The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 1, July, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 1, July, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
'The French refugees sent in thither by the charitable exhibition
of his late majesty King William, are naturalized by a particular
law for that purpose. In the year 1699 there went over about three
hundred of these, and in the year following about two hundred more,
and so on, till there arrived in all between seven and eight
hundred men, women, and children, who had fled from France on
account of their religion.'
Bishop Meade (ii. 75) writes:
'That twelve Protestant German families, consisting of about fifty
persons, arrived, April 17th, in Virginia, and were therein settled
near the Rappahannock river. That in 1717, seventeen Protestant
German families, consisting of about fourscore persons, came and
set down near their countrymen. And many more, both German and
Swiss families, are likely to come there and settle likewise.'
This report was made in 1720.
These facts show in the clearest manner that a great percentage of the
inhabitants of the seceding States are not of English origin. Even the
English were not all Cavalier and Episcopalian. The _London Magazine_,
in an 'Account of the British Plantations,' says:
'What contributed much more toward the establishment of the colony,
was their granting a plenary indulgence to people of all religions,
as by their charter they were empowered to do; for by this great
numbers of dissenters were induced to sell their estates in England
and transport themselves and families to Carolina; so that by the
year 1670 a numerous colony was at once sent out.'
One last consideration, of possible impurity of blood, and I will
proceed to examine the antecedents of those colonists who were of
English blood.
In 1853, a memoir of James Fontaine was published, accompanied by
letters from members of his family. He was a Huguenot, who had settled
in Virginia, and his descendants have been among the most distinguished
of her citizens.
The letters of his sons to relatives in England are very instructive. I
quote from one from Peter Fontaine, dated March 2, 1756, in which he
regrets that the English had not intermarried with the Indians:
'But here methinks I can hear you observe, 'What! Englishmen
intermarry with Indians?' But I can convince you that they are
guilty of much more heinous practices, more unjustifiable in the
sight of God and man (if that indeed may be called a bad practice);
for many base wretches among us take up with negro women, by which
means the country swarms with mulatto bastards, and these
mulattoes, if but three generations removed from the black father
or mother, may, by the indulgence of the laws of the country,
intermarry with the white people, _and actually do every day so
marry_.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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