Cabin Passenger Religion 1840s–1870s

This shorter chapter traces the religion of cabin-class emigrants, who were generally middle-class, so from the section of Victorian society keen to impose their religious and moral positions on the lower orders. While more segregated from their fellow emigrants in steerage as the century wore on, as emigrants voyaged in larger vessels, cabin passengers had religious encounters within their own class and also beyond. So the chapter looks at the similarities and contrasts with the varieties of Christianity among their fellow emigrants in steerage. Catholic–Protestant, intra-Protestant, and Christian–non-Christian encounters are all examined, as are the markers of cabin-class piety, particularly their expectation of religious leadership in the absence of clergy.