Volume 14 , Issue 5

Our European Forefathers

We have been reading about the history of Highland County, Virginia this week and bring you some insights into the European forefathers that emigrated to America in the 17th century. The main reasons they emigrated were religious persecution and economic oppression

Why did certain countries establish the American colonies? Why certain other countries settlers established no colonies? These are just some of the questions.

We are all immigrants to some extent! We find that the causes of early America immigration from Europe was for religious intolerance and economic oppression starting back as early as the seventeen century, when in 1607 there was an actual beginning of those thirteen colonies which grew into the United States of America.

Back then it was not a pleasure trip to cross the Atlantic. The voyage often consumed more than a hundred days, and the speed of the sailing vessel was no greater than that of a man on foot. If the winds were contrary, the supply of water and provisions would fail. Disease like smallpox and others were liable to cause havoc in the crowded and untidy ships. Besides all that, there was the peril of shipwreck, and the further peril of capture boy pirates.

Passengers might congratulate themselves if his person were put ashore, no matter where the spot might be. Once safely across the ocean, the average immigrant was not al all likely to revisit his old home ever again.

It is no wonder why our forefathers sought the separation of church and state. Our forefathers believed in the freedom to choose the religion that was their own choosing without it being crammed down their throats and into their lives. That does not mean persecution was not brought to America. It was, but it never took deep root and was mild here to what it long continued to be in Europe.

As it was in the British Isles back in the seventeenth century, any sect that found itself in power proceeded to persecute other sects with a bigotry and cruelty which we should in they century find it hard to comprehend instead of falling into that persecution trap. It was thought that in America it was a wilderness where men could not agree might still get beyond elbow touch with another. It was so that 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.

Economic Oppression

We find that the long rule of the Roman Empire made Europe thoroughly acquainted with despotism. When it fell apart the lawlessness of the Western Empire became intolerable. The masses of people saw no other recourse but to put themselves under the protection of military chieftains.They toiled for the support of the leader and his household and followed him into war. They became known as serfs, villeins and lived in virtual slavery. the chieftains became the dukes and barons of the Middle Ages. They lived in castles, wore armor in battle, and boasted of their coats of arms. They were proud and overbearing, held labor in contempt and despised the serfs on whose toil they lived. There was no thought of social equality or intermarriage toward these peasants.

This structure of society was known as feudalism. It slowly gave way as new monarchies rose here and there. The nobility landlords were enclosing large tracts so that they might hunt deer and pheasants. This process of enclosure and 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. The farmer and the backbone of the society perceived that the future was with the mass of the people and not with the small privileged class. The land owners and aristocrats would control the government and determine the structure of society. Europe would remain aristocratic until land monopoly was overthrown, and this result would come only after a long and bitter struggle. The tendency of the high rent was to leave the toiler only enough to enable him to exist. It was the rent that determined the wages.

In America there was a seemingly boundless amount of wild land. 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. It further meant that the resulting society would be democratic rather than aristocratic. It was the desire for economic freedom that lured men to America even more than the desire of religious freedom.

Economic and religious opportunity were the two arms of the magnet that drew Europeans to America and made this country great.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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