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Maternal Perspective - Immigrants of the 17th Century

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October 9, 2006

About This Editor: Tiffany is an airline professional by day and freelance writer by night. She enjoys writing on a wide variety of topics. Tiffany resides in north central Texas with her husband, Chris, a state police officer, and their four "children": puppies Naya and Missy, and kitties Frankie and Audrey.

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This article is part of a series of articles entitled “Immigration: My Perspective”. To return to the main page of the series, click here.

Members of the Carpenter family, ancestors of my mother, Dianne Carpenter Lewis, left Southampton, in England, in May of 1638 as passengers on the ship called Bevis. Among the Carpenters on this ship were William, aged 62, who was accompanied by his wife, Abegail. They chose to sail back to England on the return voyage of the Bevis, but left behind their son, William, aged 30, and his family. This legacy is a point of pride in our family - being able to trace roots to the very early days of what is now the United States of America.

How did these Carpenters settle into America? Through hard work, integrity and neighborly behavior. From the genealogical research that I’ve done, as well as from the research other Carpenter descendants have completed, the central theme of our earliest American ancestors is pride in heritage and the importance of family. As the Carpenters spread from Rehoboth, Massachusetts to Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania, there is evidence that they were continuously among the first landowners in a newly settled area, as well as pillars of the community and the churches they joined.

To the Carpenters, and other early settlers, coming to America was an adventure. Still a colony of the British Empire, America nonetheless bore little resemblance to the culture of 17th century England. Instead, although the towns that formed were named for and fashioned after locales in the old country, America was largely a wilderness waiting to be populated. The earliest settlers had to be able to roll with the punches and accept circumstance as they arose. Especially for settlers who continued to move farther south and west, survival largely depended on instinct combined with hard work and cooperation. And although subjects of the crown did put into place some restrictions on immigration as well as some requirements to be considered a citizen of the towns that arose, new arrivals came into the country largely unhassled. A class structure quickly developed in the “New World” - not as formal as the caste system in most European countries, but a framework for society to use as a way to determine who had a say, who could own land, and who could perform certain functions within the community.

Some immigrants in 17th century America came freely and willingly - they either had the means available to book passage on a ship, or sold possessions in order to gain passage. Other immigrants came willingly, but at a price - a huge number of individuals placed themselves into indentured servitude, pledging a certain number of years of work to their master in order to pay him back for arranging their passage from the Old World. Still others came unwillingly, as slaves purchased by traders along the African coast. For these individuals, some earned their own freedom shortly after their arrival, especially in northern areas, while others were considered the property of their masters until the end of the Civil War. For these latter two groups, conditions ranged from tolerable to downright awful. Ironically, slaves were often treated more humanely than indentured servants. A slave carried value that could be realized by his master upon sale or upon procreation. An indentured servant was a dime a dozen…if they were lost, another was more than willing to sign up in order to gain passage to America.

Each group of settlers that arrived in 17th century America brought a unique set of values and beliefs with them, and in the New World, they both formed communities and blended with one another - the great “melting pot” of the world - as well as retained their own sense of culture and heritage, paying respect to the roots from which they came.

Tiffany Aller earned a degree in Political Science and a minor in history from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. The articles in the series “Immigration: My Perspective” contain a mixture of historical research, present-day world views and personal experience. Feedback to these articles, constructive in nature, is encouraged.