18th+Century+Perspective


 * In the early years of the U.S., immigration was only about 6000 people a year on average, including French [|refugees] from the slave revolt in [|Haiti]. The [|French Revolution], starting in 1789, and the [|Napoleonic Wars] from 1792 to 1814 severely limited immigration from Europe. ||


 * ||||||~ U.S. Historical Populations ||
 * ~ Country ||~ Immigrants Before 1790 ||~ Population 1790 -1 ||
 * ~ [|Africa] -2 ||~ 360,000 ||~ 757,000 ||
 * ~ [|England]* ||~ 230,000 ||~ 2,100,000 ||
 * ~ [|Ulster] Scot-Irish* ||~ 135,000 ||~ 300,000 ||
 * ~ [|Germany] -3 ||~ 103,000 ||~ 270,000 ||
 * ~ [|Scotland]* ||~ 48,500 ||~ 150,000 ||
 * ~ [|Ireland]* ||~ 8,000 ||~ (Incl. in Scot-Irish) ||
 * ~ [|Netherlands] ||~ 6,000 ||~ 100,000 ||
 * ~ [|Wales]* ||~ 4,000 ||~ 10,000 ||
 * ~ [|France] ||~ 3,000 ||~ 15,000 ||
 * ~ [|Jews] -4 ||~ 1,000 ||~ 2,000 ||
 * ~ [|Sweden] ||~ 500 ||~ 2,000 ||
 * ~ Other -5 ||~ 50,000 ||~ 200,000 ||
 * ~ [|British total] ||~ 425,500 ||~ 2,560,000 ||
 * ~ Total -6 ||~ 950,000 ||~ 3,900,000 ||  ||
 * ~ [|British total] ||~ 425,500 ||~ 2,560,000 ||
 * ~ Total -6 ||~ 950,000 ||~ 3,900,000 ||  ||


 * According to the source, //The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy// by Kory L. Meyerink and Loretto Dennis Szucs, the following were the countries of origin for new arrivals coming to the United States before 1790. The regions marked * were part of Great Britain. The ancestry of the 3.9 million population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the 1790 census and assigning them a country of origin. The Irish in the 1790 census were mostly Scots Irish. The French were mostly Huguenots. The total U.S. Catholic population in 1790 was probably less than 5%. The Indian population inside territorial U.S. 1790 boundaries was less than 100,000. ||

Why did the natives feel threatend by new US immigrants? Do you think it was justified? Although immigrants were driving the nation’s economic and industrial growth, native-born people became worried that newcomers might pose a threat their property and stability. So in 1798, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, giving the President the power to deport any foreigner deemed to be dangerous and make it a crime to speak, write, or publish anything “of a false, scandalous and malicious nature” about the President or Congress. These acts allowed the government to prosecute anyone who criticized the government (mainly to imprison immigrant editors). ||
 * As a new nation, America needed immigrants to build its industries and settle its towns. Most of these early settlers came from Western Europe. In 1790, “free white persons” who had resided in the United States for at least two years and swore loyalty to the U.S. Constitution were eligible to become U.S. citizens. The “free white persons” racial requirement would remain on the federal books until 1952.

Germans made up one-tenth of the population of the country by the end of the 18th century. 1795 Naturalization Act restricted citizenship to "free white persons" who had resided in the country for five years. ||
 * 18th Century Immigration:

18th Century Perspective

Sarah <3's soccer

 Scots, Irish, German, Swiss, Chinese

German, Swiss - Carolinas, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas

Scots - PA, VA, Carolinas

See map (on page 85) of immigrant groups in 1775

The total white population in 1790 was about 80% British ancestry and roughly doubled by natural increase every 25 years. Since approximately 1675, the native born population of the U.S. has never fallen below 85% of the population.

The middle colonies' settlements were scattered west of New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Dutch-started colony of New York had the most eclectic collection of residents from many different nations and prospered as a major trading and commercial center after about 1700. The Pennsylvania colonial center was dominated by the Quakers for decades after they emigrated, mainly from the North Midlands of England, from about 1680 to 1725. The main commercial center of Philadelphia was run mostly by prosperous Quakers, supplemented by many small farming and trading communities with a strong German contingent located in several small towns in the Delaware River valley. Many more settlers arrived in the middle colonies starting in about 1680 when Pennsylvania was founded and many Protestant sects were encouraged to settle there by freedom of religion and good land--cheap. They came by the was about 60% British and 33% of German extraction. By 1780, in New York, about 17% of the population were descendants of Dutch settlers and the rest were mostly English with a wide mixture of other Europeans and about 6% blacks. New Jersey and Delaware had a majority of British with 7-11% German-descended colonists, about 6% black population, and a small contingent of Swedish descendants of New Sweden. Nearly all were at least third-generation natives. The colonial western frontier was mainly settled from about 1717 to 1775 by mostly Presbyterian settlers from northern England border lands,Scotland, and Northern Ireland, fleeing bad times and persecution in those areas. After the American Revolution these same areas in Britain were the first to resume significant immigration. Most initially landed in family groups in Philadelphia or Baltimore but soon migrated to the western frontier where land was cheaper and restrictions less onerous.