From: Kristi De Simone
Date: 1/31/00
Time: 5:36:23 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.244.67
Kristi De Simone - History 67- Week 3- Text Assignment--Diversity is America. Cultural diversity became a major influence on the economic, political, and ecclesiastical institutions of the Middle Colonies. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware were settled for reasons such as Pennsylvania 's Quaker sanctuary and ones personal income. Despite the differences for settling, there were many similarities of the people that moved to the Middle Colonies. Each colony developed a strikingly heterogeneous population of men, and women of different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The boisterous, partisan public life of Middle Colonies foreshadowed later American society. New Amsterdam (New York City) on Manhattan Island population may have been small only 270 in 1628, but it contained an extraordinary ethnic mix. One visitor said in 1644 he had heard "eighteen different languages" spoken in the city. People of all religions and backgrounds could live happily and peacefully together in the Middle Colonies. In New Jersey the diversity of settlers were from every European nation. Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Baptists, Anabaptists, and Anglicans somehow managed to live together peacefully. Ethnic and religious diversity was crucial in the development of Pennsylvania's public institutions, and its politics took on an argumentative quality absent in more homogeneous colonies such as Virginia and Maryland. From the beginning of New England it was populated by exiles and troublemakers, and according to one Dutch visitor, Rhode Island was " the receptacle of all sorts of riff- raff people... All the cranks of New England retire thither." No one was persecuted in Rhode Island for his or her religious beliefs. Diversity is America. From the beginning to the present America was started and built on its vast diversity. Pulling talents and skills from every nation to build the strongest nation, America.