III.

During the Colonial Period

A.

The English

The first immigrants to colonial America came almost exclusively from western Europe. During the first decades of the 17th century, settlers from England colonized Virginia and New England. They established the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The English settled in Virginia in the low-lying fertile areas around Chesapeake Bay and along the rivers of the coastal plain to the south. They soon developed an economy dependent on the cultivation of tobacco for export to Europe. Although highly profitable, tobacco cultivation required intensive labor. Many people convicted of petty crimes in England were often sent to the American colonies as indentured servants, laborers who were forced to work for a period of four to seven years before regaining their freedom.

The first Africans were brought to Virginia to work for tobacco planters in 1619. It is unclear whether these first Africans were brought as indentured servants or as slaves, as most later Africans brought to the colonies were. Although the number of African American slaves grew slowly at first, by the 1680s they were perceived as essential to the economy of Virginia. During the 17th and 18th centuries, African American slaves lived in all of England’s North American colonies. Before Britain prohibited its subjects from participating in the slave trade, between 600,000 and 650,000 Africans had been forcibly transported to North America.

Immigration to New England began in 1620 when English religious dissenters known as the Pilgrims established Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts. A larger settlement of English Puritans was founded on the shores of Massachusetts Bay in 1629 (see Puritanism). Between 1629 and 1640, approximately 21,000 English colonists crossed the Atlantic Ocean to settle in New England. The values of these Puritan settlers strongly influenced the culture of the American colonies and later of the United States. Although some New Englanders owned slaves in the 17th and 18th centuries, slavery never played a major role in the New England economy. The Puritans spoke English, practiced a Protestant faith, and valued hard work and commercial success. The Puritans also believed in the importance of education. Over time, many people came to equate these characteristics with Americans in general.

B.

The Dutch and Swedes

In the early 17th century settlers from other Western European countries also established themselves on the Atlantic Coast of North America. The Dutch established the colony of New Netherland in the region of present-day New York in 1614 and began settlement of the area in 1624. There they founded the city of New Amsterdam, now New York City, in 1626. Sweden established a colony known as New Sweden in the area of present-day Delaware in 1638. The Dutch absorbed New Sweden in 1655, only to lose all of their North American colonies to the British in 1664. These early colonies were often quite cosmopolitan, drawing settlers from many nations. When the English seized New Amsterdam, the city was home to perhaps 1500 residents, including Walloons, Huguenots, Swedes, Dutchmen, and African Americans.

C.

The French and Spanish

The French and Spanish also established colonies in North America. The Spanish established the oldest permanent European settlement in Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1565. Spanish settlers from Mexico founded the colony of New Mexico in what is now the southwestern United States in 1598. France established Acadia in 1604 and Québec in 1608, both in present-day Canada. In 1718 the French founded New Orleans as the capital of their vast and sparsely settled Louisiana colony, which encompassed most of central North America.

The British placed no restrictions on immigrants wishing to enter their colonies. English men and women constituted the majority of settlers, but small groups from almost every nation in Western Europe settled in one or more of the English colonies. In 1688 there were 200,000 people in all of England’s North American colonies. Most of these colonists either came from Great Britain, were descended from individuals who did, or had been brought to North America by slave traders. In the following century, the colonial population doubled approximately every 25 years. African slaves, Scots-Irish, and Germans constituted the majority of the people arriving in the British colonies during this period. Between 1700 and 1770, 260,000 Africans, 50,000 white convicts, and 210,000 voluntary immigrants from Europe entered the British colonies. Scots-Irish immigrants, descended from Scots who settled in northern Ireland in the early 17th century, numbered about 80,000. Approximately 70,000 immigrants from the various German states of Europe migrated to the colonies during the same period.

D.

Causes of Colonial Immigration

The reasons each of these groups immigrated to the British colonies in North America varied. Among the European groups were some individuals who immigrated simply for adventure or for unique personal reasons. But most immigrants came to escape harsh conditions in their homeland or, in the case of Africans, because they were captured and sold into slavery. Immigrants from continental Europe often fled wars, pestilence, and famine in their homelands. In the 1650s and 1660s, the English passed a series of laws, known as the Navigation Acts, to regulate the economy of the British Empire. These new laws had an adverse effect on Northern Ireland and triggered an exodus of Scots-Irish to the North American colonies in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.