THE first permanent settlers who, in any number, came with wives and children to make homes and to till the soil in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were Walloons, or French-speaking people, from the Belgic Netherlands.
Who were they, and why did they come?
Few people from northern Europe, three hundred years ago, wanted to go and live in America, when it was a howling wilderness full of savage beasts and men. A great, wide, stormy ocean had first to be crossed, and many who made the attempt died on the way or were massacred when on land. In most cases, colonization meant starvation.
So it was that before men would come with families to what is now the best of all countries, they had to be pushed or driven out from their home lands, like fledglings from the nest. Cruel kings or church rulers must force them to leave their own towns and cities, houses and gardens, before they could think of exile. With most of the first pioneers, it was a choice between prison and torture, being burned alive, or having their heads chopped off.
