"There is no other place where the breath of the heavens and the earth are in harmony to create a place that is so suitable as a place of residence for people."
During the Ice Age, between 34,000 and 30,000 BC, most of the water in the world froze as a vast continental ice sheet. As a result, the water level of the Bering Sea at that time was hundreds of meters lower than it is today, and a land bridge called "Beringia" appeared between the Asian and North American continents. Beringia is believed to have reached a width of approximately 1,500 kilometers at its widest. Beringia was a moist tundra without trees, covered with grass and vegetation, so large animals gathered and early humans hunted for them to survive.
It is almost certain that the first humans to reach the continent of North America went to a new continent without realizing it. They are believed to have hunted along the coast of Siberia for thousands of years, as their ancestors did, and then crossed land bridges in the pursuit of their prey.
It would have taken thousands more years for these first North Americans to reach what is now Alaska, sew through the great glaciers, and reach what is now the United States. Evidence that people lived in early North America is being discovered one after another. However, few of them can be reliably proven to be older than 12,000 BC. For example, the recently discovered hunting lookout in northern Alaska may date back to that era. The same may be true of elaborately crafted spear tips and other objects found near the city of Clovis, New Mexico.
Similar crafts have been found throughout North and South America, suggesting that humans had already built their lives in most of the Western Hemisphere, perhaps before 10,000 BC. Around that time, mammoths began to die, and bison became the main source of food and fur for these early North Americans. Over time, as more and more large prey became extinct due to overfishing and natural causes, plants, nuts, and seeds began to become more important as food sources for early Americans. Gradually, foraging and primitive early agriculture began to take place. Its pioneers were Native Americans in what is now central Mexico, who probably already cultivated corn, squash (pumpkins), legumes, etc. By 8000 BC. This knowledge of agriculture gradually spread to the north.
By 3000 BC, primitive corn had been cultivated in the river basins of what is now New Mexico and Arizona. Subsequently, traces of early irrigation began to appear, and by 300 BC, traces of early villages had begun to appear.
By the centuries AD, the Hohokam tribe lived in a village near what is now Phoenix, Arizona, with burial mounds reminiscent of a ballpark and a Mexican pyramid, as well as canals and irrigation facilities, rice field.
Mound builder and Pueblo
The Native Americans who created the first mound in what is now the United States are called the ordinance. From around 600 BC, they began to build earthen tombs and fortresses. Some of the burial mounds of that era were in the shape of birds and snakes, probably with a religious purpose, but the details have not yet been clarified.
The Adenans are believed to have been absorbed or expelled by various tribes collectively known as the "Hopewellian". One of the centers of Hopewellian culture is in what is now southern Ohio, where you can still see thousands of burial mounds. The Hopewellians were allegedly excellent traders, using and exchanging tools and materials over hundreds of kilometers of wide areas.
By about 500 AD, the Hopewellian tribe had also disappeared and was gradually replaced by a broad tribal group called the Mississippian or Temple Mound Culture. The town of Cahokia, near Collinsville, Illinois, is believed to have been home to approximately 20,000 people at its peak in the early 12th century. In the center of the town stood a soil mound with a height of 30 meters and a bottom area of 37 hectares with a flat top. In addition, burial mounds have been found in 80 nearby places.
Towns like Cahokia obtained food and necessities through hunting, wildcrafting, trading, and agriculture. Under the influence of the prosperous southern societies, these towns evolved into complex class societies, using slaves and having sacrificial habits.
In what is now the southwestern part of the United States, the Anasazi, the ancestors of today's Hopi Indians, began building stone and adobe brick Pueblo homes around 900. This is a unique and stunning apartment-style building, usually built along the surface of a cliff, with more than 200 rooms in the most famous "Palace of the Cliffs" in Mesa Verde, Colorado. Also, Pueblo Bonito, with its ruins along the Chaco River in New Mexico, once had more than 800 rooms.
It is believed that the most affluent Native Americans in the pre-Columbian era were those living in the Pacific Northwest. The area was well-stocked with fish and natural ingredients and had sufficient food to allow settlement in the village in 1000 BC. Their gorgeous "potlatch" feast was probably a luxury unlike any other in ancient America.
Native American culture
Thus, the United States, which welcomed the first Europeans, was far from an uninhabited wilderness. It is now believed that the Western Hemisphere at that time was inhabited by about the same number of people as Western Europe, or about 40 million. The number of Native Americans living in the United States today is estimated to be between 2 and 18 million when Europeans began to settle, but most historians favor the lower estimate. There is. What is certain is that the diseases brought in by Europeans have had a devastating effect on the indigenous population since the literal first contact between indigenous peoples and Europeans. Among them, smallpox is believed to have devastated several communities and, in addition to many wars and skirmishes with European settlers, was the direct cause of the sharp decline in the Indian population in the 1600s.
The customs and cultures of Indians at that time were surprisingly diverse. This is not surprising given that they have lived in vast lands and have adapted to different environments. However, there are some commonalities. Most tribes hunted, harvested, and cultivated corn as a means of food supply, especially in the forested eastern and midwestern regions. In many cases, women were responsible for agriculture and food distribution, and men's role was hunting and participation in the war.
Native American societies on the North American continent had strong ties to the land from every angle. A sense of unity with nature and the weather was an essential element of faith. Their lives were clan-centered communal living, and children were treated freely and tolerantly compared to European customs at the time.
Although some tribes in North America developed a type of hieroglyph to preserve certain documents, Native American culture was primarily oral, with an emphasis on narrative and dream narratives. There is strong evidence that trade between various groups is flourishing and that formal relationships have been maintained between neighboring tribes, whether friendly or hostile. ..
First European
The first Europeans to visit North America, at least with solid evidence, are the ancient Scandinavian people who traveled west from Greenland. Around 985, "Redhead Eric" settled in Greenland. It is believed that in 1001, Eric's son Reef explored what is now the northeastern coast of Canada and spent at least one winter there.
Scandinavian heroic biography suggests that Viking voyagers explored the Atlantic coast of North America to the Bahamas in the south, but this has not yet been proven. However, in 1963, in Reims a Medose, north of Newfoundland, the remains of an ancient Scandinavian dwelling at the time were discovered, at least partly supporting the content of the heroic biography.
Only five years after Christopher Columbus landed on a Caribbean island in search of a westbound route to Asia, Venetian captain John Cabot was ordered by the British King to Newfoundland. Arrived at. The voyage of Cabot quickly faded from people's memory, but later became the basis for Britain's claim to North America. The voyage of Cabot also discovered abundant fishing grounds off Georges Banks, which soon led to regular visits by Portuguese and other European fishing vessels.
Columbus never saw the continent that would later become the United States with his own eyes, but the first continental expedition was dispatched from the Spanish territory where he contributed to its establishment. The first was dispatched in 1513, and an expedition led by Juan Ponce de Leon landed near what is now the city of St. Augustine on the Florida coast.
Spain conquered Mexico in 1522, further consolidating its position in the Western Hemisphere. Several subsequent discoveries deepened European knowledge of "America." The current name "America" is named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian who wrote a voyage to the "New World" and gained widespread popularity. By 1529, a reliable map of the Atlantic coast from the Labrador Peninsula to Tierra del Fuego had been created, but by the time the hope of discovering a "northwestern route" to Asia was completely abandoned, one more will take centuries.
One of the most important of the early Spanish expeditions was Hernando De Soto. De Soto was one of the veteran "conquerors" who had accompanied Francisco Pizarro to the conquest of Peru. De Soto's expedition left Havana in 1539 in search of wealth, landed in Florida, passed through the southeastern United States, and reached the Mississippi River.
Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, also Spanish, left Mexico in 1540 to search for the seven legendary towns of Ciboria. He reached The Grand Canyon and Kansas but was unable to find the gold and treasures his companions were looking for. However, the Coronado expedition unintentionally left a wonderful gift to the people in the area they visited. Many of the expedition's horses escaped and changed the lives of the people of the Great Plains. Over the next few generations, Plains Indians became equestrian masters, greatly expanding the scope and scale of their activities.
While the Spaniards were moving north from south, the northern part of the United States today was gradually made known to the world by explorers such as Giovanni da Verrazano. Verrazzano, a Florence man who was sailing for the French royal family, landed in North Carolina in 1524 and then sailed north along the Atlantic coast to reach beyond what is now New York Bay Ten years later, the Frenchman Jacques Cartier, like the Europeans before, set out with the dream of discovering a route to Asia. Cartier explored along the St. Lawrence River and laid the groundwork for France's claims in North America. This right lasted until 1763.
In 1585, Raleigh established North America's first British colony on Roanoke Island, off North Carolina. This settlement was later abandoned, and the second settlement, which was established two years later, also failed. It was 20 years later that Britain tried to settle again. This colony, Jamestown, founded in 1607, was successful and North America entered a new era.
Early settlement
In the early 1600s, a huge wave of immigrants began to rush from Europe to North America. Over the next three centuries, this trend has expanded from hundreds of British settlers to millions of new immigrants. Driven by a variety of strong motives, they built a new civilization in the northern part of the North American continent.
The first British immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean towards what is now the United States long after the prosperous Spanish colonies were established in Mexico, the West Indies, and South America. Like the early settlers of the New World, British immigrants were packed into small boats and crossed the sea. Food was scarce during the 6-12 week voyage. Many people died of illness, ships were frequently hit by storms, and some disappeared in the waves.
Most European immigrants sought a new world to escape political repression, seeking religious freedom, or seek opportunities not available in their home countries. From 1620 to 1635, the whole of Britain was in recession and many could not find a job. Even a skilled craftsman could barely earn enough to make a living. Poor crop crops exacerbated the situation. The commercial revolution sprouted the textile industry, and an increased wool supply was required to keep looms running. The landowner surrounded the farmland and expelled the peasants for sheep. The expansion of the colony became an outlet for the lost peasants.
The first thing the settlers saw on the new land was the deep forest as far as the eye could see. The settlers may not have survived without the help of the kind Indians who taught them to grow native crops such as pumpkins, beans, and corn. The vast primeval forest, which stretches for 2,100 kilometers along the east coast, has also become a treasure trove of hunting prey, firewood, and raw materials for making homes, furniture, and exports.
The new continent was blessed with abundant nature, but had to rely on trade with Europe for goods that the settlers could not produce on their own. The east coast was convenient for immigrants. There were many coves and harbors throughout the east coast. There were only two regions without ports for ocean-going vessels, North Carolina and southern New Jersey.
Many majestic rivers, including Kennebec, Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, and Potomac, served to connect the land between the coast and the Appalachian Mountains to the sea. However, the only waterway to the Great Lakes and the center of the continent was the French-controlled St. Lawrence River in Canada. Deep forests, resistance from some Indian tribes, and the large barriers of the Appalachian Mountains prevented the settlement from the coastal plain to the depths. Only fur hunters and traders went into the wilderness. For the first 100 years, settlers created small settlements along the coast.
Influenced by political reasons, many people emigrated to the United States. In the 1630s, the tyranny of Charles I of England spurred immigration. Then, in the 1640s, when the opposition led by Oliver Cromwell revolutionized Charles I and won, many knights who served the king sought a new world in Virginia. In the German-speaking world of Europe, particularly religion-repressive policies implemented by the monarchs of various small nations and the devastation of a long and continuous war caused a surge in migration to the United States from the end of the 17th century to the 18th century.
Traveling to the United States not only required careful planning and coping skills, but was also costly and risky. The settlers had to travel nearly 5,000 kilometers across the sea. It was necessary to bring cooking utensils, clothes, seeds, tools, building materials, livestock, weapons, ammunition, etc. In contrast to the colonial policies of other countries of different times, immigrants from Britain were directly supported by private organizations, primarily for profit, rather than by the government.
Jamestown
The first British settlement to take root in North America was Jamestown. In 1607, a group of about 100 men sets out for the Chesapeake Bay, based on a letter issued by King James I of England to the Virginia Company (or London Company). They chose a location about 60 kilometers up the James River from the bay to avoid clashes with the Spaniards.
The settlers were a group of urbanites and adventurers who were more interested in looking for gold than in agriculture and lacked the energy and ability to start a whole new life in the wilderness. Among them, Captain John Smith emerged as an influential person. Despite problems such as controversy, hunger, and Native American attacks, Smith's ability to keep discipline helped the small colony survive the first year.
When Captain Smith returned to England in 1609, Jamestown without he fell into disorder. During the winter of 1609-1610, most of the settlers fell ill. Of the 300 settlers at the time, only 60 were alive as of May 1610. That same year, the town of Henrico (now Richmond) was founded further up the James River.
Shortly thereafter, something new happened that would revolutionize Virginia's economy. In 1612, John Rolfe crossed tobacco seeds imported from the West Indies with indigenous seeds and began producing new varieties of tobacco that suit European tastes. The first shipment of this cigarette arrived in London in 1614 and became Virginia's main source of income in less than a decade.
However, prosperity did not come immediately, and mortality from illness and Indian attacks remained surprisingly high. Between 1607 and 1624, approximately 14,000 people migrated to Jamestown, but as of 1624, there were only 1132 survivors. In the same year, the King of England disbanded the Virginia Company and made Jamestown a crown colony, following the recommendations of the Royal Commission.
Massachusetts
During the period of religious change in the 16th century, a group of men and women called Puritans tried to reform the Anglican Church from the inside. They called for a simpler form of Calvin Protestant belief and worship instead of Roman Catholic rituals and organizations. The Puritan reform ideas threatened to divide the people by destroying the unity of the Anglican Church and weakening the power of the royal family.
In 1607, a small group of radical Puritans, the Secessions, who believed that the Anglican Church could not be reformed, headed to the city of Leiden, the Netherlands, where they were granted asylum. However, the Calvin Dutch gave them only low-paying manual labor. Some separatist churches were dissatisfied with this discrimination and decided to move to the New World.
In 1620, a group of Puritans from the city of Leiden secured a land patent from the Virginia Company. A total of 101 Puritans sets sail for Virginia on the Mayflower. They were swept far north due to a storm and landed in Cape Cod, New England. They considered themselves, not under the jurisdiction of any governmental organization and drafted a formal agreement to comply with the "fair and equal law" drafted by their chosen leaders. This is the "Mayflower Compact".
The Mayflower arrived in Plymouth Bay in December. And the so-called "Pilgrim Fathers" began to build colonies during the winter. Nearly half of the settlers died from the cold and illness, but the nearby Wampanoag Indians provided information on how to survive. It was a method of growing corn. By the fall of the following year, corn was abundant and trade in fur and timber was on the rise.
In 1630, a new wave of immigrants patented by King Charles I of England reached Massachusetts Bay. Many were Puritans. In Britain, the act of Puritan religion was increasingly forbidden. The Puritan leader John Winthrop built a "mountain-top town" in the New World, where he urged his followers to live strictly according to religious beliefs and to set an example for all Christians.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony played an important role in the development of the entire New England region. One of the reasons is that Winthrop and his fellow Puritans were able to bring a letter of a patent. Thus, the authority to govern this colony existed in Massachusetts, not in Britain.
Under the provisions of this letter, power belonged to a general assembly of "free people." Being a Puritan or a member of the Congregational Church was a "Freedman" qualification. This ensured that the Puritans had religious and political dominance in this colony. The General Assembly elected Governor, but John Winthrop was elected Governor for almost a generation.
Not everyone liked the strict legitimacy of Puritan rule. One of the first openly opposed to the General Assembly was a young minister named Roger Williams. He opposed the colonies' confiscation of Indian lands and insisted on the separation of church and state. A woman named Anne Hutchinson also challenged the main principles of Puritan theological theory. The two were banished with their followers.
Williams purchased land from the Narragansett Indians in 1636. It is now Providence City, Rhode Island. In 1644, the Puritan-controlled British Parliament supported him and granted Rhode Island a patent to create a colony that would achieve complete separation of church and state and religious freedom.
It wasn't just the so-called "mavericks," like Williams, who left Massachusetts. Soon the Orthodox Puritans also began to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony in search of better land and opportunities. For example, rumors of fertile land in the Connecticut River basin have caught the attention of farmers who were struggling to farm lean land. By the early 1630s, many were seeking deep, rich soil and flat land, even at the risk of Indian attacks. The new communities, thus created often abolished the rules that qualify for voting as members of the Church, resulting in the suffrage of more and more men.
At the same time, as more and more immigrants sought land and freedom that the New World could offer, other settlements began to emerge along the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine.
New Netherland and Maryland
Henry Hudson, hired by the Dutch East India Company, explored what is now New York City and the area around the Hudson River, which he named, perhaps north of what is now Albany, New York. .. The Dutch continued to sail the area, solidifying the grounds for sovereignty and building early settlements.
Like the French north of it, the Dutch were initially interested in the fur trade. To that end, they established a close relationship with the Iroquois Five Tribes, who had power in the heart of the fur region. In 1617, Dutch settlers built a fort at the intersection of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, now the city of Albany.
Settlement in Manhattan began in the early 1620s. In 1624, the island was acquired by a local Native American. The purchase price was $ 24. The island was immediately renamed "New Amsterdam".
To attract settlers to the Hudson River basin, the Dutch encouraged a kind of feudal aristocratic system called the "Patroon system". In 1630, the first huge territory was built along the Hudson River. Under the Patroon system, the shareholder manor owner, Patroon, is given 25 miles of land along the river instead of bringing 50 adults to the territory over four years, with exclusive rights to fishing and hunting. , And was given civil and criminal jurisdiction over the land. In return, Patroon provided livestock, tools, and To attract settlers to the Hudson River basin, the Dutch encouraged a kind of feudal aristocratic system called the "Patroon system". In 1630, the first huge territory was built along the Hudson River. Under the Patroon system, the shareholder manor owner, Patroon, is given 25 miles of land along the river instead of bringing 50 adults to the territory over four years, with exclusive rights to fishing and hunting. , And was given civil and criminal jurisdiction over the land. In return, Patroon provided livestock, tools, and buildings. The lessee paid Patroon a leasehold fee and gave Patroon the right to pre-purchase surplus crops.
Three years later, further south, a Swedish trading company affiliated with the Netherlands began to build its first colony along the Delaware River. However, the colony "New Sweden" did not have the resources to consolidate its position and was gradually absorbed by New Netherland and later by Pennsylvania and Delaware.
In 1632, the Catholic Calvert family was granted a letter of the patent by King Charles I of England to settle in later Maryland, north of the Potomac River. The settlement did not explicitly prohibit the establishment of non-Protestant churches, making the settlement a refuge for Catholics. In 1634, Maryland's first town, St. Mary's, was found near the point where the Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay.
While the Culverts established shelters for Catholics, who were increasingly persecuted in Anglican-controlled Britain, they were also interested in building profitable territories. To that end, and also to avoid problems with the British government, the Culverts encouraged Protestant immigrants.
Maryland's letter of patent contained a mixture of feudal and modern elements. While the Culverts had the authority to build mansions, they could not enact the law without the consent of the free people (landowners). They had to provide the settlers with farmland, not just manor Crofts, to attract the settlers and benefit from the leased land. As a result, the number of independent farms has increased and their owners have demanded a say in the settlements. In Maryland, the first parliament was held in 1635.
The relationship between colonies and Indians
By 1640 Britain had established colonies on the coasts of New England and the Chesapeake Bay. Between the two places was a Dutch community and a small Swede community. And to the west, Native Americans lived. They were called "Indians" at the time.
The Indian tribes of the eastern North American continent were sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile to Europeans, but they were no longer strangers. Native Americans benefited from new technologies and trade, but the illnesses brought about by early settlers and their desire to own land were also serious problems for the long-cultivated lifestyle.
Initially, trading with European settlers benefited from the acquisition of knives, axes, weapons, cooking utensils, hooks, and many other items. The Indian tribes who first traded with the settlers were able to gain a significant advantage over the other tribes. In response to the demands of Europeans, tribes such as the Iroquois began to focus on fur hunting in the 17th century. Until the second half of the 18th century, fur and rawhide became a means of purchasing goods from settlers for Indian tribes.
The relationship between settlers and Native Americans during the early colonial era was volatile, with a mixture of cooperation and conflict. While there was an exemplary relationship as seen in the first half-century of the Province of Pennsylvania, there was a series of long-term deteriorations, skirmishes, and wars. In that case, the Indians were always defeated and lost more land.
One of the earliest significant rebellions by Native Americans occurred in Virginia in 1622. The rebellion killed 347 white people, including several missionaries who had just arrived in Jamestown.
The Peacoat War broke out in 1637, triggered by the settlement of whites in the Connecticut River basin. In 1675, King Philip, the son of the chieftain who first made peace with the Pilgrims in 1621, tried to unite the tribes of southern New England to stop European land containment. However, King Philip died in the battle, and many Indians were sold as slaves.
The lives of Native Americans were disrupted by the influx of settlers into the eastern undeveloped land.
As many preys were killed and extinct, indigenous peoples were faced with the difficult choice of starving, fighting, or moving west to confront other tribes.
The Iroquois, who lived in northern New York and Pennsylvania in the southern regions of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, succeeded in blocking the invasion of Europeans. In 1570, the five tribes united to form the "Ho De No Sau Nee". It had the most complex form of a Native American nation at the time. The Iroquois Union was run by a council of 50 representatives from the five-member tribes. The council dealt with issues common to all tribes, but each tribe was free and equal, and the council had no decision on the day-to-day operations of each tribe. No tribe was allowed to wage war on its own. The council has passed a law dealing with crimes such as murder.
The Iroquois Union was a powerful force throughout the 1600s and 1700s. The coalition traded fur with the British and assisted Britain in the war over US rule from 1754 to 1763 against France. Without the cooperation of the Iroquois, Britain could not have won the war.
The Iroquois coalition maintained its power until the American Revolutionary War. However, during the Revolutionary War, the coalition's council was unable to reach a unanimous conclusion for the first time over which to support. Each member tribe made its own decision and was divided into a tribe that fights with Britain, a tribe that fights with settlers, and a tribe that remains neutral. As a result, every tribe has to fight other tribes. The Iroquois Union suffered great losses and could never recover.
Second-generation British colony
Religious conflicts and civil wars in Britain in the mid-17th century reduced immigration and diminished interest in the new colonies of the United States.
For one thing, the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven colonies formed the New England Confederation in 1643 in response to Britain's neglect of defense measures. This was the first regional integration attempt by European settlers.
Looking at the early history of British settlers, we can see that various groups competed for status and power both internally and in the neighborhood, and there was considerable religious and political conflict. The Province of Maryland, in particular, was affected by the fierce religious conflict in Britain during the time of Oliver Cromwell. The victim of such conflict was the Colonial Religious Tolerance Act (1649), which was abolished in the 1650s. But the law will soon be revived, with provisions that guarantee religious freedom.
Britain regained interest in North America with the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, and in a short period the first European colony was built in Carolina and the Netherlands was expelled from New Nederland. New monopoly colonies have been built in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.
The Dutch settlements were governed by a tyrannical governor appointed in Europe. Over time, the settlers became estranged from these governors. As a result, when British settlers began to erode Dutch territory on Long Island and Manhattan, the unpopular governor was unable to rally people for defense. Thus, New Netherland fell in 1664. However, the conditions for surrender were mild, and Dutch settlers were able to retain their property as well as their freedom of worship.
Already in the 1650s, settlers from Virginia lived around what is now Albemarle Bay on the northern coast of North Carolina. The first governor arrived in 1664. The Alabama region is still remote, but the first town was created here after the arrival of the French Huguenots in 1704.
In 1670, the first settlers arrived from New England and the Caribbean island of Barbados in what is now Charleston, South Carolina. The new colony had a complex system of governance that was contributed by the British philosopher John Locke. One of its major characteristics is the unsuccessful attempt to adopt a hereditary aristocracy. One of the least desirable aspects of this colony was the early trade in Indian slaves. However, over time, timber, rice, indigo, and other products have laid a more valuable economic base.
In 1681, William Penn, a wealthy Quaker, and friend of King Charles II of England, was given vast lands west of the Delaware River, which became known as Pennsylvania. Penns actively attracted a variety of non-nationalists from Britain and the European continent, including Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, and Baptists to increase Pennsylvania's population.
The following year, by the time Penn arrived, there were already Dutch, Swedish, and British settlers along the Delaware River. Penn founded "Philadelphia," which means "town of brotherhood," there.Faithful to his beliefs, Penn was inspired by a sense of equality that was rarely seen in the American colonies of the time. Therefore, in Pennsylvania, women were given rights much earlier than in other parts of the United States. Penn and his lieutenants also emphasized their relationship with the Delaware Indians, ensuring that the Indians were paid for the land settled by Europeans.
Georgia was settled in 1732, making it the 13th colony. Although not surrounded by Spanish Florida, Georgia, adjacent to it, was considered a buffer zone against the Spanish invasion. However, Georgia had another characteristic. General James Oglethorpe, who was responsible for the fortification of Georgia, was a reformist and deliberately sought to create shelters that would provide new opportunities for the poor and former prisoners.
Settlers, slaves, and servants
Those who were not actively interested in their new life in the United States have often emigrated to the New World, often with the ingenious persuasion of solicitors. William Penn, for example, advertised an opportunity awaiting immigrants to the Province of Pennsylvania. Judges and prison officers also gave convicted individuals the opportunity to relocate to colonies such as Georgia instead of serving them in prison.
However, few settlers could afford to travel for themselves and their families to start a new life in the new world. The captain sometimes sold the labor contracts of poor migrants, called contract servants, for a large amount of compensation. And all means were used, from exorbitant promises to actual kidnappings, to get as many migrants on the ship as possible.
In some cases, like the Virginia Company and the Massachusetts Bay Company, colonial companies paid for the travel and maintenance costs of the settlers. Instead, the settlers promised to work as contract servants for the company, usually for four to seven years. At the end of that period, they were free and given "free allowances." This sometimes included small lands.
Perhaps half of the settlers who lived in the colonies south of New England were those who came to the United States under this system. Most of them faithfully fulfilled their obligations, but some escaped from their employers. Yet, in the end, many of them were able to secure land and own homes in the first colonies they settled in or in neighboring colonies. There was no social prejudice against clans who came to the United States under such a semi-restraint system. Each colony had a leader from a yearly servant.
However, there was one very important exception. It is an African slave. Black Africans were first brought to Virginia in 1619, just 12 years after Jamestown was founded. Initially, many of them were considered to be annual servants who could eventually gain freedom. However, as the demand for workers on large colonial plantations in the south increased, by the 1660s they were gradually tightly bound by the slavery that surrounded them. Africans have been shackled and brought to the United States to be forced into labor for the rest of their lives.
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