Volume 18 , Issue 28

European Emigrants & American Colonies

Have you ever wondered why is it certain countries established the American colonies, and why certain other countries furnished many settlers, yet established no colonies?

We know that England was very far in the lead as to establishing American, English colonies. And England was the country nearer the American shore than was the case with continental Europe. England was also the foremost in breaking the power of feudalism and giving the masses of her people a will to assert themselves.

The strong religious sect in England were better able to take care of themselves than was true of other European lands, excepting Holland. We know that the spirit of the weaker sects were not broken, and they were not prohibited from leaving the country. We find the English were brave, sturdy and venturesome. They were empire builders by nature and inclination. We also know different classes of the English were impelled to go to America, and several colonies were founded instead of one colony only.

Scotland, Wales and Ireland dependencies of England, contributed to the stream of emigration, but as the interests of the Scotch, Welsh, and Irish in the new continent were identical with those of the more numerous English, these people did not seek to form colonies of their own.

We learn that Holland was then the first commercial country of Europe, who owned as many ships as all the rest of the continent. With respect to civil and religious liberty, Holland was the first of the Europeans lands. They were quite exempt from persecution and having a keen eye to business, they would expect the Hollanders to found a single colony, and primarily for the purpose of trade rather than agriculture. And that is what precisely took place. The metropolitan city of New York bears witness to Holland's good judgment with settlements such as New Amsterdam, Flatbush, etc. That is where my mother's maternal Dutch ancestors (Covenhoven/Conover settled).

It was Germany and Scandinavia who had taken no interest in American exploration. The former (Germany) was not 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 in Delaware Bay.

France, Spain and Portugal had been very active in the exploration of America, though. The French were not emigrants by temperament or inclination, and they had made no resolute effort to colonize our Atlantic seaboard. As for Spain and Portugal, they took little interest in lands which lay outside the tropics.

But ... In an indirect way, both France and Germany sent many of their people to our shores. There was this bigoted king who 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. But 300,000 of them did get away, and they found a refuge in England and Germany. In England they joined the Puritans and in many instances adopted English surnames. In Germany they became in a large degree a German speaking people. In both countries they joined very numerously the emigration to America. In New England and South Carolina they were particularly numerous.

We also find that unhappy Germany continued to be desolated by war after war. For example, an incident in one of these was the devastation of the Palatinate, a province on the Rhine and bordering France. This was done by order of the French king, and the fine province was made a temporary desert. Villages and farmhouses were burned to the ground, orchard trees were destroyed, and wells were filled up. But William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, invited the now homeless people to join his colony, and many of them complied. This early German emigration was almost wholly from the valley of the Rhine and from Switzerland. Through research we have found our father's maternal ancestors (HOHL/HULL) were among those from the Palatinate area near the Rhine.

Until the second decade of the 18th century, America was more homogeneous than it had ever been. The volume of immigration had become relatively small, and the institutional differences among the colonies, the people were predominantly of English blood and character. And the country was a century old, and 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 then set in, because of the alien appearance and speech of the newcomers.

Today, in the 21st century, we know, or should know, that these events did not justify the fears of the older population. We do know that the future of America was/is soundly influenced by the new arrivals from all parts of the world. The predominant people that settled in Highland county, Virginia were the Scotch-Irish, who really were not Irish like the Celtic Irish, but were emigrated from the Scotland area.
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