settlers the myth of the white proletariat

Even prosperous yeomen often could not get the land they desired for their younger sons …

Wealthy clothiers, drapers, and merchants who had done well and wished to set themselves up in land were avidly watching the market, ready to pay almost any price for what was of – fered. One scholar of the early invasion comments on this: ‘Land hunger was rife among all classes. At that time there was a crisis in England over land ownership and tenancy due to the rise of capitalism. What lured Europeans to leave their homes and cross the Atlantic was the chance to share in conquer – ing Indian land. Euro – Amerikan liberals and radicals have rarely dealt with the Land question we could say that they don’t have to deal with it, since their people already have all the land. What made North Amerika so desirable to these people? Land. In other words, the sons and daughters of the middle class, with experience at agriculture and craft skills, were the ones who thought they had a practical chance in Amerika. Most were youth from the lower – middle classes Gentlemen & Professionals 1 To Yeomen & Husbandmen 48% Artisans & Tradesmen 29%.(2) The typical age was 22 – 24 years. A study of roughly 10,000 settlers who left Bristol from 1654 – 85 shows that less than 15% were proletarian. (l) This is typical of the English invasion forces. Soon their greed led them into fighting with each other, slacking off at assigned tasks, etc., until the Colony’s leaders had to give in to the settlers’ desires and divide up the stolen land (giving ” to. At first, according to the rules of their faith, they farmed the land in common and shared equally. This was too hard for them, so they came to North Arnerika in search of less work and more money. But in Holland these predominately middleclass people had to work as hired labor for others. They had years before emigrated as a religious colony to Holland, where they had lived in peace for over a decade. The celebrated Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock, for example, didn’t even come from England (although they were English). The mythology of the white masses holds that those early settlers were the poor of England, convicts and workers, who came to North Amerika in search of ” freedom ” or ” a better way of life ”.

This is the larger picture that allows us to finally relate the class conflicts of settler Euro – Amerikans to the world struggle. To go back and understand the lives and consciousness of the early English settlers is to see the embryo of today’s Amerikan Empire. The Land is the Basis of Nationhood The key to understanding Amerika is to see that it was a chain of European settler colonies that expanded in – to a settler empire.

Settlers the myth of the white proletariat