North America had large-scale immigration in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. People of different nationalities settled in this area and they made great changes to the environment. The immigrants pushed the indigenous Indians to the north and west, and settled their areas. They cultivated the soil and created their own communities that were similar to their European homelands. In the seventeenth century most English immigrants settled the North America, but in the next centuries there were in addition to the English and Welsh also a lot of Germans from the Rhine valley and Switzerland, Ulster Scots, Scots, Irish, African slaves, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Jews and Eastern Europeans. The diversity of religious groups characterized the societies in the colonies.

     In Europe a lot of people were on the move. Some had to travel because of their seasonal work, or because their families could no support all of their children. Others moved because they had difficulties in practising their religious conviction since the established churches dominated the religious sphere. In the beginning of the seventeenth century it was only a few ships that brought passenger to America, but as the ships became bigger they could bring more passengers and cargo. There was advertising in newspapers. Pamphlets containing information about North America were spread to people in large parts of Europe. The people involved in land speculation had much to gain from the settling of their properties. All the opportunities in America made it a very good alternative to leave Europe and start a new life "over there". The voyage across the Atlantic could be hazardous according to shipwrecking and disease, so not all of the immigrants managed to stay alive during this journey. Some of the people on the ship were in a bad shape after the voyage and their capacity for work was considerable diminished. In some cases these people were left on the ship to die because they could not pay the owner of the ship what they owed him, and no one would by their labour when they were weak of illness. To get on a ship to America people had to pay a ticket, but no every one could afford that and therefor chose another option. Indentured servants had masters in the colonies to cost their voyage across the Atlantic, and in return they had to work on the farms of their benefactors, according to the terms of their contract (8). Most of the indentured servants had several years of bonded servitude. These years varied in the different regions, but it was not unusual to be bound for four to seven years. These years prevented them from drawing personal gains, but some of them got their own farms after they had finished their working period. There were also a lot of German "redemptioners", whose presence, was a major fact of social life everywhere in North America. The redemptioners had similar circumstances to the indentured servants. They could not pay their own ticket across the ocean, and were dependent on the redemption of relatives or someone in need of working force. There were also a great number of convicts who should pay off their penalties by working in the colonies in. Another group of immigrants was those who sold almost all of their possessions to afford the passage to North America, and buy some land.

    The immigrant group from Europe contained skilled workers like craftsmen and young artisans from the urban areas, and farmers from the more rural parts of England. When the harvest went wrong and there was a crisis in the country some of the people in the villages migrated to the nearest city to find work. A great number of the migrants who came to example to London continued their migration from London to North America. The European immigrants were not a homogeneous group, but people from different social stratums and various religious beliefs. The unequally basics were brought with them to their new homeland (9). People with means could buy big land properties like the plantations in the South, but the poorer immigrants like indentured servants or the convicts had to work for years before they could achieve something for themselves. The colonists often settled according to their homeland situation. They had in a way the opportunity to change occupation and their way of living, but many of the immigrants continued in the same kind of work as they had in their homelands according to Bernard Bailyn.

( The following parts are based on the USHCDB  of 1790)

The settlements of the English immigrants

   A usual view to the English immigration is that the seventeenth century was the period of settlement, and the eighteenth century the period of consolidation. This would be correct according to the New England colonies, but the Mid Atlantic colonies were still settled in the eighteenth century. Due to industrialization and less religious persecution there had been an improvement in living standards in England and this led to a relative decline in the English emigration the eighteenth century (10).

    There were English immigrants in all the North American colonies and in the West Indies. In the seventeenth century they mainly settled the East seaboard areas in the colonies. In the New England colony all the states had ninety percent or more population of English and Welsh origin (see figure 1). In 1790 the state of Massachusetts had the largest number of people, 92,9%, of English and Welsh ethnic background. Pennsylvania, one of the Mid Atlantic colonies, had 249,656 English and Welsh inhabitants, that was about 57,6% of the total population. In the South colonies the British and Welsh immigrants were also in a strong position, especially in North Carolina with 55.8% of the total population.

The immigration of Scots.

    The Scottish population has a complex migration story. A lot of them migrated in the seventeenth century to the Ulster region in Ireland, due to the lack of land and profitable employment in Scotland (11).  A great number of these Ulster-Scots, or Scotch-Irish as they also were called, migrated to North America. Both the Scotch-Irish and the "true" Scots became a dominant ethnic group in the Colonies. People of Scottish origin were also present in the West Indies.

    In the seventeenth century the Scots did not have the opportunity to immigrate to England's colonies in North America; but after the 1707 Act of Union they had the possibility to settle in the colonies. There had been a small group of Scots who settled in East New Jersey before 1707. This area belonged to some Scottish Quakers. In the eighteenth century there was quite a lot of Scots who crossed the Atlantic. The main reasons for their departure were economical and religious. In the Scottish Highlands there had been rent rises and the poverty was a great problem. After the suppression of the Jacobite rebellion in 1745 the clan system was ruined (12). Scots were important in commerce, and a lot of them settled in the cities.

    According to the USHCDB of 1790 the largest number of Scots was in Pennsylvania, where they composed 11.4 percent of the population (see figure 2). There were also an important group of Scots in North Carolina, 55.8%. As the eastern seaboard parts of the colony were settled the Scottish newcomers moved further into the backcountry. The African slaves were a large part of the work force in the Southern colonies. The lack of occupation possibilities in the Southern fields made the Scot labourers settle elsewhere. The Scots settled in the fertile valleys of Virginia and Carolina because here land was still available.

The French immigrants.

In the seventeenth century there were also some French immigrants, who were called the Huguenots. These French Protestants had to migrate because they were persecuted by the French king Louis XIV. They were only a small number of people and were therefore no threat to the existing communities. They brought a lot of valuable skills like clock makers, gunsmiths and textile workers. These French Huguenots immigrated mainly to New York and in South Carolina. They assimilated easily by learning English and integrating with the other groups in the community. Some even joined the Anglican church (13).

The Irish immigrants.

In the seventeenth century a large amount of the Irish immigrants were situated in the West Indies, but in the eighteenth century there were Irish settlements in North America. Pennsylvania was in 1790 the colony that had most persons of Irish nationality, 8614 persons, but it was mainly in the nineteenth century that the mass immigration of Irish Catholics to North America started.

 The Irish, the French, the Dutch and the Jews (se figure 3) were not the largest groups of immigrants that settled the North American colonies in the eighteenth century. But in some areas though,  they could be significant like the Dutch in New York.

The German immigrants.

The German immigrants came mainly from the areas of the river Rhine, the pre industrial south-west parts of Germany, but also from the German speaking areas of Switzerland. Internal migration was common in these areas. The constant warfare in these parts of Europe made immigrants drawn towards the North Atlantic colonies. The transport possibilities to the seaboard cities were god and a lot of immigrants followed a route of travel to Rotterdam (14).

The Germans settled mainly in Pennsylvania where they, according to USHDCB of 1790, represented more than one fourth of the total population (see figure 4). There were also some German settlements in Maryland, North and South Carolina and New York, but these numbers were small compared to the German population in Pennsylvania.