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Who were the immigrant groups that settled in Colonial Virginia, and
what can artifacts reveal about the population and personality of
Colonial Virginia?
From the beginning, the Europeans who came to America had two
dreams: There was the dream of riches, of America as the land of gold and
silver. And there was a dream of a New World, a place where they could stretch
their legs and pursue happiness unable to be achieved in the ever-crowded,
ever-warring European countries. These dreams have kept immigrants risking
the long journeys and the fear of the unknown throughout the years. These
dreams have brought many cultures, both willing and unwilling, to North
America, but, ironically, it was these dreams’ pull that made America very
different from the countries they left behind, made up of a multitude of cultures
meshing to make one. Though students are taught about these cultures and
who they were, specifically the English, Africans, Germans, and Scotch-Irish, and
even that they made Virginia different than Great Britain, little is explained HOW
they contributed to making Virginia and America the unique place it is today.
The desire to move west from Europe and explore the New World was not
unique to the English culture, but, “from 1578 to 1625 more than thirty Englishspeaking settlements were planted in what is now the United States,” (Fischer
and Kelly 13) more than any other culture. These English were from
backgrounds ranging from the wealthy upper class, to the debt-laden lower
class, but their origins tended to be similar. Most shared the same faith, most
were of the same generation, and most came from the same area in the south of
England. Reasons for coming also tended to be similar. England, during this
time period, had an economy of scarcity where land, work, and food were all in
short supply. This push combined with the American pulling power of land, jobs,
and religious freedom created the English being “the largest single group of
immigrants who came to the colonies of British North America during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries…” (Spickard 48) Most of these European
migrants came the only way they could afford, as indentured servants, often
times enduring horrible conditions on boats only to arrive in an uncertain place,
with an uncertain future, obligated to work off their indenture for a certain
amount of years. Once the debts were paid off, the English settled mostly in the
Tidewater region of Virginia and became farmers of the blossoming cash crop,
tobacco. These English families were different in Virginia than in other areas.
“Patriarch was a word that came often to Virginia lips, and family referred to
everyone under his protection.” (Fischer and Kelly 50) The tradition of “dining”
versus “eating” was largely an English one who “ran a regime of roasting,
grilling, frying, and stewing.” (Fischer and Kelly 51) This tradition manifested
with tablecloths and silver and special tea services that “reached even into the
poorest Chesapeake cottages.” (Fischer and Kelly 53) Virginia’s English culture,
much like its homeland, was one of rank. This piece of culture, though not one
that survived in America, is able to explain another aspect of American culture
that lasted deep into American history. “Liberties were not inalienable rights but
were possessed in proportion to one’s rank.” (Fischer and Kelly 54) Because of
this ingrained belief, slavery was able to thrive and add a rather unexpected part
of American culture today.
Although the 18th century saw a huge population boom because of the
immigration of European settlers trying to find a better life, the involuntary
immigrants made an impressive contribution as well. In fact, the number of
people from Africa coming to America “rocketed from just over 20,000 in 1700 to
well over 400,000 in 1770.” (170 Roark) The colonies in the south specialized in
growing tobacco, which required much labor to keep up with the growing
demand in England and in other parts of Colonial America. Unlike the indentured
servants, these Africans did not choose to come to America. Most of these
Africans had been born into a free family within a short distance of the western
coast of Africa. Captured in war, kidnapped, or sold into slavery by other
Africans, they were brought to the coast, sold to an African trader, and sold
again to European slave traders who bought them for shipment to the New
World. Within months, these people had their lives utterly transformed. They
had been stolen from their homes, shackled, confined and beaten, transported
thousands of miles across the Atlantic, and then sold to colonists in a place they
had never heard of, speaking a language they couldn’t understand, and then
forced to do work continuously for the rest of their lives. Though Africans were
thought of as backwards and primitive, they were people who adapted to
western culture well while retaining a bit of their own in the process. “The role
of women was different…their status perhaps higher, their culture role stronger.”
(Fischer and Kelly 63) Because of strict slave laws, blacks improvised new
traditions and ceremonies, because of not being free themselves; a theme of
freedom was expressed in their banjo music and dancing. Food in Virginia was
also greatly impacted by the African culture. Africans brought with them sweet
potatoes, okra, rice, peanuts, and peppers, not to mention the influences they
brought with them into the kitchen of many an English home during the 18th
century, and in the process, helping make Virginia something that could never
quite be English.
By the 1700’s, Virginia was the largest English colony in North America.
Most people were settled in the areas closest to the Chesapeake Bay and the
Atlantic Ocean, or along the river basins, but, in 1716, Alexander Spotswood,
lieutenant governor of Virginia at the time,explored beyond the Blue Ridge
Mountains of Virginia for the first time, blazing the way for the settlers who were
starting to have big dreams about the west. “Although the Blue Ridge Mountains
hindered immigration [in the Shenandoah Valley] from eastern Virginia,
southward travel from Pennsylvania was easy.” (Hornbook) Germans and ScotsIrish settlers flooded into the Valley of Virginia to grow wheat and other grains
and made the Virginia backcountry a land of small farms, but were these new
Virginians, different than the other migrants, traveling down the Great Wagon
Road from Philadelphia rather than by sea?
It’s easy to forget that Germany during the mid 18th century “was not yet
a nation, but a collection of principalities stretching from the mouth of the Rhine
in Holland up to the Alps in Switzerland…“ (Spickard 54) These Germans were
pushed out of their homeland by overpopulation, harsh winters, taxes,
persecution, and “tyranny in a European world that was a system of organized
bullying…” (Fischer and Kelly 112) At first these deeply religious, family oriented
immigrants went to Pennsylvania, but once Spotswood opened up the Valley of
Virginia, many travelled down south. “By the time of the American Revolution,
German farms and villages were planted all along the Allegheny foothills and into
the Carolina backcountry.” (Spickard 54) The typical German immigrants first
served as indentured servants, whose fare to the new world was paid by their
future employer. Indenture voyages were miserable ones with over-crowding,
disease, and malnutrition. If they survived the journey, German indentured
servants were then obligated to work for this employer for four to seven years
before being able to start a life of their own. Like most 18th century immigrants,
the Germans were farmers who cultivated carefully, “quickly gaining a reputation
for being the best farmers in colonial America.” (Robbins 34) In addition,
German immigrant families tended to live frugally in respect to diet, furniture,
and clothing. Because Germans tended to concentrate in specific areas, it made
it possible to preserve their culture more than the typical immigrant. The payoff
was that “the English-speaking colonists came to mistrust the Germans and
some…came to look upon them as foreign, as outsiders, as people who didn’t
belong in America.” (Robbins 37) Though the language and seclusion have been
lost, indispensable contributions such as the Conestoga wagon and the frontier
rifle changed Virginia and have persisted to present-day, despite the other
cultures that settled in and became their neighbors in the Great Valley of
Virginia.
The Scotch-Irish were part of the thousands of British immigrant groups
that began to flood into America in the mid 18th century. “Many thousands of
them ended up in the same back country zone as the Germans, stretching from
Pennsylvania to Georgia.” (Spickard 55) The Scotch-Irish, often described as selfreliant, independent, and hard working, were the people who first emigrated to
the Ulster area of Northern Ireland from the lowlands of Scotland, where they
quickly became servants to the English colonizers in Ireland while “surrounded
by a hostile people whom they despised, yet themselves regarded as inferior by
the ruling English.” (Rourk 898) Because of this situation, in addition to warring
clans, rising costs, and a desire to own farmland of their own, the Scotch-Irish
became the largest immigrant group, besides Africans, coming to America in the
mid 18th century. Despite the troublesome push of their homeland, these people
had a positive view of their future life in America. The Scotch-Irish brought with
them several ambitions that provided some of the building blocks of the
emerging American character. These tendencies included a wish for true
independence, a desire to expand one’s abilities and potential in life, and a vision
that the future was not set, nor was it based upon ideals of class. Many of the
original Scotch-Irish settlers came to America as indentured servants. Once their
periods of servitude were over, the Scotch-Irish began to look for areas to settle.
However, the English and the Germans typically already owned the best land
near the coast and rivers in the Colonies. The Scotch-Irish, as a result, had to
look farther inland for land to own and develop. Despite the obstacles, the
Scots-Irish have had a continuing effect on the American landscape. America’s
modern country music that relies heavily on harmony and a jig-type tempo is a
direct outlet of Scotch-Irish music that these determined settlers brought with
them to America. In addition, dancing in the form of clogging is very common
and is very much a direct line to the Scotch-Irish heritage of the area. The ScotIrish also contributed the log cabin, the importance of clan households, not to
mention new ways of cooking and speaking. The Scotch-Irish settlers have had a
major long-lasting impact on the development of America, especially its
character. America is still the land where people persevere and improve their lot
in life; people are independent and hardy; and people foster a sense of
community and attachment. These are all qualities that have descended from the
early Scots-Irish settlers who made America the land of their choice.
England, like many European immigrants, had a dream of creating a
colony that would bring its homeland power and wealth. In order to realize this
dream, they marketed their colony to the masses of unhappy folks in tumultuous
Europe. Because of this wonderful, albeit unexpected, mix of cultures, Virginia
became a diverse population, with many stories to share, though, at the same
time it became a place that needed to change its original framework, one so
different than its parent. By piecing together the stories of these immigrants,
Virginians are able to see who we really are, and what kind of blood runs
through the veins of our great Commonwealth.