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My Ethnic Group

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Submitted By mikermoad
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My Ethnic Group
I did some research into my family history to discover what ethnic group I belonged to or if I belonged to one. I found that some of my ancestors came to this country for religious reasons. Some came for health reasons, whereas others came looking for a better life than what they were facing in Europe.
The ethnic group I found that I had a connection with and wanted to learn more about are those who came to this country for religious reasons. My mother can trace her family linage to the pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower.
The pilgrims came to this country for religious reasons. They wanted to worship as they believed was correct. They did not want to be a part of the Church of England or belong to the Catholic Church. Many of these people wanted Queen Elizabeth to make changes to the English church and the religious services. She would not do this. For this reason the Puritans, as they called themselves because they wanted to purify the Church of England, started their own church. Because of this, the queen and the people of England persecuted these people. Some of the members of this new religion found themselves sentenced to prison or hung for their beliefs. They faced harassment, persecution, and torture for their beliefs. When King James was set upon the throne of England, he continued the harassment of these people. A quote from King James said “I will make them conform or I will harry them out of the land.” With the persecution the Puritans were suffering they chose to move to Holland. This new country gave them the freedom to worship as they chose. After a few years they found that their children were beginning to be more Dutch and less English. With a decision made to find a place that they could worship as they chose and also still be Englishmen. They could not go back to England without going to prison. Their only opportunities were to stay in Holland with the freedoms they had or to make a new home and life in the uncharted lands of America. They petitioned King James for a charter, He would not give them the charter or his protection, but he told them if they went he would not harass them.
The migration to America in search of religious freedom is how these people received their name of Pilgrim. They received their name for the Pilgrimages of religious freedom. These people chose to come to a new country and start a new colony in America. They faced the hardship of leaving behind everything they knew and the items it took a lifetime to acquire for a chance to be free of the persecution and tyranny they were facing in Europe.
Everyone knows the story of the pilgrims and the trials they faced here. How many know the sad part of this story. For the reason these people left England, to stop the persecution, harassment, and death they started to treat the new comers to American in the same way. Finding the peace and comfort they had so longed to have in the old county. The Puritans believed that all people should be like them. The pilgrims did not think that anyone who did not believe in the Puritan faith should be allowed to live, work, or hold offices. If a ship landed with immigrants, and they did not belong to the Puritan faith they would not allow the people to even disembark the ship. They forced these people to return to England or suffer the consequences. New immigrants faced a trial before a committee of Puritan Church leaders. Some of these new religion members faced the sentence of death, others to be tortured by having ears cut off or tongs pierced through with hot irons.
The injustice the Puritans had left England for they showed the immigrants coming to join them. They were as fierce in their judgment and justice as the monarchy of England had been with his. The persecuted had become the persecutors.
From what I discovered about my family in this new land they lived both as the persecuted as well as the persecutor. From diaries and books I have read some of my family did indeed participate in the persecution of the new immigrants to America, others believed this was an unjust act. Because of their feels toward the new people not able to worship as their religion taught them to, these Puritan members could not hold offices in the church and also could not participate in the governing of the colony. For these reasons a portion of my family broke off from the Puritan church and left the colony to start a new life in another area of this county. They left to join a group that had started a colony in Connecticut.
I personally have not faced discrimination or prejudice of any kind and from what I can determine about the rest of my family that immigrated to America for various reasons; they too did not face any of those actions.

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