Protections: The English Colonies In North America

The English colonies in North America were actually settled by immigrants from many

different European countries which resulted in a very cosmopolitan and multicultural society rich

in diversities of language and religion. Because of this nascent colonial diversity the United

States of America emerged as a new type of nation, one that guaranteed in written

constitutional form the rights of minorities against the possible tyranny of the majority. However,

while the nation could use “E Pluribus Unum” as the national motto, these basic constitutional

protections were not fully applied to two large and significant groups, the Native American

Indians and Africans.

Since the first colonial settlements of Jamestown, Virginia
as well as Plymouth,

Massachusetts, millions of immigrants have emigrated to America hoping for a better life. Just as

the pilgrims, some early colonial settlers fled from England to escape religious persecution, and

looked to the New World to practice religious freedom. Immigrants from Germany, Great

Britain, and the Scandinavian countries made the arduous trek to America with the expectations

of owning cheap and plentiful land, better wages, and improved economic opportunity. Still, a

mass exodus was imperative for Irish immigrants when potatoes stopped growing because of a

fungus, and the threat of starvation compelled the migration to America. A visitor to New

Amsterdam in the 1640s, maintained that he heard eighteen languages. The Swedish botanist

Peter Kalm encountered “a very mixed company of different nations and religions.” In addition

to “Scots, English, Dutch, Germans, and Irish,” he reported, “there were Roman Catholics,

Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists, Seventh Day men, Moravians, Anabaptists, and one Jew.”

This diversity of people created a distinctive American Nation, one that helped create the

“American” landscape. Consequently, immigrants were protected under basic constitutional

rights. Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution (Adopted 1868)

states that, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject subject to the

jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State shall make or enforce any

law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall

any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to

any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” In contrast, Native Americans

and Africans were not allowed political, religious, and cultural freedoms.