Page 113 - American Stories, A History of the United States

landscape. Until 1821, when Mexico declared inde-
4.1 Read the Document Benjamin Franklin, Observations Concerning pendence from Madrid, Spanish authorities strug-
the Increase of Mankind, Peopling Countries, gled to control a vast northern frontier. During the
etc. (1751)
eighteenth century, the Spanish empire in North
4.2 African German Micmac America included widely dispersed settlements such
St. Lawrence R.
Scots- as San Francisco and San Diego in California; Santa
Dutch MAINE
Irish N E W (part of Mass.) Fe, New Mexico; San Antonio, Texas; and St. Augus-
4.3 English Scottish F R A N C E Abenaki tine, Florida (see Map 4.2). In these borderland com-
munities, European colonists mixed with peoples of
Algonquin Portsmouth other races and backgrounds, forming multicultural
Chippewa N.H. Boston societies.
4.4 Great N.Y. MASS. Providence
Lakes Iroquois Hartford Newport
New Haven R.I. scots-irish Flee english Oppression
Susquehannock CONN.
Perth Amboy New York
4.5 Miami Philadelphia New Castle During the seventeenth century, English rulers
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
N.J.
Burlington
thought they could dominate Catholic Ireland by
PENN.
MD.
SHENANDOAH VALLEY
DEL.
Shawnee VA. Annapolis transporting thousands of lowland Scottish Presby-
terians to northern Ireland. These settlers became
Ohio R. Shenandoah R. James R. Williamsburg known as the Scots-Irish. The plan failed. Anglican
English officials discriminated against the Presbyte-
N.C.
Mississippi R. Chickasaw Cherokee New Bern rians. They passed laws that placed the Scots-Irish
at a disadvantage when they traded in England; they
taxed the Scots-Irish exorbitantly.
S.C.
ATLANTIC
Pee Dee R.
OCEAN
After several poor harvests in the 1720s, many
Charles Town Scots-Irish began to emigrate to America, where they
GA.
Savannah hoped to find the freedom and prosperity that had
Savannah R.
Choctaw Creek
been denied them in Ireland. Often entire Presby-
Proclamation Line of 1763 terian congregations followed charismatic ministers
to the New World, intent on replicating a distinctive,
Seminole
fiercely independent culture on the frontier. An esti-
mated 150,000 Scots-Irish migrated to the colonies
before the Revolution.
map 4.1 diSTriBuTioN oF EuropEaN aNd aFricaN immiGraNTS Most Scots-Irish immigrants landed in Phila-
iN THE THirTEEN coloNiES A flood of non-english immigrants swept the
british colonies between 1700 and 1775. delphia, but instead of remaining there, they carved
out farms on Pennsylvania’s western frontier. The
colony’s proprietors welcomed the new settlers, for it seemed they would form an
ideal barrier between the Indians and the older, coastal communities. The Penn family
soon had second thoughts, however. The Scots-Irish squatted on whatever land looked
Quick Check best. When colony officials pointed out that large tracts had already been reserved, the
Why did so many Scots-Irish immigrants retorted that “it was against the laws of God and nature that so much land
migrate to America during the should be idle when so many Christians wanted it to labour on and to raise their bread.”
eighteenth century?
Wherever they located, the Scots-Irish challenged established authority.
Germans search for a better Life

A second large body of non-English settlers, more than 100,000 people, came from
the upper Rhine Valley, the German Palatinate. Some of the migrants, especially those
who relocated to America around 1700, belonged to small pietistic Protestant sects
whose religious views were similar to those of the Quakers. These Germans moved to
the New World primarily to find religious toleration. Under the guidance of Francis
Daniel Pastorius (1651–1720), Mennonites established a prosperous community in
Pennsylvania known as Germantown.
By midcentury, however, the characteristics of the German migration had begun
to change. Many Lutherans transferred to the Middle Colonies. Unlike members of the
pietistic sects, these men and women were not in search of religious freedom. Rather,
they traveled to the New World to improve their material lives. The Lutheran Church in
Germany initially tried to control the distant congregations, but although the migrants
80