Title: German immigrants » Immigration to the United States
Headings: German immigrants
German immigrants
Immigrant groups / European immigrants / Agricultural workers
Early Immigration, 1608-1749
Profile of German immigrants
Late Eighteenth Century Developments
First Century of American Independence, 1783-1900
Immigration from Germany, 1820-2008
Twentieth to Twenty-first Centuries
Keith J. Bell
Further Reading
shawnna 0 answers 11 марта 2020 20:38

Content: Over the next two years, the ship completed fifteen round-trip voyages. ( Library of Congress)
Most German immigration to the United States occurred during the nineteenth century, but Germans began arriving as early as 1608, when they helped English settlers found Jamestown, Virginia. Germans also played an important role in the Dutch creation of New Amsterdam, which later became New York City, during the early 1620’s. Other early German immigrants helped to settle North and South Carolina. By the nineteenth century, German immigrants were advancing farther inland to states such as Nebraska, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, and Texas. Early Immigration, 1608-1749
Two forces were paramount in prompting early German immigration: heavy taxation and German laws of primogeniture, which permitted only the eldest sons in families to inherit their fathers’ land. These forces, along with seemingly constant and disruptive German wars, gave many young Germans strong motivations for emigrating to a new country, where they could hope to own their land and prosper with minimal government hindrance. The first American region in which large numbers of Germans settled was Pennsylvania. Germantown, near what is now Philadelphia, was the first of many permanent German settlements in the British colonies—many of which had the same name.