West Sussex and the rural south

West Sussex was a classic zone on the receiving end of the increasing economic divisions in the national story. Turmoil in rural Sussex had been rife at the turn of the century, marked by harvest failures, disorder and protest about food monopolies and inflated prices. Emigration from Sussex to remote Australia was riskier. Sometimes a local Sussex parish intervened and provided assistance to poor emigrants, in effect to paupers. Emigration was only one of many solutions to the problem of rural poverty in the district and across the nation. Much more common in the years before 1830 were certain initiatives taken to promote the emigration of poor people from Sussex, mainly to Canada and the United States. These schemes were led by local philanthropists and landowners seeking to diminish the burdens of poor relief.