When Europeans first started colonizing North America, they settled in the modern-day southern state Virginia. However, when The United States declared independence, the Northern colonies had a much larger population than the southern ones. In this essay, I will explore the question “What were the push and pull factors that caused more European colonists to settle in the northern colonies instead of the southern ones during the 17th century?” to find out why the population distribution was so unequal.
The first source is the book The Atlantic Migration, written by Professor Marcus Lee Hansen in 1942. Hansen was the son of a Danish immigrant and a Norwegian immigrant and a professor of history at the University of Illinois. He conducted research on the history of American immigration for four years to write this Pulitzer-prize winning book. It is a secondary source, which allows Hansen to look at emigration and immigration factors from hindsight. The content of this book is valuable because it mentions the push factors in Europe, the pull factors in each colony, and why people would want to leave for …show more content…
Before the colonies like Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, “the only push factor from the North was the lack of religious tolerance” (Martin 45). Hansen and Taylor, on the other hand, believe that the North would have become more populated even if the permissive colonies weren’t established (Hansen “Atlantic Migration” 47; Hansen “Immigrant” 15; Taylor 180). In their opinion, most people weren’t emigrating Europe for religious reasons but instead economic or social reasons. Therefore, the stable economy, similar climate, and minimal population of undesirables were the pull factors that attracted immigrants to New England instead of the Chesapeake colonies (Hansen “Immigrant” 16; Taylor