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The Role Of Immigrants In The 18th Century

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Throughout the 18th century, many groups of people emigrated from Europe for religious reasons. Some groups, like the English, emigrated for the worse conditions in their motherland, including religious prosecution and worker mistreatment. However, the trip to the Americas is not as easy as it seems. Many people died en route due to poor food quality and sea-borne sickness. Despite all these troubles, many people still immigrate for the better life in the colonies, and gives a theme of “escaping to freedom” and “happiness”. In the American colonies, while the unique part is that American colonists represent different backgrounds and nations, they are all similar because they emigrated to escape religious prosecution (Smith, 1999, p. 21). …show more content…
During the eighteenth century, England was a crime-ridden country with half of the population impoverished. Workers in England worked long hours without any holidays, except Christmas, Easter, and hanging days, where they see criminals being executed (Smith, 1999, p. 23). Life as a indentured servant in the Americas was better than living in England with crime and hard work, as those who emigrated from England served as indentured servants for a period of time, and once their service is up, their master provided their servants with clothes and money to “make a proper start in life” (Smith, 1999, pg. 24). Even convicted felons on royal pardon in the Americas have better lives than those who stayed in England, as they are sent over to replace deceased colonists (Smith, 1999, pg. 26). However, the journey to the Americas was more arduous (Smith, 1999, pg. 27). They were ill-prepared for the journey, encountering sea-sickness, bad food, and poor water quality along the journey; the Sea-Flower, for example, lost over forty people along the way, six of them suffered by cannibalism by desperate passengers (Smith, 1999, pg. …show more content…
27). On board were fifteen prostitutes, who spend their journey partying and copulating with the people on board (Smith, 1999, pg. 27). Durand described these people who “wrought a change in [his] nature, for my acquaintances would no doubt impute to [him], as [his] greatest failing, an exaggerated love of the fair sex, & to tell the truth [he] must admit that in [his] youth there was no injustice in this accusation” (Smith, 1999, pg. 27). Despite he does not abhor prostitutes’ immoral behaviors, he was “awakened within [him] so intense a hatred of such persons that [he] shall never overcome it” (Smith, 1999, pg. 27). He uses his tone to describe the wretched nature of the prostitutes, but it did not last throughout the nineteen-week journey; the combination of the ill-mannered captain and shortage of food quieted the prostitutes (Smith, 1999, pg. 27).
Gottlieb Mittelberger, a German immigrant who travelled to Philadelphia in 1750, also describes his journey as miserable and crowded, with extremely cramped living quarters and starvation and disease (Smith, 1999, pg. 27-28). Prisoners, on the other hand, had substantially worse conditions, as they were chained below deck, and suffered heavy losses along the journey (Smith, 1999, pg.

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