American Colonial History, 1607-1775
American Colonial History, 1607-1775 Preliminary Comments Between 1607 and 1775 about 550,000 – 600,000 Europeans migrated to the American colonies. Most American families were immigrants (or refugees) or had recent immigrant pasts. They were risk-takers. They left long-settled communities and societies to get on small, crowded sailing ships to make the dangerous 3,000 voyage to a new land that was mostly wilderness. Many died. They had to adapt to a new, frontier environment. They had to “tame the howling wilderness.” A high percent of the European immigrants in this period were from England, Scotland, and Scots from Northern Ireland. Almost all were Protestants. Emigrants from England and Scotland came over in four “waves.” They were four distinctly different groups of people from different areas of the English isles. To understand why these four groups left England and Scotland, at different times, it is necessary to know a little bit of English history during this period.