Our Foreigners | Page 4

Secretary of the Province,
wrote to the Proprietors in 1729: "It looks as if Ireland is to send all its
inhabitants hither, for last week not less than six ships arrived, and
every day two or three arrive also."[1] These colonists did not remain
in the towns but, true to their traditions, pushed on to the frontier. They
found their way over the mountain trails into the western part of the
colony; they pushed southward along the fertile plateaus that terrace the
Blue Ridge Mountains and offer a natural highway to the South; into
Virginia, where they possessed themselves of the beautiful Shenandoah
Valley; into Maryland and the Carolinas; until the whole western
frontier, from Georgia to New York and from Massachusetts to Maine,
was the skirmish line of the Scotch-Irish taking possession of the
wilderness.
The rebellions of the Pretenders in Scotland in 1715 and 1745 and the
subsequent break-up of the clan system produced a considerable
migration to the colonies from both the Highlands and the Lowlands.
These new colonists settled largely in the Carolinas and in Maryland.
The political prisoners, of whom there were many in consequence of
the rebellions, were sold into service, usually for a term of fourteen
years. In Pennsylvania the Welsh founded a number of settlements in
the neighborhood of Philadelphia. There were Irish servants in all the
colonies and in Maryland many Irish Catholics joined their fellow
Catholics from England.
In 1683 a group of religious refugees from the Rhineland founded
Germantown, near Philadelphia. Soon other German communities were
started in the neighboring counties. Chief among these German

sectarians were the Mennonites, frequently called the German Quakers,
so nearly did their religious peculiarities match those of the followers
of Penn; the Dunkers, a Baptist sect, who seem to have come from
Germany boot and baggage, leaving not one of their number behind;
and the Moravians, whose missionary zeal and gentle demeanor have
made them beloved in many lands. The peculiar religious devotions of
the sectarians still left them time to cultivate their inclination for
literature and music. There were a few distinguished scholars among
them and some of the finest examples of early American books bear the
imprint of their presses.
This modest beginning of the German invasion was soon followed by
more imposing additions. The repeated strategic devastations of the
Rhenish Palatinate during the French and Spanish wars reduced the
peasantry to beggary, and the medieval social stratification of Germany
reduced them to virtual serfdom, from which America offered
emancipation. Queen Anne invited the harassed peasants of this region
to come to England, whence they could be transferred to America. Over
thirty thousand took advantage of the opportunity in the years 1708 and
1709.[2] Some of them found occupation in England and others in
Ireland, but the majority migrated, some to New York, where they
settled in the Mohawk Valley, others to the Carolinas, but far more to
Pennsylvania, where, with an instinct born of generations of contact
with the soil, they sought out the most promising areas in the limestone
valleys of the eastern part of that colony, cleared the land, built their
solid homes and ample barns, and clung to their language, customs, and
religion so tenaciously that to this day their descendants are called
"Pennsylvania Dutch."
After 1717 multitudes of German peasants were lured to America by
unscrupulous agents called "new-landers" or "soul-stealers," who, for a
commission paid by the shipmaster, lured the peasant to sell his
belongings, scrape together or borrow what he could, and migrate. The
agents and captains then saw to it that few arrived in Philadelphia out
of debt. As a result the immigrants were sold to "soul-drivers," who
took them to the interior and indentured them to farmers, usually of
their own race. These redemptioners, as they were called, served from

three to five years and generally received fifty acres of land at the
expiration of their service.
On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 French
Protestants fled in vast numbers to England and to Holland. Thence
many of them found their way to America, but very few came hither
directly from France. South Carolina, Virginia, New York, Rhode
Island, and Massachusetts were favored by those noble refugees, who
included in their numbers not only skilled artisans and successful
merchants but distinguished scholars and professional men in whose
veins flowed some of the best blood of France. They readily identified
themselves with the industries and aspirations of the colonies and at
once became leaders in the professional and business life in their
communities. In Boston, in Charleston, in New York, and in other
commercial centers, the names of streets, squares, and public buildings
attest their prominence in trade and politics. Few names are more
illustrious than those of Paul