What factors drew people away from the British Isles and towards the New World?

The British who settled in Jamestown were employees of the Virginia Company, whose stockholders controlled all the English claims to land in the colony. Once the English recognized that the colony's value was based on tobacco, and that tobacco required large tracts of land to be successfully grown, the company began encouraging immigration by promising land to settlers. Three ships: Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery brought the initial colonists to Jamestown on May 13, 1607. Although the colony was initially beset by troubles in its early years of foundation, such as disease from swamplands and later starvation, by the 1630s, 1640s and 1650s the Virginian region was being steadily settled and in this period would become one of the main tobacco growing regions in the world. Although prices went down, production escalated through this period. This is supported by the statement in Hugh Brogans book that ‘in 1619 they produced 20,000 pounds of tobacco at three shillings a pound. By 1639 this had expanded to 1,500,000 pounds at three pence a pound and by 1640 Virginia had a population of over 10,000, making it the largest settlement within the Americas, which it would remain until after the revolution’ for independence from the British. Tobacco was a highly profitable crop, evident in the fact that the local growers knew it as ‘Brown Gold’. This is the main reason that Virginia prospered in this time. The fact that a cash-yielding crop could be grown as well as staple food crops, would ensure that this region would never have to again suffer the privations of the ‘starving time’ that had affected the initial colony in 1609.

The main group of people that came after the first settlers, to populate colonial territories such as Jamestown, were indentured servants. Using primary source documentation pertaining to the numbers of indentured people shipped from Bristol between 1654-1686, it shows records for 10573 having left the port within this time period. It also shows that the Average Length of Indenture was  4.4 years, with the average length for males 4.43 years and the average length for females 4.3 years. Although some of the final destinations for these servants are Barbados and Jamaica, over fifty percent of the shipping was bound for Virginia and in smaller numbers Maryland and New England. The total shown as shipped by destination are 5053 to Virginia, 172 to Maryland and 161 to New England. Of the 10573 records of shipping, 2432 are shown as females, spinster or singlewoman and 7903 are shown as males. This proves that the ratio of men to woman relocating to the New World was approximately seventy five percent males and twenty five percent females. Occupations shown are varied, but include yeomen, husbandmen, watchmakers, tanners, colliers, bakers, tailors and labourers to name but a few trades from the many shown recorded. The main theme of occupations throughout this record shows that in the predominance, tradesmen and artisans are the norm for these voyages. Farmers outnumber the skilled workers almost two to one and the combined farmers and skilled workers outnumber the labourers more than five to one. Gentlemen and professional men make up a little less than one percent.Furthermore, the records of transport show that the most common length of service for both male and female was either four or five years. The records from this period also show how far from the port of Bristol people came to take part in the voyage. As well as listing areas such as Bristol, Cardiff, Somerset, Cornwall, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, there are a number of servants’ place of origin from as far away as Essex, Lancashire and even as far as Londonderry and Dublin in Ireland. There is no information in this particular record of servant’s ages, but it is reasonable to suppose that they were made up of predominantly young, single, professional trade’s people, free to make the journey. According to Mildred Campbell ‘[T]he majority were between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four, with twenty-one and twenty-two predominating-just the age when young tradesmen were finishing their apprenticeship.’ This is also confirmed in other writings ‘Three-quarters of the 5000 indentured migrants…were men, mostly under twenty-five years of age.’ 

As an indentured servant, life was hard; masters ruled their servants with a firm hand. They were frequently beaten for perceived bad behaviour and permission to marry could be withheld. A master could get grants of extension to a service contract if a servant ran away or became pregnant. If his employer saw a servant as uncooperative, his contract could be sold to another planter. It is stated that ‘servants were sold up and down like horses’ and that half the men died before receiving their freedom, and another quarter remained poor. The remaining quarter acquired property and respectability. However, as bad as this may sound, his chances in Britain were unlikely to have been much better. Throughout the 1600s, life in Britain was precarious. The spectre of death was an ever-present factor in the form of bubonic plagues and of starvation. Even a member of the nobility had life expectancy as short as thirty years and he did not suffer the misfortune of dying from starvation, something that happened to many of his countrymen. Even so, those that did have the good fortune to finish their servitude alive and go on to own farms, would see much of their family fortunes wiped out in later years as supplies of tobacco outstripped demand. With changes in duties brought about by the British monarchy, by the 1670s planters were only receiving one penny per pound and in later years going in to the new century, many freeholders were forced to sell their land as they had fallen in to debt and unable to buy seed or tools, many were left with no choice but to re-sign contracts of employment, or to become tenant farmers.

Another group that settled in the northern colonies were entirely different in social make up than those who were settling in the Virginia colonies. These were the Puritans, who had sailed on the Mayflower and as a part of the Plymouth Trading Company had come to settle in what they now called New Plymouth. They were predominantly made up of married families and embarked on colonisation for entirely different reasons than those who settled the Virginia colonies. Puritans had initially sought refuge in Holland from religious persecution by their countrymen, but decided that they would relocate en masse to the Americas’ as it offered them a solitary existence, away from the potential evils of the old world. It also gave the religious leaders a sense of security that potential backsliders would not be tempted away from their fold, as they were venturing into a virgin land, devoid of immoral temptations. The Puritan ideal was of anti-Papist worship, based on simplicity and a fervent belief in the notions of ultimate good and evil in the world, and had an absolute hatred of the trappings of Catholic idolatry. As Stannard states ‘they saw themselves as the holiest remnants of Gods people.’ They felt that they were ideally suited for venturing to a land where God and his teachings were unknown and where it was filled with heathens that could be converted to, as they saw it, their truer form of  religious worship. Although the Puritans had decided on settling a heathen land and converting those they found there, they did not look upon it as a religious crusade. Maldwyn Jones states that America would give them the opportunity of ‘advancing the gospel of…Christ in those remote parts of the world’ but that ‘they did not come inspired with any particular sense of mission. The Plymouth colony was very strict on what was allowed. Angus Calder states ‘smoking was forbidden. People were fined for lying…letting servants drink…play shovel-board on the Lord’s Day…’needles walkinge on ye Sabbath’…adultery.’ However, as strict a colony as this was, their justice was mild in comparison to others. The penalty for adultery was death, ‘but was never exacted.’ Also compared to the witch-hunts that went on in places like Salem, ‘No witches were ever burnt here.’ America, for the Puritans was a successful relocation, as they effectively had a ‘clean slate’ on which they could restart their religion, in a new world without preconceptions. They had transplanted themselves and their religion and had become able to live their lives without the interference of outside or alien doctrines.

In conclusion, people were drawn away from the British Isles for a number of reasons, the main ones being either the pursuit of financial gains and a chance to acquire land and property, or for religious reasons. Ultimately and eventually, the attractions of the New World did live up to the expectations for those that had decided, for whatever reason, to settle in a new and virgin land. For some the ambition of owning land and of being their own masters was realised. It was a hard existence for the period of time that a person had to be a servant, but upon release of this contract, and as long as they lived to see it, a number of them went on to run their own farms with servants of their own. Tobacco played a major part for people of this time realising their aspirations, and without it, America quite possibly would not have become so prosperous and profitable, a main reason for those who took the chance of relocating to an unknown and possibly inhospitable country. For those who sought religious tolerance, this is exactly what the New World provided. With no state religion in the land, people were free to worship in whatever way they saw fit within their local community or region.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Berkin, Miller, Cherny, Gormly, Mainwaring, Making America, volume A to 1877 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997)

Brogan, Hugh, The penguin history of the USA 2nd Ed, (London: Penguin books, 1999)

Calder, Angus, Revolutionary empire: The rise of the English speaking empires from the fifteenth century to the 1780s, (London, Pimlico books, 1998)

Campbell, Mildred, social origins of some early Americans in 17th-Century America essays in colonial history, (Williamsburg: University of north Carolina press, 1959)

Henretta, Brody, Ware, Johnson, America’s history 4th Ed, (Boston & New York: Bedford/St Martins, 2000)

Jones, Maldwyn Allen, American immigration, (Chicago & London: University of Chicago press, 1960)

Middleton, Richard, Colonial America: a history, 1565-1776 3rd Ed, (Oxford: Blackwell publishing, 2002)

Tindall & Shi, America: a narrative history 5th Ed, (London & New York: Norton & Co, 2000)

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