The American continent was peopled by four great migrations. First to come were prehistoric hunters from the steppes of Asia who, most anthropologists believe, crossed a bridge of land that then extended across the Bering Sea and Strait. Their descendants, the American Indians, developed scores of complex and colorful cultures before the arrival of the white man in the early 17th century.
The British and Western European settlers came to America seeking riches, land, and sanctuary. They conquered the wilderness, established the Thirteen Original Colonies, and eventually launched a new nation.
With the white settlers came a massive and unwilling immigration of Negro slaves from West Africa. The natural talents of those Negroes and their extraordinary powers of endurance enabled them to survive the horrors of slavery and to make incalculable contributions to American civilization.
The first settlers
After the discovery of the new lands in the 16th -17th centuries European nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States.England became interested in the New World too.
The first English settlements appeared in America at the beginning of the 17th century.
On September, 21 a group of people left England for the New World.They sailed from the English port of Plymouth on board the ship the “Mayflower”. They wanted to start a new life and to escape religious persecution.Their voyage lasted for over two months across the stormy Atlantic.There were 112 people on board the ship, among them 30 children.
On the 21st of November, they landed in the northeast of America.They set up a settlement and called that part of the country “New England”. The first settlers in America had a very hard life. The colonists faced cold and hunger and diseases. Only about 38 settlers survived the first year.
The colonists started to farm the land. The Indians gave them seeds of new plants: corn and pumpkin. In fact, the Indians helped the colonists to survive and to settle on the New World.
In January 1608, more settlers arrived.Despite the arrival of more colonists and attempts to improve conditions at Jamestown, it wasn’t until 1612, when colonist John Rolfe introduced tobacco to the settlement, that the colony became profitable.
In 1619, the Dutch introduced the first captured Africans to America. In August, the first Africans arrived as indentured servants. Although they were not officially slaves and might eventually gain their freedom, they’d been kidnapped from their homeland and forced to live a hard life of servitude.
By 1699 there were around 60,000 people in the Virginia colony, including about 6,000 African slaves. Jamestown had started a tradition of slavery that would endure in America for generations.
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