European Settlement of N. America

• Early Modern English – Shakespeare

• Distinguish 3 periods of settlement:

1. Colonial Period, 17th-18th centuries

2. Expansion period, first half nineteenth cent

3. Since the Civil War

European Settlement of N. America

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European Settlement of N. America

1 Colonial Period, 17th-18th centuries• original 13 colonies• from 1607, settlement of Jamestown• to 1790, ratification of the Federal

Constitution• 1790 also first census: approx 4 million,

95% living east of the Appalacians, 90% from the British Isles.

Wikipedia

European Settlement of N. America

2 Expansion period, first half nineteenth cent

• up to the end of the Civil War 1860.• 1845 Potato Famine in Ireland: 1,5

million Irish over 10-15 years• 1848 failure of the German revolution,

1,5 million Germans

1682

1763

1770

European Settlement of N. America 3 Since the Civil War• Last quarter 19th cent, more than a million

Scandinavians (1/5 total pop of Norway and Sweden)

• Up to 1890 75-90% of immigrants were from Britain and Northern Europe.

• Since 1890, great numbers from Southern Europe and Slavic countries

• Forced immigration of slaves: now some 25 million blacks.

• Mid twentieth cent: Mexican, Puerto Rican, other Hispanics.

European Settlement of N. America

Colonial periodExpansion period

Later immigration{ { { {

IrishGerman

Scandinavian

S.EuropeSlavonic

MexicanPuerto Ricanetc.

African slaves

War of Independence1775-83

Civil War1861-65

1600 1700 1800 1900

The 13 coloniesNew England Middle Atlantic States South Atlantic States

New England1620-1640, 15,000 immigrants in 200 vessels; some 25,000 by the mid 17th cent; mostly first in Masschusetts.About 2/3 of the original settlers came from the eastern counties of Britain (East Anglia was the stronghold of English puritanism)

Mid Atlantic StatesDutch occupation of New York began 1614; seized by English 1664 and was then 10,000, some of which English. Jersey almost entirely English. Scots, Ulster, Welsh.Beginning of 18c, protestants from the Rhine were persecuted: moved into Pennsylvania up into the valleys, retained their own language for some time (Pennsylvania Dutch still spoken)Pennsylvania in 1750 was 1/3 English, 1/3 Scots (or Ulster), 1/3 German (Franklin)Scots-Irish and Germans further inland, as in the South

South Atlantic StatesJamestown founded 1607; probably mostly from the eastern counties of England; politcal refugees, Commonwealth soldiers, deported prisoners, Puritans. Important: mixed in social class and geographical source.NB "deported" - picture of Marie DrewAs in Mid States, tendency for the interior to be settled by Scot-Irish and Germans.Georgia colonised by English debtors.

The Middle WestLouisiana Purchase 1803, the last west of the Mississippi, first opening up of the West.- bought from Napolean (who had stolen it from the Spaniards, says Magnús). Immigrants (Germans, Scandinavians) for the second period landed here

The Far WestEvery part of America represented.So apart from the earliest settled areas, a high degre of intermixture and so conformity

The Far WestBaugh quotes p. 351, Isaac Candler travelling in America in 1822-23:"The United Staes having been peopled from different parts of England and Ireland, the peculariarities of the various districts have in a great measure ceased. As far as pronunciation is concerned, the mass of people speak better English, than the mass of people in England. this I know will startle some, but its correctness will become mnifest when I state, that in no part, except in those occupied by the descendents of the Dutch and German settlers, is any unintelligible jargon in vogue. We hear nothing so bad in America as the Suffolk whine, the Yorkshire clipping, or the Newcastle gutteral. we never hear the letter H aspirated improperly, nor omitted to be aspirated where propriety requires it. The common pronunciation approximates to that of the well educated class of London and its vicinity."

The Far WestJames Fennimore Cooper 1828:"in point of fact the people of the United States, with the exception of a few German and French descent, speak, as a body, an incomparably better English thatn the people of the mother country. There is not, probably, a man (of English descent) born in this country, who would not be perfectly intelligible in the streets of London, though a vaste number of those he met in the streets of London would be unintelligible to him. In fine, we speak our language, as a nation, better than any other people speak their language"