Volume 14 , Issue 5

17th Century European Emigration

England was foremost in breaking the power of feudalism and giving the masses of her people a will to assert themselves because she was a seafaring nation and laid nearer the American shore than was the case with continental Europe.

It was also believed that the strong religious sects were better able to take care of themselves than was of the other European lands, excepting Holland. The english were brave, sturdy and venturesome. They were empire builders by nature and inclination. Different classes of the English were impelled to go to America as several colonies were founded instead of one colony only.

It was Scotland, Wales and Ireland that contributed to the stream of emigration. The interests of the Scotch, Welsh and Irish in the new continent were identical with those of the numerous English, they did not seek to from colonies of their own.

Holland was small, but was the first commercial country of Europe and owned as many ships as all the rest of the continent. Holland was also the freest of the European lands when it came to the respect to civil and religious liberty. They were exempt from persecution and had a keen eye to business. The Hollanders founded a single colony primarily for the purpose of trade rather than agriculture. This took place, in New Amsterdam (New York).

Germany and Scandinavia took no interest in American exploration. Scandinavia was not then a united country. From 1618 to 1648 it was in the throes of the most terrible war that ever desolated Europe. Germany had not time to think of founding colonies of her own. Sweden was then a great military power. To find a haven for persecuted Protestants, her king started a little colony on Delaware Bay.

France, Spain and Portugal had been very active int eh exploration of AMerica. But the French were not emigrants by temperament or inclination. They had made no resolute effort to colonize the Atlantic seaboard. Spain and Portugal took little interest in lands which laid outside the tropics.

France and Germany sent many of their people to our shores. A bigoted king undertook to crush the strong foothold the Reformation had secured in France. His protestant subjects, known as Huguenots, were the most intelligent and enterprising of his people. They were the mainstay of French commerce and industry. The toleration extended to them by a former king was revoked and it was made difficult for a Huguenot to escape with his life. Yet 300,000 did get away and found a refuge in England and Germany. In England they joined the Puritans and adopted English surnames. In Germany they became in a large degree a German speaking people. These emigrants settled in New England and South Carolina where they were particularly numerous.

The devastation of the Palatinate, a province on the Rhine and bordering France was a part of Germany that was desolated by are. This province was made a temporary desert by order of the French king, when villages and farmhouses were burned tot he ground, orchard trees were destroyed and wells were filled up.

William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, invited the homeless people of Palatinate to pin his colony. This early German emigration was almost wholly from the valley of the Rhine and from Switzerland.

When the colonies of America were a century old in the eighteenth century, the inhabitants thought of themselves as Americans and not as Englishmen. They viewed with considerable disfavor the heavy volume of Scotch-Irish and German immigration which was setting in during this time and giving an alien appearance in part to the speech of the newcomers. The Scotch-Irish and Germans settled in the Highland of Virginia.

Because of the consequence of rebellion and famine at the close of the sixteenth century, the north of Ireland had become almost depopulated. The English invited immigrants to Ireland and it scarcely ceased between 1625 and 1782 to make alive a burden to them. The few native inhabitants were in a most wretched condition. The English government confiscated a great amount of the land, and took measures to repeople this province of Ulster, the natives being treated with slight consideration. The oppression of Ireland was both religious and industrial. The Scotch and Irish did not mix well and resulted in a war 1641.

The Church of England was made the established church in Ireland, and the Presbyterians were included among the Non-conformists, they were made to feel the displeasure of the government. The Scotch-Irish ministers were deposed imprisoned, or made to flee the country. Many people had to cross to Scotland to enjoy the ordinance of communion.

It was in 1639 that all the protestants of Ulster above the age of 16 years were required to take an oath binding them to an explicit obedience to all royal commands. The penalties were so severe that multitudes (Both men & women) fled to Scotland or hid themselves in the woods, leaving their homes to go to ruin.

After enduring oppression almost a century, the Scotch-Irish began flocking to America in 1718. The movement was flow at first, but in 1729, 6,000 arrived at Philadelphia. In some of the years following the number rose to 12,000, and by 1775 200,000 (a full half of the Ulster people) had crossed the Atlantic.

The emigrants from Ulster were among the hottest foes of King George during the crisis of The American Revolution. The loss of the American colonies was the price which England had to pay for her persistent hostility toward the Scotch-Irish.

It was believed as a matter of course, the emigrants to America in the colonial period represented the pick of the European nations. They were well above the mass of the people they left behind in intelligence, progressiveness and industry. BUT . . . this class was indigent, with good quality, yet poor with respect to worldly substance. The immigrants were of two sub-classes: redemptorists and convicts.One was voluntary and the other was involuntary.

The redemptorists were people more than willing to come to America, yet unable to pay their passage. They were given this name because they could redeem the cost of fare by a term of labor. Many were from Germany. The cost of passage was usually $80 to the adult and $40 to the half grown child. Small children were a no charge. ARticles of agreement were signed before leaving Europe. The ships were crowded, the hard bread was often moldy and the water bad. In one year 2,000 of these redemptorists died at sea or soon after landing at Philadelphia. This is where the surviving people were advertised to be sold for a term of years, and purchasers flocked to the port much as people no congregate at a county fair. The young and single were soon disposed of, but widows and elderly or infirm people were dull of sale. Such persons had children, their own passage was charged to the children's account, and thus the children had to serve extra time. Until the children were sold, the parents could not leave the ship.

When the term of servitude was over, the newcomer was a free man (person). But . . . if in the meantime he ran away and was caught and returned, his term was extended.

The other (involuntary immigrants) were not wholly made up of British jailbirds. Some had been kidnapped from British seaports. Some were married consorts, whom the other party, whether husband or wife, contrived to have sent out of the country. Some were homeless children. Still others were never do wells and other derelicts, sent here by their relations in order to be out of sight if not out of mind. Their actual cost of transpiration was $25 for each person and the average price paid by the planter in Virginia was about $150.

In 60 years 10,000 convicts were sent here from the famous "Old Bailey" prison of London until after the revolution when this practice had come to an end and England then proceeded to unload her trash upon Australia.

With respect to religious faith, practically all the colonials were protestant, excepting the English CAtholics in Maryland.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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