Why They Came
小波浪
Not many decisions could have been more difficult for a family to make than to say farewell to a community where it had lived for centuries， to abandon old ties and familiar landmarks, and to sail across dark as to a strange land. Today, when mass communications tell one part of the world all about another, it is quite easy to understand how poverty or tyranny might force people to exchange an old nation for a new one。 But centuries ago migration was a leap into the unknown. It was an enormous intellectual and emotional commitment。 The forces that moved early immigrants to their great decision——-the decision to leave their homes and begin an adventure filled with uncertainty， risk and hardship—-—must have been of overpowering proportions (overwhelming, overcoming）. As Oscar Handlin states, the early immigrants of America would collide with unaccustomed problems， learn to understand alien ways and alien languages, manage to survive in a very foreign environment＂。
Despite the obstacles and uncertainties that lay ahead of them， millions did migrate to “the promid land”———America. But what was it that moved so many to migrate against such overwhelming odds？ There were probably as many reasons for coming to America as there were people who came。 It was a highly individual decision。Yet it can be said that three large forces--—religious percution， political oppression and economic hardship-—-provided the chief motives for the mass migrations to America。 They were responding in their own way to the pledge of the Declaration of Independence: the promi of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness＂。
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梦想前行The arch for freedom of worship has brought people to America from the days of the pilgrims to modern times. In 1620, for example, the Mayflower carried a cargo of 102 pasngers who ”《秋浦歌》 welcomed the opportunity to advance the gospel of Christ in the remote parts＂. A number of other groups such as the Jews and Quakers came to America after the Pilgrims， all eking religious freedom. In more recent times， anti-Semitic percution in Hitler’s Germany has driven people from their homes to ek refuge in America. However, not all religious cts have received the tolerance and understanding for which they came. The Puritans of the Massachutts Bay Colony showed as little tolerance for disntion beliefs as the Anglicans of England had shown them。 They quickly expelled other religious groups from their society. Minority religious cts, from the Quakers and Shakers through the Catholics and Jews to the Mormons, have at various times suffered both discrimination and hostility in the United
States.
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But the diversity of religious belief has made for religious toleration。 In demanding freedom for itlf， each ct had to permit freedom for others. The insistence of each successive wave of immigrants upon its right to practice its religion helped make freedom of worship a central part of the American Creed. People who gambled their lives on the right to believe in their own God would not easily surrender that right in a new society。
中考指导 The cond great force behind immigration has been political oppression。 America has always been a refuge from tyranny. As a nation conceived in liberty， it has help out to the world the promi of respect for the rights of man .Every time a revolution has failed in Europe, every time a nation has succumbed to tyranny， men and sail across the as。 This process has not come to an end in our own day。 The terrors of Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy， the terrible wars of Southeast Asia ———all have brought new thousands eking safety in the United States。
The economic factor has been more complex than the religious and political factors。 From the very beginning， some have come to America in arch of riches, some in flight from poverty， and becau they were bought and sold and had no choice.
And the various reasons are intertwined。 Thus some early arrivals were lured to the shores by dreams of amassing great wealth， like the Spanish in Mexico and Peru。 The adventurers， expecting quick profits in gold， soon found that real wealth lay in such crops a tobacco and cotton. As they built up the plantation economy in states like Virginia and the Carolinas， they needed cheap labor. So they began to import indentured rvants from England (men and women who agreed to labor a term of years in exchange for eventual freedom）, and slaves from Africa.
The process of industrialization in America incread the demand for cheap labor, and chaotic economic conditions in Europe incread the supply. If some immigrants continued to believe that the streets of New York were paved with gold, more were driven by the hunger and hardship of their native lands. The Irish potato famine of 1845 brought almost a million people to America in five years. American manufacturers advertid in European newspapers， offering to pay the passage of any man willing to come to America to work for them。 你现在还好吗
The immigrants who came for economic reasons contributed to the strength of the new society in veral ways. Tho who came from countries with advanced political and economic institutions brought with them faith in tho institutions and experience in making them work。 They also brought technical and managerial skills which contributed greatly to economic growth in the new land. Above all， they helped give America the extraordinary social mobility which is the esnce of an open society。
