 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It was the motivation behind the immigration that created the varying and often widely different societies built by the colonists. In New England, the motivating factor in immigration was religious freedom, while in Virginia and the southern colonies, though deeply religious, the motivating factor was wealth. To New England came the Pilgrim, the Puritan each with deeply held religious convictions about the Church of England. To Virginia and the South came the younger sons of the aristocracy seeking wealth and status, the skilled craftsman and merchant seeking increased wealth and opportunity and the farmer or yeoman seeking a fresh future and an hiterto unknown opportunity. We see this clearly with the halt of immigration among British Puritans with the advent of Oliver Cromwell. With the persecution of Puritans halted in England and a Puritan in power. there was no longer any need to emigrate. Life in colonial America was overwhelmingly rural and most people were employed in farming, with a small minority in farming and community support occupations. Due to the poor soil in New England, which limited the production to an individual family with little surplus, the majority of New Englander's turned to the sea for their livlihood becoming fishermen, shipbuilders, merchants an sailors, trading with the West Indies, England and Spain. Farmhouses in New England were simple and scantily furnished. There were, in the cities of New England, fine homes of brick and wooden mansions with rich, imported furniture and tableware.
Most Puritans were small landholders and Puritans tended to settle near towns, both for convenience as well as protection from the Indians. These towns, with their unpaved, stump filled streets, provided the Puritan with the local church, as well as supplies and community fellowship. Three buildings formed the basis of all the towns: the church, the tavern and the blockhouse. Puritan churches were log buildings, unheated and filled with benches for the parisioners. Horns or drums called the parisioners to service, where the people sat in social rank and listened to long, fiery sermons. The local tavern provided not only lodging but also a social gathering point for the local citizenry. As such, the tavern was considered to be a necessity such that those towns not having a tavern were fined by the General Court. Men, women and children drank rum, beer and eider. The tavern keeper was principally a man such as the schoolmaster or choir leader, a member of the town council, land agent or surveryor and was required to be a man of good character. He was not allowed to sell strong drinks to drunkards. The blockhouse, built of logs and containing portholes such that the occupants could fire down directly upon a besieging enemy. The blockhouse provided community safety and any threat would send the citizens of the community to the blockhouse for mutual protection and safety.
In New York, the soil was rich and fertile, unlike in New England, and the majority of people were engaged in farming. New York was also a major trade center both with foreign countries, as well as with the other colonies. Here the Indian fur trade was centered. The center of all maritime commerce was New York City, with rivals in Boston and Philadelphia. The patroon system of New York, based upon the Dutch origin, flavored the character of the society of New York and created a unique city. Long after the Dutch had surrendered New Amsterdam to the English, New York continued the patroon system. The patroon lived in luxurious, well-built brick or stone homes along with a retinue of servants, large barns, orchards and gardens along with broad pasture lands. His tenants were scattered for miles around him, living as a feudal lord of the Middle Ages. The majority of the citizens of New York were Dutch and they held tenaciously to the customs and habits of Holland. These were industrious, religious people dwelling in small wooden or brick houses with sanded floors, high, steep pitched roofs and notably in the villages with gable ends. The window panes were very small and the doors, with a brass knocker, were divided into an upper and lower section, allowing the top to be open to allow air and sunshine into the home. In the country, houses were placed as near together as possible, creating village streets. In each home was a fireplace, usually decorated with imported tiles from Holland, these usually being scripture scenes. Dutch farmhouses were unique in that they each had a stoop, which on summer evenings, would offer family community socializing in the evenings, as the men smoked long Dutch pipes. More liberal in games and amusements than the Puritans, the Dutch were the essence of pastoral contentment, thrift and plenty. The Dutch continued their customs and language for two centuries but following the Revolution, gradually lost their identity and their language. Eastern New Jersey resembled New England, from which many had come to settle. In western New Jersey, the Quakers predominated and their live resembled life in Pennsylvania. The soil was fertile and the majority of the settlers were engaged in farming. Pennsylvania was unique. Though there were many Quakers, they were outnumbered by other sects including Germans, Irish, Scot-Irish, Welsh and Swedes. Tolerance in the Pennsylvania government encouraged many to come to Pennsylvania including Lutherans, Presbyterians, Dunkards, Moravians, Baptists, Anabaptists, Pietists, and Mennonites, as well as Methodists, Episcopalians and Roman Catholics. It seemed that only the Germans and Scot-Irish had conflict and created separate communities across the colony, while the English predominated in urban Philadelphia. There was frequent strife between the Quakers and Scot-Irish and later we find the Scot-Irish uniting with the Germans to retain their position in the legislature. Farming provided the chief means of livlihood, though many were engaged in the fur trade and yet more in foreign commerce and early in the 18th century, the iron industry was begun in Pennsylvania.
In Maryland and Virginia, the social atmosphere changes greatly for here there was little to no town life. The entire society was established around rural settlements. There were few villages and those that existed were insignificant. At the head of society was the planter and the sole production of agricultre was tobacco. Great estates were situated along the rivers marked by a large plantation house with surrounding out buildings, including slave huts, tobacco houses, barns, stables and the plantation offices. This then created a small village on each plantation. The planter's life was similar to the lord's in England, a life of stylish fashions, blooded horses, carriages and body servants. The Southerner was known for his hospitality and great cordiality, eagerly inviting travelers into his home for the night and some planters even maintained a room in their home, which was always available to any traveler both known and unknown. Such was the hallmark of Celtic civilizations of the past and the Southern planter was most often of Celtic ancestry and tradition. Even the small farmer in the South, extended hospitality to all, irrespective of class. More numerous than the planters, the small farmer rarely owned slaves and many of them rose to join the planter aristocracy through thrift and hard work.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
