The Coffin Ships and Mass Emigration

Active learning helps students grasp the human cost of the Great Famine by stepping into the roles of those who endured it. These hands-on activities build empathy while reinforcing historical evidence, making abstract statistics about emigration tangible and memorable.

• 6th Class
• Voices of the Past: Exploring Change and Continuity
• 4 activities
• 30 min–45 min

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze primary source documents, such as passenger lists and letters, to identify the reasons individuals and families emigrated from Ireland during the Great Famine.
2. Evaluate the living conditions described in accounts of the 'coffin ships' to explain why they were given this name.
3. Compare the challenges and opportunities faced by Irish emigrants in at least two different destination countries, such as the United States and Canada.
4. Explain the push and pull factors that influenced the decision to emigrate during this period of mass movement.
5. Synthesize information from various sources to create a brief narrative detailing the journey of a fictional emigrant family.

Role Play

⏱ 45 min·Small Groups

Role-Play: Life on a Coffin Ship

Divide class into groups representing ship sections: steerage, deck, sick bay. Assign roles like emigrant family, doctor, captain; provide props and scenario cards detailing daily rations, storms, outbreaks. Groups act out 10-minute scenes then debrief on hardships.

Prepare & details

Evaluate the factors that compelled families to undertake the perilous journey of emigration during the Famine.

Facilitation Tip: During Debate: Destination Choices, assign students to research either Canada, the United States, or Australia, and have them prepare arguments based on historical evidence about conditions in each location, including quarantine policies and job opportunities.

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

⏱ 35 min·Pairs

Concept Mapping: Global Emigration Routes

Provide world maps and data cards on ports like Liverpool, Grosse Île, New York. Students plot routes, mark death rates, note destinations. Pairs add push-pull factor icons, then share findings in a class gallery walk.

Prepare & details

Compare the experiences of Irish migrants in different destination countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.

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

⏱ 40 min·Pairs

Source Analysis: Voices from the Voyage

Distribute excerpts from emigrant diaries and newspapers. In pairs, students highlight conditions, emotions, outcomes; create a class chart comparing US, Canada, Australia experiences. Discuss reliability of sources.

Prepare & details

Explain how the 'coffin ships' earned their name and assess their significance in the collective memory of the Great Famine.

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

Formal Debate

⏱ 30 min·Whole Class

Formal Debate: Destination Choices

Form teams to argue for or against destinations based on evidence cards. Whole class votes, then reflects on real migrant decisions amid uncertainty.

Prepare & details

Evaluate the factors that compelled families to undertake the perilous journey of emigration during the Famine.

Setup: Two teams facing each other, audience seating for the rest

Materials: Debate proposition card, Research brief for each side, Judging rubric for audience, Timer

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

Teaching This Topic

Experienced teachers approach this topic by balancing factual rigor with emotional engagement. Avoid presenting the Great Famine as a distant historical event by using role-play to humanize data, and use mapping to show how geography shaped survival chances. Research suggests that when students confront the scale of loss through firsthand accounts and simulations, their understanding of systemic oppression and resilience deepens.

What to Expect

Students will explain the role of push factors in forcing emigration and compare the dangers of different voyage routes. They will use historical sources to justify decisions made by emigrant families and evaluate the impacts of British policies on Irish lives.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During Role-Play: Life on a Coffin Ship, watch for students assuming emigration was a free choice. Redirect them by asking each role player to explain what forced their family to leave Ireland, using specific details from the famine context.

What to Teach Instead

During Mapping: Global Emigration Routes, have students highlight the colonies and ports where Irish emigrants were diverted due to typhus outbreaks, using data from historical records to correct the idea that destinations were always voluntary choices.

Common Misconception

During Mapping: Global Emigration Routes, watch for students thinking coffin ships only sailed to the United States. Redirect them by having them trace routes to Canada, Australia, and Britain, noting the high mortality rates at quarantine stations in these locations.

What to Teach Instead

During Source Analysis: Voices from the Voyage, ask students to identify language in emigrant letters or ship logs that reveals the desperation of their choices, contrasting it with later letters from America that mention hope or regret.

Common Misconception

During Source Analysis: Voices from the Voyage, watch for students dismissing high death rates as exaggerated. Redirect them by having them calculate survival rates from ration cards or burial records provided in the activity, comparing their findings to modern survival rates on long voyages.

What to Teach Instead

During Debate: Destination Choices, require students to use historical evidence to defend their claims about which destination was most dangerous, ensuring they rely on documented mortality rates rather than assumptions.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

After Role-Play: Life on a Coffin Ship, collect students’ reflection paragraphs where they describe one push factor that forced their family to leave Ireland and one danger they faced on the journey, using details from their role-play experience.

Discussion Prompt

After Debate: Destination Choices, facilitate a class discussion where students share the advice they would give to a Famine-era family, referencing specific historical evidence about conditions in different destinations.

Quick Check

During Source Analysis: Voices from the Voyage, present students with three short excerpts from emigrant accounts and ask them to identify which destination is being described, justifying their answer with textual evidence.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge students who finish early to research and present on lesser-known destinations like Argentina or South Africa, comparing conditions to those in North America.
• Scaffolding for struggling students: Provide a graphic organizer with prompts like 'What did they fear most?' and 'What did they hope to find?' to guide their source analysis.
• Deeper exploration: Ask students to interview a family member about immigration experiences and compare those stories to the Famine-era accounts they studied.

Key Vocabulary

Emigration	The act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another. This was a mass movement of people from Ireland during the Famine.
Coffin Ship	A term used to describe the overcrowded and disease-ridden vessels that transported emigrants from Ireland, where many died during the voyage.
Blight	A disease that destroyed the potato crops in Ireland, leading to widespread starvation and famine. This was a primary cause of emigration.
Eviction	The process of expelling someone from their home or land. Many Irish families were evicted during the Famine, forcing them to emigrate.
Diaspora	People who have spread out to live in many different countries, but still retain links to their homeland. The Irish diaspora is a direct result of Famine emigration.