Herbert A. Weiss Immigration Law Blog on Lawyers.com

I hope all my readers enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, filled with good food, good cheer, and the warmth of spending quality time with family and friends.  Personally, it is my favorite secular holiday for many reasons, one of which is that it is a celebration of the American success story.  The Pilgrims who left the Old World and disembarked at Plymouth Rock in 1624 in pursuit of religious freedom were the first to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Even schoolchildren know of the severe hardship they faced in the first few years after the founding of their settlement.  Eventually they became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony which was home to the Puritans and the colonial port of Boston, a hub of early American commerce.  

While the history of the Pilgrims and the beginnings of our Thanksgiving holiday are indeed a success story, some of our earliest immigrants were not so fortunate.  Their communities did not prosper and many died much too young while trying to make a go of it in America.  Immigration to America during the colonial era was primarily an English phenomenon.  The first English colony, Roanoke, vanished without a trace.  The colony established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 was more successful but even there tragedy abounded.  Originally colonized by approximately 108 persons, roughly two-thirds died within a year of its establishment.  More tragedy ensued during “the starving time,” when roughly 80% of the then settlers died within a six month period.  By 1625 some 3,000 settlers had died. 

With such dreary prospects why did the settlers come?  Some undoubtedly were victimized by the owners of the colony who propagandized them about the promise and overall abundance of the wilderness that awaited them in America.  With hard work and perseverance they believed they could make something of themselves in a new land, indeed a new world, whereas advancement in Europe, a continent dominated by class and aristocratic boundaries, was exceedingly difficult.  The majority of those who braved the Atlantic Ocean seeking a better life were male, young, single, ignorant, and in some cases, destitute.  Some were in fact convicts and some historians estimate that England shipped as many as 50,000 to American shores in the eighteenth century.  During the seventeenth century in Virginia, males outnumbered females by a factor of three to four and one-half to one.

When the settlers arrived in Virginia they were forced to indenture themselves to labor for some planter or company because the journey from England had been expensive.  Some settlers eventually succeeded and became wealthy landowners.  Others who survived became small landowners, but they certainly were not a part of the elite class of Virginia landed gentry that a recounting of our historical narrative favors. 

We tend to forget the sad plight that befell many of the first settlers to our shores.  Like immigrants today they were risk takers, unafraid of the challenge of pulling up roots in their native land and starting fresh in a new country with no resources other than confidence in themselves and their willingness and ability to work hard.  Of course, the immigration process today is not nearly as difficult as was the one faced by those first Virginia colonists.  But though the physical perils and discomfiture may be less, the immigration process even today is rife with risk, hardship, and, in some cases, tragedy.

As we remember them and their sacrifices we should give thanks for their efforts as part of a historical process far grander than anyone could have imagined at the time.  Even if they did not survive or suffered too dearly for what they were able to accomplish, it cannot be gainsaid that they contributed in their own small way to the settlement of the New World and the eventual founding of our nation.¹

1. The author is indebted to the historian, Roger Daniels, and his book, “Coming to America” for much of the historical details found herein.

For more than 30 years, the law firm of Garganigo, Goldsmith & Weiss has been assisting people with immigration, green card or visa issues. For more information on how our NY immigration attorneys can help, please call us at 212-643-6400, email us online, or visit our office at 14 Penn Plaza, Suite 1020, New York, NY 10122.