History of Migration in America

Since the first new settlers arrived in America several centuries ago, people have been coming to the United States for a variety of reasons: to find land to farm, to get an education or better job, to earn money to send home, to practice their religion freely, or to escape famine or war, just to name a few. Others came by force. Whatever the cause or reasons, this immigration is what made America the melting pot that it is today.
It wasn't until the later part of the 1820's that the number of immigrants per year was over 10,000, and from that time on, the numbers kept growing. The first real bursts in immigration came in the 1840's and 1850's, when poor harvests forced people to leave Great Britain and Northern Europe. Most of them came to the United States in order to survive -- there simply wasn't enough food to support the population. So, between 1845 and 1860, more than 3.5 million people arrived in the United States in search of a better life.
In the early years, the influx of immigrants was tolerated, if not altogether welcomed. Immigrants helped populate the growing country, and a majority of them were English-speaking Protestants, so they blended in well with the rest of the population. However, as more and more Irish and European Catholics entered the United States, previous immigrant Americans began to protest. They feared both cheap labor and the possibility that a large Catholic population would increase the influence of the Pope in the United States. This fear spawned the "Know-Nothing" movement, a group of individuals who wanted stricter controls on immigration and naturalization.
By 1870, roughly one-eighth of the population was foreign-born, and the opposition to free immigration continued. In answer to the protests, the U.S. government passed laws to regulate immigration. For example, in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act disallowed entry of all working-class Chinese. Later laws also barred people who had no money, individuals with certain diseases, anarchists, and individuals who were deemed insane.
The United States government set up quota systems with the National Origins Acts in the 1920's. These quotas heavily favored British and Northern European immigrants over those from Southern and Eastern Europe. At the time, Americans were more accepting of the British and Northern Europeans, while the cultures and cheap labor offered by Slavs, Greeks, Italians, and other Southern and Eastern Europeans seemed more threatening.
The quotas remained in effect until 1965, when the government adjusted them to allow for even more immigration from all countries into the United States. Now, even those quotas are slightly more relaxed. In the post-World War II era, the U.S. government has made exceptions to the quota rules when political situations in other countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, and Cuba have made it necessary.

The earliest European settlements in the United States were concentrated on the East Coast. However, as the country and population have grown, people have slowly migrated towards the West Coast. In the beginning, people moved west because that's where some of the best and cheapest farm land was. At the time of the Revolutionary War, soldiers were offered free land as payment for their services. Then in the mid-19th century, the government offered free land to homesteaders who would live and make improvements on a piece of prairie land. The government also offered subsidies to railroad builders, who spurred the growth of towns across the United States.
Later, as the importance of agriculture died out, people moved where they could find jobs in the booming industries. Whether it was oil in Texas, cars in Detroit, or movies in California, when an industry died out, families moved to the next booming area.
One notable wave of migration began in the 1920's. As the National Origins Acts effectively reduced the number of foreign immigrants, more labor was needed in Northern factories. Thus, many African-Americans from the South took advantage of these job opportunities and began a new life in the North.
Since the 1960's the main migrations have been towards the West and the South. People have continued moving west for the climate and quality of life. The southerly movement was spawned by retirees who also prefer the more temperate climates, as well as the lower cost of living.


You must realize by now that migration for what was to become America, led from Jamestown, down to Virginia and the Carolina’s. Then when Daniel Boone built the “Wilderness Path “, in to Kentucky, and Tennessee. All of the migration to Missouri came mostly from Kentucky and Tennessee. At that time, part of Kentucky belong to Virginia, before Kentucky became a state in 1797. There are a lot of Rice's in Kentucky, who settled there before statehood. The Rice’s migrated from Virginia, I suspect after the American Revolutionary War.
Military/Pension Land Warrants were used a lot in Kentucky. These warrants were issued to soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War, instead of pay they got land warrants. Some of the Land Warrants were issued by the British, to those that help them fight the war, as if they really had a right, after that war, to give land away. History will show, that the very reasons that started Wars, those problems, seem to linger long after these Wars had ended. This also led to the War of 1812, when we finally kick the British boot out. These Land Warrants could be sold or given to others, many were given to other family members. They were like cash tender. By 1825, the warrants were no good in Kentucky., and Missouri and Illinois became public-domain, where you could buy 100 acres of land for $4. Sometimes the land would be auctioned off. “Squatters” were people that settled land before a territory had become a state. After statehood, these people were offered to buy the land for $1.25 an acre up to 160 acres, and some of these folks lost their land in auctions.
Once that Daniel Boone cut the "Wilderness Path" to Otter Creek Kentucky., people came not as individuals, but as church congregations. Old family bibles have been found to contain entire list of migrations of individuals from a church group. The whole church would just get up, and move. When they settled, OLE Joe would build the school, and OLE John would build the church. All of the families had 10 to 20 kids, and a lot of these children did not live to adulthood. There were a lot of health concerns, but very little medical assistance. They were just like family, building together, and helping each other, many of these early settlers intermarried with each other’s families. Some of the same families moved with the Boone’s from Pennsylvania to Virginia, then to Kentucky, and even on to Missouri in 1799. All of those families intermarried with each other. You will see that the Boone’s, Hay’s, Collin’s, Wilcoxin’s, Word’s, Howell’s all married together. The Rice’s married into the Bailey family seventy-five times over a one hundred year period.
Folks married much older back then, the men worked the farms with their parents till they had enough money to have there own place, or inherited their parents land. Jonathan Rice was 36 years old when he married Elizabeth Porter, she was 18. Their youngest son Edwin was born in 1860. the same year Jonathan died. There wasn't any law, so they didn't take much to strangers, and handled things, of that sort, the best they knew how.
After you study Genealogy for awhile, you begin to see that every generation since the 1600’s up to the 1800’s had migrated. It was kind of like a family tradition, My father migrated, and now I must do the same thing. Whatever the reason was for migration, pioneer life was not easy.

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