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>The early settlers of North American were in some sense selected by personality. It must have taken a certain sort of risk-taking personality to give up everyt
by bluntfang 6y ago
>The early settlers of North American were in some sense selected by personality. It must have taken a certain sort of risk-taking personality to give up everything and climb aboard a crowded rickety passenger ship for a month-long journey to a vast and mostly uninhabited land.
Many early settlers were criminals. I wonder if that personality selection shines through.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_transportation#Transportation_to_North_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_transportation#Transport...
- mamon 6y agoBeing a criminal, especially in times when many crimes were punishable by death, it also requires a risk-taking personality, so GP's point still stands.
- kipchak 6y ago50,000-120,000 might be small enough of a selection to be difficult to detect in a population of 2.5 million in 1776 when transportation ended.
- jki275 6y agoKeep in mind also that "criminal" meant something a bit different in colonial times than it does today.