Ethnic American History Blog – 9/6/12

                After reading chapter 1 and 2 of Coming to America, I stopped to think about how and what kinds of people immigrated to North America. What was their motivation for coming? My family has ties to the Mayflower, but I never really stopped to think about what it was that caused them to come over. Yes, those individuals who came over on the Mayflower were trying to escape religious discrimination, but were there other factors that caused them to decide to come to a land were few Europeans had explored and survived. The Pilgrims originally left England to escape the Church of England as Protestants that were seeking a more pure religion, also known as “Puritans”. At first, the Pilgrims immigrated to Leiden, Holland where they were perfectly capable of settling down and practicing their faith there. What made the families decide to charter a book and seek a world completely unknown to the majority of Europeans? Did they have economic motivations as well as religious ones? Did they just want to start a new? This chapter had my mind racing about what my ancestors were thinking when they decided to come to America. I know that if I were in their shoes, I would most likely be afraid to start in a land foreign to me. It’s not like America has the same environment. Regardless, I find it noble of my ancestors to decide to settle here, especially after the two before (Roanoke-“the Lost Colony” and Jamestown) both had extreme struggles while trying to settle. Regardless, something powerful provoked the Puritans to settle in North America.

                On that note, it shocks me that many of the Europeans who ended up settling in the United States came when and how they did. The Virginia Colony arose because investments made in hopes of producing profits via cash crops and industry. As a result, few immigrated to the colony without being given incentive to do so. Hence, the majority of those who immigrated to the Virginia Colony were indentured servants who had their sea fare paid for in return for promising that they would work for a certain number of years as servants and then they would be given freedom after they served their time. Once granted freedom, they were promised land as well as some other compensation. The investors, although they risked having the servants run away before their terms were up, they continued to  take on indentured servants because for every one that they took on they were given head right (crown land) for use. The profits that the investors earn in Virginia were enormous once tobacco was introduced and became the main cash crop of the area. It’s just interesting to think that the majority of the south was built upon indentured servants—people who became servants just to have their hand at living in America. Also, it’s interesting to see how those that owned indentured servants would put ads in the paper describing a runaway indentured servant and offering a reward for anyone who could find the person. Just imagine ads like that in the papers today. We see them for dogs and missing items, but for people? Never. People are not property now, but they certainly were back then. It’s also interesting to note that one of the reasons why slavery of Africans happened is because the color of their skin made the African slaves stick out like sore thumbs if they were to run away. In this way, it made the slave owners more likely to make profit. It’s interesting how far greed can take somebody.