Why Did So Many People Go?
The first English attempts to settle America were Roanoke (1589), Jamestown (1607), and Plymouth (1620).
Roanoke failed because everyone who made the initial trip died. The other two started off slow but eventually became permanent. Once successful, more and more people from England and the rest of Europe started heading over.
In time, the population boomed.
The first few trips brought just a few hundred Europeans to America.
By 1640, there were around 25,000 people. By 1700, that number grew to around 250,000, and by 1775, the year before independence, there were more than 2 million people living there.
Though technically under the control of England, the vast majority of the people living in the colonies had been born there and had little or no connection to the country that ruled them.
This, plus a number of other factors that developed in 150 years between first settlement and independence, helped create the conditions for revolution, which led to the formation of the United States of America.
Timeline of English Colonization in North America
After Virginia and Massachusetts, the larger colonies that spawned from Jamestown and Plymouth, England went on to form 11 more colonies in North America.
These 13 original colonies eventually became states, and they later joined together to form the United States of America.
A timeline of their founding helps show just how quickly British North America grew:
- Virginia — 1607
- Massachusetts — 1620
- New Hampshire — 1629
- Maryland— 1634
- Connecticut — 1636
- Rhode Island — 1636
- New York — 1664
- Delaware — 1664
- New Jersey — 1664
- North Carolina— 1663
- South Carolina— 1663
- Pennsylvania— 1681
- Georgia — 1732
But why did so many people go?
Life in the colonies was not easy, and the journey to get there was difficult and expensive. Life in Europe couldn’t have been that bad, could it?
Well…
In reality, there were a number of different reasons why people moved to the “New World,” and these different motives helped create a unique culture that wound up being ripe for independence.
Some People Just Wanted Out of England
England in the 17th century wasn’t exactly a paradise. Cities were overcrowded and often quite filthy. Modern sewage had not been invented, and neither had modern medicine. Poverty levels were high, and so too was crime.
Illness was common, and life was often quite unpleasant.
On top of that, England (and the rest of Europe, really) had a very strict social order. All of the land was owned by the nobility, and regular people had to pay steep rents to live on it. These regular people were also shut out of political participation, giving them few opportunities to change their lot in life and move up the social order.
For most of English history there was no alternative. This was the way things were, and you just had to deal.
But once the colonies in North America had been established and appeared to be successful, an alternative emerged for the first time.
There was no guarantee that going to America would bring a better life, but there was much more of a chance of things getting better than if you stayed put.
This, plus the need for labor in the Americas, helped encourage migration.
Still, wanting to go wasn’t enough. You had to pay for your journey. More well-off citizens could come up with the money, but poorer people had to look for alternatives. Indentured servitude became a popular option.
Under this arrangement, someone would pay for you to travel to America. Once there, you would be indebted to them for a period of time, usually five to ten years. After this period, you were free.
As many as 300,000 people traveled to America under this type of agreement, highlighting just how strong the desire was to leave England at the time.
This helped the population of the colonies grow, and it also populated them with people who had no particular allegiance to England. Then, when these people had children of their own, they gave birth to a generation that was technically English but had never been to England.
Over time, this gave rise to a population that felt uniquely American. This didn’t automatically lead to independence, but it made breaking free a logical and popular choice once it was presented.
Some People Were Following God
Another big issue in England at the time was religious tolerance. After the Protestant revolution in the 16th century, many different variations of Christianity appeared across Europe and grew in popularity. And as they did, they were often not accepted.
For example, the Church of England was the dominant and official religion in England, and the growth of other religions threatened this power, which was closely tied to the monarchy.
But this did not stop people from practicing what they believed.
One particularly hated group was the Puritans. They practiced an exceptionally strict version of Christianity that promoted a strong work ethic and had little tolerance for vice and sin.
They were persecuted so heavily that in the early 17th century they decided to leave England for the Netherlands. People were more tolerant there. However, they didn’t quite fit in, and they eventually teamed up with wealthy investors from southern England to form the Plymouth Company.
They then sailed to America and founded Plymouth colony in 1620.
The success of their colony encouraged others from England and the rest of Europe to travel to America in search of religious freedom. Massachusetts became a destination for Puritans, and the surrounding colonies of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire sprung up after Puritans, forever strict, kicked people out who didn’t follow their rules.
Further south, Maryland was formed after Charles II, a Catholic, granted a charter to create a colony where Catholics could go to practice their religion.
Religious motivations brought people to the New World from all walks of life. Many were well-educated and belonged to the middle class in England. They lived comfortably from an economic standpoint, but wanted a fresh start for religious purposes. They often traveled as a family, which helped the population of English colonies grow even faster.
Once there, they worked hard to become self-sufficient and took pride in having the power to administer their own affairs.
So, when England, the very nation that had persecuted them, tried to rein in colonial governments, raise revenue through taxes, and rejected pleas for representation, this was not well received. General dissent slowly transformed into outright rebellion and eventually independence.
In fact, Massachusetts was the most rebellious of all the colonies, driven largely by this culture of independence that grew out of a desire for religious freedom.
Some People Had No Choice
While hundreds of thousands of people chose to immigrate to the American colonies, millions did not.
A large part of the colonial economy was dependent on the cultivation and extraction of raw materials. Things such as cotton, indigo, sugar, rice, wood, metal ores, etc. These industries needed people, but few wanted to work in them due to the low pay and tough conditions.
The answer?
Slaves.
European merchants traveling to Africa as part of the Atlantic Triangle made deals with African slave traders to bring people to the Americas against their will. Once there, they were sold into slavery, where they would be for the rest of their life.
As the independence movement grew, no one asked the slaves how they felt or what they wanted. Most viewed them as nothing more than property and unworthy of having an opinion.
However, the institution of slavery played a tremendous role in the formation of the United states. It helped make the southern colonies exceptionally wealthy and powerful, and this allowed them to heavily influence the policies adopted by the newly formed USA.
For example, they forced Thomas Jefferson to remove the clause in the Declaration of Independence abolishing slavery, which allowed the institution to persist for more than a century after independence.
Slavery also has had deep cultural implications. It helped create a radically unequal society and also perpetuated racism, leading to very modern institutions such as Jim Crow.
While the millions of people who lived in bondage did not have much of a choice to come to America, the institution of slavery has had a tremendous role in shaping the modern United States.
Some People Wanted to Make Money
The English nobility largely saw the New World as a tremendous investment opportunity.
The untapped natural resources and overall lack of competition gave rise to the idea there was lots of money to be made.
In fact, the first English attempts at colonization were made in hopes of finding gold, something the Spanish had done in Mexico to the great envy of the rest of Europe.
They never found gold, but they did find other things, such as tobacco, cotton, and sugar.
Many merchants and members of the nobility, especially second and third sons who were not going to inherit their father’s wealth and needed to make their own path, made the trip to America, bought or took large tracts of land, and planted cash crops.
They also engaged in trade, building ships and using them to move goods all over the world.
However, almost from the start, the English government wanted to control trade and monopolize it. They prevented colonists from trading with other countries and forced them to buy only English goods.
These restrictions and regulations were extremely unpopular and largely ignored. And the more the English government tried to enforce them, the more these wealthy landowners and merchants resisted. Eventually, staying attached to England no longer made sense, and independence became the only path forward.
Colonies Slowly Turn to States
The many motivations for traveling to America helped give rise to 13 very different yet very prosperous colonies. The culture that developed there was one of self-sufficiency and self-rule and was founded on principles of economic and religious freedom.
So, when England tried to tighten their control, people were not happy.
At first, they said, “hey, you can impose laws on us, just give us a voice in Parliament where the laws are made.” But England said no, choosing instead to treat the colonists like second class citizens.
Eventually this backfired. Small protests led to more dramatic rebellions. Finally, in 1776, shots were fired, war broke out, and the colonies were no longer English.
Hello, USA!
Written by Matthew Jones