4 ms·
The earliest settlers were really quite elite and many probably never had to feed themselves in adverse circumstances in Europe. The later larger waves of migra
by yakak 4y ago
The earliest settlers were really quite elite and many probably never had to feed themselves in adverse circumstances in Europe. The later larger waves of migration were big scale and financed such that they were recruiting people who didn't have a lot of capital and would know how to feed themselves in adverse circumstances.
- vorpalhex 4y agoThe earliest settlers were poor religious folks, criminals and some business people, along with trappers and hunters. Not exactly "elite".
- WalterBright 4y agoA lot of them also came as indentured servants, meaning they had nothing and had to work for several years to pay off the debt of the transport. The rest were pretty much poor people who had little prospects in the old country, looking for a fresh start.
- yakak 4y agoElite might not be the right word (though in terms of percentages and poverty at the time..) The travel of these people was very expensive so they had a form of social capital attached to them that implies city or at least town connections, not living on the very peripherals of society where supplementing your food is the more critical skill. I.e. I think they chose debt over uncertainty as a house servant or collectively as a town and a sect. The two Irish famines are very telling. In 1740 almost no one emigrated across the Atlantic, business men didn't swoop on a chance to go indenture every able bodied Irishman, after 1840 parts of Canada became half Irish. The children of Irish share croppers were Europeans who could at least partially feed themselves without civil infrastructure.