Emigrants: Why the English Sailed to the New World

by James Evans

'Marvellously engaging' The Times
'Brisk, informative and eye-opening' Daily Telegraph

In the 1600s, vast numbers of people left England for the Americas. Crossing the Atlantic was a major undertaking, the voyage long and treacherous. Why did they go?

Emigrants casts vivid new light on the population shift which underpins the rise of modern America. Using contemporary sources including diaries, court hearings and letters, James Evans brings us the extraordinary personal stories of the men and women who made the journey of a lifetime.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 6, 2017

About the author

James Evans completed his PhD at Oxford following a first-class Masters in Historical research. He has worked as a producer on various BBC historical television documentaries, including Dan Cruickshank’s Hiden Houses; Niall Ferguson’s Western Civilization; Griff Rhys Jones’s Rivers; and Michael Wood’s English Story, for which he also contributed to the accompanying book. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Michael Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and accessible analysis of the 17th century's mass migration of English people to the New World. James Evans explains the reasons, hopes, fears and arduous trials of the emigrants through individual accounts from the time which are both fascinating and frequently moving.

We also learn how varying economic, religious and political motivations drove the creation of different settlements such as Newfoundland, New England, Virginia and Pennsylvania. And throughout, he maintains an illuminating contemporaneous account of the turmoil in England that provoked much of the migration. A pleasure to read.

[Pippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This interests me particularly because I know that a branch of my mother's family (Tayer - now Theyer/ Thayer) went to Boston in the late 1630s, and ended up doing extremely well there. I wished there was more in the book about Boston, but in a volume this size there is not room for everything! There was quite a lot about Long Island and New York (as it became). It was very interesting to hear how dates and places impacted on people, and what their likely motivations may have been. I suspect my ancestors would have been puritans (judging by the date and destination). I devoured this. It was a part of history that I knew very little about, and it was interesting to compare the tensions of modern times with the very different (and terrible) tensions then.

[Joseph Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

For starters, virutally every-other sentence begins with 'And,' something that I was told was literary sacrelige at the age of seven, but which James Evans has seemingly yet to be informed of. This over-use of 'And' is accompanied by frequently clumsily-worded phrases; at one point, Evans describes how prospective colonists 'craned their ears' to hear a man speak. As most mentally stable readers will surely note, one usually 'cranes' one's 'neck,' and not one's 'ears.' Hence Evans's phrase is either a poorly-executed attempt at adding variety to his gruellish writing style or a product of ignorance.

Leaving aside such petty grievances, the book is generally poor. Chapters devolve into unenlightening rambling about basic British history, whilst Evans seems to feel the need to virtue-signal about women's rights at every possible opportunity which, whilst commendable on the first few occasions, rapidly becomes tiresome. ('We get it James, you're not sexist!').

Rather than looking in-depth at the factors contributing to 'Why the English Sailed to the New World,' the book is essentially a collection of mini-biographies of a few colonists. Casual readers may find their interest piqued by such a book, but most will not. On the subject on which he claims to premise the book, Evans comes up short - very short.

Evans clearly wants to make the reader feel connected to the individuals whose lives he narrates on, but his gimmicky attempts at mimicking the style of a novel fail miserably. Every chapter starts with some 'edgy' anecdote about how the sea was foaming, or the Sun shining on an individual as they journey across the Atlantic, a tendency which quickly becomes banal. A select few historians are genuinely adept at making their books read like novels - see Robert Caro's 'The Years of Lyndon Johnson' - but Evans is not one of them.

Evans has no right to call himself a 'historian.' The book is terribly written; dreadfully dull; and profoundly unenlightening. I'd be shocked if Evans has read half the books that he piles into the 'Bibliography,' because his professed expertise doesn't show. For a more academic account of 'Why the English Sailed to the New World,' as well as what they did once they got there, see Bernard Bailyn's recently-published 'The Barbarous Years.'

[Charlotte Falkner · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a missed opportunity for a good book. I’m sorry to say I honestly don’t understand the multiple high ratings this book has received and I’m sorry for the effort I wasted to obtain a copy. I found this book in dire need of an aggressive editor in so many places—often I had to read sentences two or three times before I understood what the author was saying. The first few times, I chalked it up to linguistic, cultural differences, but then I realized it is just the author’s way. The book ambled about, loosely arranged by “topics” that never really achieved any cohesion. Would have been better written chronologically, perhaps, but that still wouldn’t remove the author’s over-complicated writing style.

[Stephen]

An essentially dry review of emigration to the American colonies, through the experiences of some individuals, that is a really good reminder of why people leave their home countries for other places - political difficultes, persecution, religious differences and simple fortune seeking. Very informative.

[Rae]

Fish and fur. Religion. Indentured servitude. An informative read.

“The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

– George Eliot, Middlemarch.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much better than a high school American history book. Instead of discussing the economic, political and religious situation in England, the author choses to use well known historical figures to illustrate reasons to leave England. This produces a tired and over used discussion.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Examines the many reasons why the English crossed the Atlantic in the 16th and 17th centuries. Interesting detail about such figures as John Rolfe, Anne Hutchinson and William Penn. But a vast majority of the emigrants are unknown.