Lessons

The Stories of the Settlers Before they were considered Americans, colonists were English, Scottish, Irish, French, Dutch, German, and Swedish. (There were also thousands of enslaved Africans in America, who were transported to the colonies against their wills). Motivated for a variety of reasons, many came to America for asylum, either to escape religious persecution, political oppression, or poverty. They had left a country that was not a country to them at all: no bread, no way to cultivate the soil, no means by which to gain wealth, forced to follow severe laws and punishments, and no land to call their own. Some, including many Gaelic Irish, had been captured by English soldiers and shipped over as indentured servants. Others from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland had entered into indenture contracts to pay for the voyage across the Atlantic, just to get a chance to start anew in America. Once they had served their term, however, they eventually would become free and independent. One of the motivating factors for many immigrants was the freedom to practice their religions. Having been persecuted in their own country, they came to America in hopes of being able to worship without restrictions or fear of punishment. Most found what they were seeking. Settlers discovered they were able to worship with fellow believers according to their own ideas without being disturbed. In some colonies Methodists settled next to Lutherans, who lived next to Baptists, accepting one another regardless of religious beliefs. In fact, Americans became as blended spiritually as they were becoming blended nationally, developing one of the most identifiable characteristics of Americans: religious tolerance. Two exceptions to this outlook on religion would be with the Moravians and the Quakers. The Moravians banded together in community groups, which prevented them from blending with other religious sects. Their colonies held fast to their own forms of worship, rules, and decency. Quakers were affluent enough to purchase what they needed to create settlements; and like the Moravians, they were not spread out and separated from one another. Ironically, however, the Quakers’ commitment to religious freedom soon caused them to be a minority in the colony they founded, Pennsylvania. People of other religions flocked there. Also, Jews and Catholics, though they did not necessarily settle in tight-knit communities like the Quakers and Moravians, often experienced prejudice and discrimination from their neighbors and restrictions on their religious freedom in many colonies.

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Lessons The German settlers were not afraid to work. Wealthy landowners employed them, and they made sure to learn all they could in their trade. They were motivated, persistent, and worked to have the same advantages as their employers. Never forgetting the poverty from which they came in Germany, they developed great mechanical knowledge and patience; they helped Pennsylvania prosper, with the creation of wonderful mills and other manufacturing sites. Most people, including most Germans, lived in what middle settlements. They were great cultivators and government, religion, and life as freeholders influenced them. Overall, due to their lifestyle, industry, good living, selfishness, litigiousness, country politics, the pride of freemen, and religious indifference characterized them. The background and demeanor of the original Irish colonists differed from that of the Germans. Having worked and toiled on land that was not their own in Ireland, they had a similar experience to the Germans, but with an important difference. Most Irish who came to the early colonies, called “Scots-Irish,” came from Ulster in the North of Ireland. They traced their roots to the Scottish lowlands, and they practiced Presbyterianism. Like the Irish of Ireland, the English ruled them, they practices a religion opposed to the Church of England, and they were unhappy under British rule. The British had recruited them to be colonists in Ireland to force the Irish off their land. Finding their prospects not much better in British-controlled Ireland, many of the Scots-Irish immigrated to the American colonies. The Ulster Irish often settled on the frontier and many became famous as “Indian fighters.” Irish Catholics also traveled to America as “captured” indentures, and many came as household servants for Quakers who had first tried to colonize on English estates in Ireland. Many of the Ulster Irish, who lived farthest from civilization, were the hunters and woodsmen. They lived beyond the reach of government, making them more self-reliant than other settlers. Their independence was tempered with a lack of law that sometimes equated justice with violence. Their life was a never-ending cycle: hunting to sustain themselves due to the nature of the land, with farming as a necessary but secondary activity. They were the frontiersmen, and they served to clear the earth for future settlers. Some found peace and prosperity, while others receded farther into the wilderness, leaving room for less adventurous others to settle in their places. Soon, thanks to the labors of those first woodsmen, more organized communities would form. The Scottish immigrants, directly from Scotland, were, like the Germans, CICERO © 2010

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Lessons industrious and frugal, and readily took to farming in the American colonies. For others, traveling to America was a punishment from the English government. With a growing population of unemployed in British cities and a growing crime rate, the British began to see banishment to the colonies as a good alternative. For many of these convicts, this punishment could actually be a second chance and a big improvement over hanging. Many of these felons were more successful when they could live outside the oppressions that drove them to violate the law in the first place. Moreover, it must be remembered that at that time, a “felon” might be someone who was deep in debt or was caught stealing food. They were not all murderers and cutthroats. Once settled, those who lived near the sea tended to be enterprising and to have more access to the outside world. Land closest to the coast would usually be more valuable and the more affluent groups of settlers would own this land. The English tended to settle closer to the sea. The free population of New England was nearly all English during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as was the southern tidewater region. Proximity to the sea gave them employment options not available to those living inland. This freedom to interact with others through trading and transportation provided them resources and insights that few others could claim.

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Lessons What does the following passage suggest about the colonists who settled in America and their effect on the nation? America knew no strangers, for the variety that existed offered something for every foreigner who came to live on American soil. They may have recognized a familiar language, name, or mannerism from the home country. In America, colonists experienced the world as they were exposed to the grains of Egypt, the rice of China, the maize and other local foods of the Indians, or the mannerisms of the Dutch. It was a culture in transition. Outlooks and old ideas changed, making room for the possibilities that came with the nature of the country. The American colonies welcomed, or at least tolerated most foreigners, offering the potential of bountiful resources, industrial and agricultural possibilities, less oppressive government, ample land, and relative freedom. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

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