Volume 18 , Issue 28

NW Okie's Journey

Just a reminder to all out there, "We are all descendants of emigrants, immigrants, because of our European ancestors who fled Europe to seek a better life, free of religious persecution and economic oppression."

It takes researching our genealogy and the history of our ancestors to discover who we are; where we came from; and what our European emigrants went through to get to this new world (America). The more we research our European emigrants, we get a better understanding of the history and what was going on in Europe and England. That history gives us an understanding of why America became this great country where a person, no matter their race, gender, cultural or religious beliefs could feel free of persecution.

In Oren F. Morton's book, "A History of Highland County Virginia," published by the author in 1911, he stated this about our European Forefathers: "When in 1607 there was an actual beginning of those thirteen colonies which grew into the Untied States of America, Europe had not more than a third of her present (1911) population. Even England, then the foremost nation to import grain, was until 1775 feeding her people from her own soil and building her ships from her own forests. The number of people in Europe was in itself a matter of no importance in causing emigration to America. The prime causes for the settling of America were religious intolerance and economic oppression."

It was not a pleasure trip to cross the Atlantic. Back then the voyage often consumed more than a hundred days. The speed of the sailing vessel was no greater than that of a man afoot. When the winds were very contrary, the supply of water and provisions would fail, smallpox and other forms of disease were liable to cause havoc on the crowded, untidy ships, another peril facing the emigrants was being shipwrecked or captured by pirates.

Back then, even in the British Isles, any religious sect that found itself in power proceeded to persecute other sects with a bigotry and cruelty which we of this century find it very hard to comprehend. America back then was a wilderness where men who could not agree might still get beyond elbow touch with one another.

The Pilgrims came to Massachusetts; the Baptists to Rhode Island; the Quakers to Pennsylvania; the Episcopalians to New York; and the South, and the Presbyterians to the frontier. The two colonies enjoyed religious freedom from the start, and its acceptance by the others was only a question of time. Persecution was indeed brought to America, but never took deep root and was mild here to what it long continued to be for Europe back then.

Economic Oppression
The other prime cause for the emigrants to America was economic oppression. It was the long rule of the Roman Empire that made Europe thoroughly acquainted with despotism. It was when that empire went to pieces, the lawlessness of Western Europe became intolerable. There were no other recourse for the masses of the people, but to put themselves under the protection of military chieftains. They toiled for the support of the leader and his household and to follow him in war. They were known as the serfs, fillies, and lived in virtual slavery. The chieftains became the dukes and barons of the Middle Ages, who lived in castles, wore armor in battle, and boasted to their coats of arms. They were proud and overbearing, held labor in contempt, and despised the serfs on whose land they lived. Toward the peasants there was no thought of social equality or intermarriage.

This was feudalism, which gave way to new monarchies here and there out of the wreckage of the old empire. Eventually, this nobility would loose power, only to become nothing more than landlords, to whom the peasant paid rent instead of giving compulsory service. The lot of the peasant was still hard, although he was coming into a higher consciousness of his natural rights and was more disposed to act upon them.

In Europe the area of land was a fixed quantity. The arrogant landlords were virtually reducing the amount, inclosing large tracts, so they might hunt deer and pheasants. This inclosure with the growth of population made the rents too high for comfort. Poverty was spreading, the yeoman farmer, the natural backbone of society, was being crowded to the wall.

There was a perception that those who controlled the land controlled the government and determined the structure of society. Europe would remain aristocratic until land monopolies were overthrown, and this result would come only after a long and bitter struggle. Back then, the universal tendency of rent was to leave the toiler only enough to enable him to exist. It was rent that determined wages.

That is where America came into the picture with it's seemingly boundless amount of wild land. Back then wild land meant free land, free land meant ownership, and ownership meant relief from unjust rents. Free access to land meant that direct participation in government would be generally diffused. Or would it? It further meant that the resulting society would be democratic rather than aristocratic. It was seen that a higher and more general degree of well-being was possible than where privilege was in the saddle and riding rough-shod.

It was the desire for economic freedom that lured men to America even more than the desire for religious freedom. But a degree of land monopoly and of aristocratic thought and practice was the baggage brought from Europe. It was inevitable. Humanity does not progress by leaps but by steps.

Land could not be dependable course of income unless the owner rolled up his sleeves and went to work, though. To evade this necessity, the planter imported white, indentured servants and soon afterward was purchasing negro slaves.

Economic and religious opportunities were the two arms of the magnet that drew Europeans to America and made this country great.

Does any of this relate, give you an insight into what we are going through in the 21st century?

Good Night! Good Luck! We are stronger together! "Love conquers Hate!"
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