SECTION 1: Immigration and Slavery
▲ James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, greets Scottish immigrants.
WITNESS HISTORY 
AUDIO
New Arrivals
In the 1700s, thousands of European immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean, hoping to acquire land, earn a good living, and enjoy the freedoms that existed in colonial America. In 1739, a German immigrant noted that “Liberty of conscience [thought]” was the “chief virtue of this land…. But for this freedom, I think this country would not improve so rapidly.”
Yet, there were others who crossed the Atlantic under drastically different circumstances. These were Africans, who were forced from their homeland and crammed onto slave ships. Thrust into a hostile world, they were expected to work from sunup to sundown under terrible conditions. Their experiences in North America were different in every way from that of European immigrants.
Objectives
- Explain how European immigration to the colonies changed between the late 1600s and 1700s.
- Analyze the development of slavery in the colonies.
- Describe the experience of enslaved Africans in the colonies.
Terms and People
- indentured servant
- triangular trade
- Middle Passage
- Phillis Wheatley
NoteTaking
Reading Skill: Identify Main Ideas As you read the section, use a concept web to list main ideas about population in the colonies.
Why It Matters As the colonies developed, Europeans began to arrive in greater numbers. At first, most immigrants were English, but during the 1700s larger numbers of Germans and Scotch-Irish arrived. Enslaved Africans were taken unwillingly from their home-lands and forced to work in a distant land. These newcomers would reshape American colonial society. Section Focus Question: Which major groups of immigrants came to Britain’s American colonies in the 1700s?
Europeans Migrate to the Colonies
After a difficult start, England’s American colonies grew steadily. By 1700, approximately 250,000 people of European background lived in the colonies. That number would rise tenfold during the next 75 years. Much of this growth came as a result of emigration from Europe.
Migration From England
During the 1600s, about 90 percent of the migrants to the English colonies came from England. About half of these immigrants were indentured servants—poor immigrants who paid for passage to the colonies by agreeing to work for four to seven years. Instead of receiving a wage, indentured servants received basic food, clothing, and shelter—generally just enough to keep them alive. At the end of their term, they were supposed to receive clothes, tools, food, and sometimes land.
Developments in England caused the percentage of immigrants to drop dramatically. Prior to 1660, many English left their homeland
Table of Contents