Migration to Britain 1500-1900 Early Modern Summary Flashcards
Why did Walloons and Huguenots come to Britain?
The Reformation divided Europe between Catholic and Protestant states. England became a Protestant country. In the 1560s Walloons from what is now Belgium were suffering under the Spanish Catholic rule of the Duke of Alba and came to England.
After the Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Day in Paris in 1572 when over 10,000 Huguenot Protestants were murdered, many fled to England. A second, larger, wave of Huguenots fled from France in the 1680s when King Louis XIV revoked a previous royal edict protecting Protestants and they were again attacked.
How were Walloons and Huguenots treated?
Most Walloons and Huguenots were well received because they were seen as allies and fellow Protestants. When the biggest wave of Huguenots came in the 1680s they were granted denization by King Charles II, mainly because they were victims of the French King Louis XIV (England’s greatest enemy at the time). Walloons and Huguenots were allowed their own churches. Although some were rich, with relatives already living here, many refugees were poor and dependent on handouts. The Anglican Church organised collections of money to help support the refugees. Walloons and Huguenots settled mainly in London and the south-east of England, often setting up communities in distinct areas such as Soho in London.
Although many welcomed Huguenot refugees, there were also some who reacted negatively to their arrival. Weavers, clockmakers and other craftspeople feared that their jobs were threatened, while others resented the special favours given to the newcomers. During this period, there were occasional anti-foreigner riots, when poorer Huguenots were attacked.
What was the economic impact of Walloon and Huguenot migration?
The Huguenots had a huge economic impact on Britain. They revitalised the silk weaving trade, kick-started various manufacturing industries, such as cutlery making in Sheffield, and invested heavily in growing businesses. The skills and energies of Huguenot immigrants played an important part in the transformation of Britain into Europe’s major industrial power. They also introduced many other skills to England, such as feather and fan work, high-quality clock making, woodcarving, papermaking and clothing design.
Huguenots were key investors in the Bank of England and its first Governor was descended from Huguenot immigrants. They were also at the heart of the growth of capitalism. The Bank - and the creation of the National Debt - meant that the government could borrow money to fight wars that enabled the British Empire to grow and protected the Atlantic for slave ships and the plantation system.
What was the social/cultural impact of Walloon and Huguenot migration?
Over a few generations, Huguenots integrated well into British society. Up to a quarter of Londoners may have some Huguenot ancestry. Huguenot fashions and styles, influenced by their own craftspeople, became fashionable.
Walloons, Huguenots were allowed to have their own places of worship. At that time the same freedom was not allowed to English Nonconformists or Catholics. However, the allowances given to Protestant refugees paved the way to make British society more open to religious differences.
Why did Palatines come to Britain?
The Palatines came from the Middle Rhine, part of which is now Germany. They were suffering under French Catholic landlords and very poor harvests. They came because of a 1709 law, the Foreign Protestants Naturalisation Act, which invited European Protestants to come and settle in Britain. Some Palatines also migrated because they hoped to travel from England to a new life in North America.
How were Palatines treated?
When 13,000 Palatine Germans arrived in the Thames estuary in 1709, £20,000 was raised by church congregations to support them because they were seen as fellow Protestants. However, their initial welcome did not last.
They arrived at a time of rising poverty in England with high food prices and rising taxes. Local authorities in London feared that Palatines would be classed as ‘vagrants’ that by law they would have to support under the Poor Laws. When it was discovered that a third of the immigrants were in fact Catholics and arriving because of poverty and not persecution, sympathy for them drained away.
In the short term, the Government set up refugee camps in Blackheath and Clerkenwell, near London. The longer term solution was to ship the Palatine Germans to America but that proved too expensive so the Government planned to send them to Ireland instead. A few refused and managed to find their way to America. Most returned to their homeland, leaving a very few to try to survive in England. For those 3000 that did go to Ireland, it was a disaster. They were hated by local Catholics who were suffering under English rule, could not apply their farming skills in a different environment, and were as poor as they had been in Germany.
What was the political impact of Palatine migration?
As a result of the arrival of the Palatines, the Foreign Protestants Naturalisation Act was repealed in 1712. Britain no longer had an ‘open border’ policy for European migrants.
Why did the Jews come to Britain?
After the execution of King Charles I, a small number of Jews were allowed to return, nearly 400 years after they were expelled from England. In 1655, Oliver Cromwell submitted a petition to the Council of State calling for Jews to be allowed to return to Britain. Ultimately it was decided that as England’s Jews had been expelled in 1290 by a king, and there were no longer kings ruling England, the previous expulsion had no legal basis.
Cromwell accepted Jews for several reasons. He thought they might be a source of revenue and help him fight against his Catholic enemies. He was also persuaded by Dutch rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel to help Jews fleeing persecution in many parts of Europe. Cromwell shared a widely-held view that the end of the world was coming. In keeping with Bible teaching, he believed that Jews would be recalled from the four corners of the world at the time of the Last Judgement.
How were the Jews treated?
Cromwell initially met with resistance at the Whitehall Conference in December 1655 but overruled them.
When the first group arrived from Spain in 1656 they came quietly, settling in East London and building a synagogue. They did not have full rights but they were allowed to trade and work in finance, as well as construct their own synagogues. Small communities grew up in London and some other coastal cities. Some became rich but others were poor street traders who probably experienced some prejudice and discrimination.
What was the economic impact of Jewish migration?
Jewish businesses contributed to the economy and helped to develop coastal towns such as Hull, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Liverpool.
What was the social/cultural impact of Jewish migration?
As with the Walloons and Hugeuenots, Jewish refugees were granted religious freedoms to worship as they wished. This paved the way to similar freedoms for other groups and helped make British society more open to religious differences.
Why did Gypsies come to Britain?
During the late medieval and Tudor period, nomadic Roma Gypsies began arriving in England, working as farmworkers and entertainers. Over the centuries they had migrated from northern India through Central Europe.
How were the Gypsies treated?
Gypsies suffered extreme persecution. They moved from place to place at a time when most people still lived all their lives in the same village. Their nomadic lifestyle meant that they existed outside the control of the authorities, and they were seen as a threat. They faced a lot of prejudice and in the 16th century there were several attempts to expel them from the country. In 1530 King Henry VIII ordered that all Gypsies should be expelled from England.
In 1554 Queen Mary I made it a crime to be an immigrant Romanichal Gypsy, punishable by death. In 1577 six people were hanged in Aylesbury for mixing with Gypsies. In 1592 five Gypsies were hanged in Durham. In 1596 nine women and men in York were executed for being Gypsies. In the 1650s forced transportation began of Gypsies into slavery in North America and the Caribbean.
What was the social/cultural impact of Gypsy migration?
Despite the prejudice faced by Roma gypsies, there remains a sizable traveller community in Britain, which has grown with the influx of Irish travellers in the 19th Century. Aspects of gypsy language have also been integrated into English such as ‘bar’ and ‘gibberish’.
Gypsies today continue to face discrimination and mistrust from many within the British population.
Why did Africans come to Tudor England?
After the Reformation, when King Henry VIII rejected the Catholic Church, relations between the Protestant English and Muslim North African governments were good because they had a common enemy in Catholic Spanish. The North Africans resented the fact that Spanish forces had re-conquered Spain and taken control away from its previous Moorish rulers.
Other African immigrants were Moors who had come directly from Spain. They may - like one of the attendants of Queen Catherine of Aragon - have been Muslims who converted to Christianity.
Other immigrants came from West Africa. They included. The son of a prince sent to England for an education. A group who had been enslaved on a Portuguese ship which was attacked by an English ship. They were brought to England to learn English: the plan was for them to become translators.
How were Africans treated in Tudor England?
From what we can tell, Africans living in Tudor England lived quiet lives in a range of occupations including court trumpeter, shoemaker, needlemaker and servant. Black people living in England were free. Racist attitudes existed but were not yet dominant and there are lots of examples of black people being treated fairly at this time: When John Blanke, one of King Henry VIII’s trumpeters, asked for a pay rise the king granted it. Henry also gave Blanke and his bride a wedding gift
Religious difference mattered far more than ‘racial’ difference in Tudor England and it may have been far easier to be black than to be Catholic.
What was the social/cultural impact of African migration into Tudor England?
African people lived normally and were accepted into English society
Why did Africans come to England during the early years of enslavement?
In 1660, the monarchy under King Charles II set up the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa (which later became the Royal African Company). It had a monopoly over trade with West Africa, protected by the Royal Navy. English involvement in the trade in enslaved Africans grew rapidly. The small number of free Africans in England were joined by others who arrived because of enslavement. How most came to Britain is unknown. Some came directly from the West African coast, while others came from the Caribbean and North America as servants.
By the mid-18th century Britain dominated trade in Asia and the East India Company took control of India. Several of the English people who went as employees of the Company hired Indian children as servants and women as nannies and wet nurses for their children. When they returned home they sometimes brought the child servants and nannies (ayahs) with them. They wanted to continue in England the opulent lifestyle they had enjoyed in India.
How were Africans treated in the early years of enslavement?
The fashion for wealthy families to have and show off African or Indian child servants - seen in many paintings of the time - meant that many children lived far from their families. They were often well looked after, but also patronised. Their lives may have been lonely, surrounded by people of an alien culture and language. Some, when they were no longer children, were abandoned.
The law was confused. Enslavement in the colonies was allowed by law, but not lawful in Britain. Some Africans and Indians working as servants were not free, as is clear from court cases and advertisements about runaways. However, court and parish records also show that others were treated equally.
Treatment of servants varied from kindness to extreme violence. In a few cases black people were actually sold into slavery in Britain, and some owners treated their servants as slaves even though the law in theory protected them. Most black residents appear to have lived ordinary lives and worked alongside white maids, washerwomen, labourers, cooks and sailors, sharing their lives. There were black people in many occupations including innkeepers, barmaids and farm labourers.
What was the economic impact of African migration during the early years of enslavement?
Financed by the banks and insurance companies, businesses shipped goods, such as guns and metalware, to West Africa. There the goods were exchanged for enslaved people who were transported to the Americas to be sold and work on plantations. The commodities they produced - sugar and tobacco above all - were shipped to Britain and sold to generate great profits for the trading companies. Africans who came to Britain were caught in this system and part of what built Britain’s wealth.
What was the social/cultural impact of African migration during the early years of enslavement?
The racist idea that darker skinned people were inferior began to spread and influence social relations. Negative references to people of African and Indian origin, with comments on their blackness, became increasingly common. As religious divisions became less significant, ‘racial’ ones became more noted. Whereas Africans in Tudor England seem to have lived easily within wider society, now relationships between black and white people were affected by racial ideas.
Why did Black people come to Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries?
We do not know exactly how many people of African origin were living in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many were here as a result of the Transatlantic Trade in enslaved Africans.
Some came with their owners from North America and the West Indies, brought to work as servants to the household. One example of this was Mary Prince, who was brought here forcibly in 1828 but then escaped with the help of white servants. We know this from her autobiography, the first book published in Britain by a black female author.
After emancipation, when Parliament abolished slavery throughout the British Empire, and during the 19th century black people continued to come here in smaller numbers and settle. They included refugees escaping enslavement in the United States of America, or had served in the British army during the American War of Independence and were promised freedom from enslavement in Britain.
How were Black people treated in the 18th and 19th centuries?
Before slavery in the British Empire was abolished under the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, the status of black people in Britain was complex. This was because the law was not clear. British law allowed enslavement overseas, on the slave ships from West Africa and the West Indian plantations. Inside the British Isles, however, slavery was not legally sanctioned. The case of James Somerset in 1772 was important. He had escaped from his master who then recaptured him in Britain and tried to force him to return to Jamaica. The Lord Chief Justice ruled that he could not be taken from Britain by force. While in Britain, he was free.
Some black people were held in conditions of enslavement here in Britain and some were violently abused. However most Africans lived here in freedom, as can be seen from parish records. Court documents show Africans accused of crime were treated in the same way as white people. ‘Black Loyalists’ who had been promised freedom from enslavement if they fought for Britain in the American War of Independence, were brought here when Britain lost the war. Many of them ended up destitute, begging on London’s streets. Over 400 were transported to Sierra Leone in West Africa in a resettlement project by the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor.
A few Africans thrived in Britain: Ignatius Sancho who was born on a slave ship became a wealthy composer, actor, and writer and was the first black Briton to be allowed to vote in elections. Some black people, such as Queen Victoria’s god-daughter Lady Sarah Forbes Bonetta, the nurse Mary Seacole and the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, achieved success and prominence in late Victorian society.
What was the political impact of Black people migrating in the 18th and 19th centuries?
William Davidson and Robert Wedderburn were both the children of black enslaved mothers and white fathers who became political activists against slavery and for the rights of working people. The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave in 1831 and was the first black woman to do so. Equiano and Cugoano also played leading roles in the campaign for the abolition of enslavement with their organisation ‘Sons of Africa’. The Abolition movement has influenced many campaigns for justice since.
William Cuffay (from St Kitts in the Caribbean) was a leader of the Chartist movement for political reform and was convicted of preparing to set fire to certain buildings as a signal for an uprising and was transported to Tasmania in 1848.
Black soldiers played an important role in helping the British army during both the American War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars.
