From New Hampshire to Georgia, the colonies were settled by risk-takers.
While the first two English colonies were planted in the South — Roanoke disappeared and Jamestown ultimately thrived — and the next two, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, appeared after sea voyages to a new region named New England, an increasing number of hopeful immigrants resulted in additional charters being granted for other colonies. Just as early Virginia settlers had been primarily motivated by economic and personal success and New England’s Pilgrims and Puritans were seeking religious freedom, the new waves of immigrants were also searching for a better life, with each group defining “better.”
Think about these waves of settlements and the desires that encouraged individuals and families to risk everything, including their own personal safety, to be free to choose their own definitions of happiness. Today we banter around phrases like “be happy” and “just do it,” but during the English colonial period (1607-1735), there were few social safety nets, so immigrants were truly stepping forward in faith.
So how did the colonial settlements advance? Interestingly, the first colonies gave birth to new settlements while, simultaneously, charters and grants opened other regions for homes and hope.
In New England, the strict religious principles of the Puritans created friction within the community. Roger Williams, one of the early advocates for a separation of church and state, left Massachusetts Bay and created a haven for dissenters, Rhode Island. In contrast, Connecticut was founded by Reverends Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone and settled by many former residents of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, seeking an even more conservative approach to life.
The middle colonies developed independently and each offered different advantages and promises to the immigrants.
William Penn
Pennsylvania’s story may be the most interesting. Pennsylvania was founded in 1682 by William Penn as a haven for Quakers, the Society of Friends. Called a “Holy Experiment,” Penn desired a colony where equality, religious freedom, and democratic processes would be integral to daily life. He believed that if individuals had freedom, education, and equal rights under the law, then, while the colony might encounter difficult times, the people would act together to make “correcting” decisions. Penn applied these same principles to his treatment of the Lenape Indians in the region and contracted with them for the use of their lands, an unusual arrangement in colonial America. Additionally, Penn’s colony was truly a haven of religious freedom, offering a safe home for all Christians, both Protestants and Catholics, and Jews and encouraging Germans who were immigrating to escape the violent religious wars of the Holy Roman Empire to settle in Penn’s land. His choice of Philadelphia, the “City of Brotherly Love,” as the name of the colony’s capital paid tribute to Revelations and the idea of a “new earth.”
Virginia’s agrarian goals for planting and trading spread to the Carolinas, but Georgia’s founding — the last of the 13 colonies — was a bit different. While Georgia would be positioned as a military buffer between the growing English colonies and Spanish-controlled Florida, it also served a more noble purpose. Former British military officer James Oglethorpe joined with a group of philanthropists to help London’s poorest residents by offering them a new life in the New World. With Parliament contributing some funding and a charter from King George in June 1732, Oglethorpe and the trustees authorized a charitable organization that would grant individual land holdings of 500 acres. The land grants could not be sold, nor could they be used to borrow funds. The trustees also restricted individual rights, and Georgia would be the only colony without a representative government. Instead, the trustees would make all laws, and early laws restricted town size and configuration and the importation and sale of rum and slaves. While these utopian ideals were designed to create a colony of English Christians, the experiment ultimately failed because it limited the role of the individual in the success of the colony. Georgia would revert to a royal colony.
Dreams of economic success. A desire to serve God based on one’s conscience and the Scriptures. Is there a common theme in the settlement of the English colonies?
From New Hampshire to Georgia, the colonies were being settled by risk-takers, individuals dreaming individual dreams who chose to step forward with courage and determination to create a new life for themselves and their families. Were they fearless? No. But courage is the ability to move beyond fear, and freedom is — and always has been — a fundamental motivator.
The New World offered freedom, often defined differently by those who made the trip.
Written by Linda Moss Mines for The Patriot Post ~ December 14, 2022
~ the Author ~
Linda Moss Mines is a historian dedicated to reminding the public of the blessings of Liberty and our commitment to work toward the promises of the American Dream. She is not a political commentator, although reflecting on the history of the Republic requires recounting the stories of political figures and the institutions of our political system. Linda relishes telling the stories of our country’s founding and its journey from the earliest settlers as a “noble experiment in self-government.” She believes that recounting history reminds citizens that decisions and actions have consequences and that we as a people are impacted every day by decisions made during the course of that journey.
“It is important that a nation know and understand the pivotal moments of its history,” she says. “Too often, our images of the past are a composite of classroom memories, popular culture images crafted by media productions and a smattering of editorial musings often grounded only in personal opinion and experience. As a historian, I, of course, offer some interpretation of those moments, but I am far more interested in the role of the public figures and the ‘common people’ and what motivated them than in the role of politics for political gain. Revisiting the past offers us a chance to understand today and shape tomorrow.”
As an educator, Mines notes: “I have been privileged to touch hearts and hopefully inspire my former students to become lifelong lovers of learning. Knowledge coupled with a dedication to service can truly change the world and I’m blessed to be a small part of that change.”