Colonial American Culture

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had some migrants choose to live in enclaves with their own culture as a way to keep away from discrimination, to preserve culture, and to some extent remain separate from other cultures. This can also be known as patchwork migration German Protestants that belonged to the Lutheran and Reformed churches begun to arrive in America during the colonial period. Many of the German settlers of the colonial period were, however, members of various nonconformist sects who in many cases fled Europe to escape persecution by the authorities and the established churches there, whether Protestant or Catholic. The migration of Protestant Germans started after October 1517. This was when a German priest and scholar Martin Luther nailed to the church door in Wittenberg, a city in eastern Germany, his list of ninety-five theses, or statements, questioning the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther believed that people should live their lives by following the Bible, not the pope. He pointed and exposed the corruption he had witnessed in the church. His call for reform brought about the rise of Protestant churches throughout Europe. As it would in other European countries, the era of reformation and …show more content…

One of the first points of settlement was Germantown in the British colony of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania 's founder, William Penn, was a member of the Quakers, a radical Protestant sect that began in England and was founded by George Fox in the late 1640s. The British king had awarded Penn a proprietorship in the American colonies. The proprietorship made him the owner of a large section of land in the new colony and gave him the authority to create the government and make the laws. Penn set out to establish a holy commonwealth, characterized by peace, brotherly love, and religious