The Importance Of Diversity In Colonial America

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Recommended: Colonization and its effect

To settlers, colonial America was seen as an opportunity to acquire economic liberty and be able to be an independent person. For many settlers this perception turned out to be true, but discrimination based on ethnicity and race created either a difficult or an impossible environment to obtain economic liberty for multiple different groups. Colonial America created a great environment for economic success for new settlers who were looking to obtain personal economic freedom. This environment was created by a combination of job opportunities, land, and resources that were present at the time. One example of the economic prosperity seen at this time can be seen in Letter by a Swiss-German Immigrant 1. In this letter, Johannes Hänner tells his …show more content…

This difficulty came from the disdain for the growing number of non-English speaking immigrants coming into the colonies. The contempt for these immigrants can be seen in Memorial against Non-English Immigration2. In this document, the writer complains “Few of them apply now to be Naturalized, [and] they... generally... adhere to their own customs” (Foner, 92); as a result he believed that “general provisions against all Foreigners may be necessary” (Foner, 92). This disapproval of incoming non-English immigrants held by members of the upper class made finding work opportunities much harder to find. Nevertheless, while there was added difficulty for many non-English immigrants, non-English immigrants were able to find economic prosperity by relying on their family. Many immigrants would “purchase Lands at low rates” (Foner, 92) and then “encourage... their relations and friends to follow them” (Foner, 92) in order to have support for their property. This approach is very similar to what Hänner did, and was very successful because individuals could sustain a life in America but thrive if they had assistance from their

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