ 45 min·Whole Class

Role-Play: Coffin Ship Voyage

Assign roles like passengers, crew, and doctor; use classroom as ship deck with props for bunks and rations. Simulate a 5-minute storm or outbreak, recording challenges in journals. Debrief on real dangers and resilience.

Prepare & details

Analyze how Irish emigrants contributed to the development of the countries they moved to.

Facilitation Tip: For the Role-Play activity, assign specific roles (e.g., ship captain, mother with children, doctor) to deepen student engagement and historical perspective.

Setup: Open space or rearranged desks for scenario staging

Materials: Character cards with backstory and goals, Scenario briefing sheet

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Concept Mapping

⏱ 40 min·Pairs

Concept Mapping: Irish Contributions Abroad

Students plot emigration routes on world maps and add icons for Irish-built landmarks like railroads or cathedrals. Research paired contributions, such as Boston's Irish workforce, and create legend keys. Share maps in gallery walk.

Prepare & details

Construct a list of items a family would have packed in their trunk when leaving Ireland forever.

Facilitation Tip: In Mapping: Irish Contributions Abroad, provide blank maps and colored pencils to allow students to visually organize their findings.

Setup: Tables with large paper, or wall space

Materials: Concept cards or sticky notes, Large paper, Markers, Example concept map

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Role Play

⏱ 35 min·Individual

Letter Writing: Emigrant Voices

Students write first-person letters home or to new arrivals, incorporating voyage hardships and hopes. Use templates with prompts on dangers and packing. Peer edit for historical accuracy before class read-aloud.

Prepare & details

Explain the dangers faced by emigrants during their journey across the Atlantic.

Facilitation Tip: During Letter Writing: Emigrant Voices, offer scaffolding such as sentence starters or emotional tone guides to support reluctant writers.

Setup: Open space or rearranged desks for scenario staging

Materials: Character cards with backstory and goals, Scenario briefing sheet

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Teaching This Topic

Research shows that empathy-building activities like role-play reduce oversimplification of historical suffering. Avoid framing the topic solely as tragedy; instead, balance hardship with evidence of resilience and contribution. Use primary sources sparingly to avoid overwhelming students, and always tie discussions back to the human experience of choice and sacrifice.

What to Expect

Students will show understanding by explaining the challenges of the voyage and the contributions of emigrants through evidence-based discussions and creative tasks. Success looks like empathetic reasoning, accurate historical details, and collaborative analysis of sources.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During Packing Simulation: Emigrant Trunks, watch for students assuming all emigrants died due to the activity's focus on hardship.

What to Teach Instead

After the Packing Simulation, ask students to calculate survival rates from provided data (e.g., 75% survival) and discuss how this contradicts the myth while grounding their understanding in the evidence.

Common Misconception

During Mapping: Irish Contributions Abroad, watch for students believing emigration started and ended with the Famine.

What to Teach Instead

During Mapping, provide a timeline of pre-Famine emigration waves and ask students to add events to their maps, explicitly linking causes like landlord evictions to the 1800s timeline.

Common Misconception

During Role-Play: Coffin Ship Voyage, watch for students underestimating the cultural impact of emigrants.

What to Teach Instead

After the Role-Play, ask students to identify one cultural contribution from their assigned emigrant's destination country and present it to the class, using source evidence to support their claims.

Assessment Ideas

Quick Check

After Packing Simulation: Emigrant Trunks, provide a short list of items (e.g., a spinning wheel, a suitcase of clothes, a Bible, a farming tool) and ask students to circle the items most likely packed by a family, explaining two choices in writing.

Discussion Prompt

During Role-Play: Coffin Ship Voyage, pose the question: 'Imagine you are a 10-year-old child on a coffin ship. What is the scariest thing you see or hear, and what is one thing you miss most about Ireland?' Facilitate a brief discussion to assess empathy and historical understanding.

Exit Ticket

After Letter Writing: Emigrant Voices, ask students to write one danger faced during the coffin ship journey and one way Irish emigrants helped their new country. Collect slips to gauge understanding of key concepts.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge students to research and present on a lesser-known aspect of coffin ship voyages, such as the role of children or the experiences of single women travelers.
• Scaffolding: For the Packing Simulation, provide a word bank of items and their uses to support students with limited background knowledge.
• Deeper exploration: Have students compare Irish emigrant experiences to those of other immigrant groups during the same period, using Venn diagrams to analyze similarities and differences.

Key Vocabulary

Emigration	The act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another. For Ireland, this often meant leaving due to famine or economic hardship.
Coffin Ship	A term used to describe the overcrowded and disease-ridden vessels that transported emigrants from Ireland, where many died during the journey.
Famine	A severe shortage of food, often leading to widespread hunger and death. The Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1849) was a major cause of emigration.
Diaspora	People who have scattered from their original country to different parts of the world. The Irish diaspora is found globally, particularly in North America and Australia.