Other Europeans In Colonial America

Other Europeans In Colonial America

This was a very interesting chapter.  Every Immigrant race went through their own set of hardships. There were some pretty interesting/ disturbing things that went on. The voyage of the Scotch Irish was the most disturbing.  Apparently, 46 passengers starved to death and the 60 people who survived only survived due to cannibalism. This reminded me of the Donner Party.  When the Donner party was rescued some of the passengers who survived were asking the rescuers if they were from the heavens. The documentary I saw stated that the people didn’t know if they were dead or alive. Due to the situation, people were driven to being delusional. Wow, I can’t imagine what it might be like to have to be in that situation. How awful and traumatizing!!! I bet these people were in the same situation as the Donner party.  The only difference was that the Donner party was a group of 87 people who were headed for West Cali. And they got caught into snow on their journey.  Both groups of people were stuck in some terrible situations and I really feel for them.  They were stuck in situations where they had no choice. It was all about survival for them. I think they were brave for having the courage to result to cannibalism.

Reading about the Irish Catholics was also interesting. One man’s story was just upsetting to me. It was Charles Carroll. I can’t believe that his estates in Ireland were confiscated. Why?  I didn’t really understand what the book was talking about when it said that they added his name to the Declaration of Independence.  I was surprised to find out that most Irish were supporters of the Patriot Cause. For Jews, I wasn’t surprised to find out that they didn’t marry outside the faith. That must have been common a lot. However, I am glad that eventually they allowed Jewish spouses in mixed marriages. Some of the history that these people went through still happen today like the mixed marriages for Jewish spouses. Still today, in some places people are still accepting mixed marriages. I believe that one day that will all change.  

I keep seeing repeats in history.  Like the Donner Party and the Scotch Irish people. They both went through similar horrific hardships.  Those events have a disturbing connection, but the people had no choice it was survival. In the end with nature it is always all about survival. The situation with Charles Carroll, estates and other items still get confiscated today. I would say for those people who were semi-rich like Charles Carroll would share history with Native Americans because technically it was their land first and what happened to them was not right in both cases with Native Americans and other people.  Same thing with mixed marriages same thing still around today. Like I stated before one day people will learn to accept it. History in general holds a connection with the past, present and future and I think it always will.