Explain the causes and the scope of diversity in the colonial population of the early-eighteenth century.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Diversity was the most important characteristic of colonial American society in the eighteenth century, when the number of non-English European immigrants and African slaves increased and the share of English arrivals declined. Among the English, the Scottish and Scotch-Irish made up an increasing share of the migrants. Much of this had to with the fact that economic conditions in England were improving and the government feared a labor drain to the colonies. To maintain the growth of the colonies, English Parliament created incentives for other European migrants instead. Germans and Swiss were particularly drawn to the promise of Pennsylvania and New York. While this ethnic diversity did not translate into diverse or integrated communities, it made for a far more diverse society than that of England itself, and it fostered a broad diversity of Christian denominations, even though the Anglican Church expanded considerably and most colonies did not separate church and state. Colonists by and large did not celebrate this ethnic and religious diversity.