The Federalist has an OpEd piece with this intriguing title.
No, America Wasn't 'Founded' By Immigrants
It argues correctly that the British colonies in North America were founded by British settlers moving to territories Britain then owned. There were immigrants from elsewhere, but the bulk of the European inhabitants of the colonies were from the British Isles, seeking opportunities not available in the home counties. They came in their thousands fully intending to live under British rule, and the original colonists lived and died as Brits.
Our revolution - technically a civil war - happened roughly 150 years later. The Boston “tea party” was in many ways like the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. In each case, a bunch of angry citizens protesting their government's actions.
The Boston Tea Party crew eventually had to go to war. We went to the polls and elected a different government. Our founders intended we shouldn't need to do a civil war to protest bad government, and so far they have mostly been right, with one glaring exception 160 years ago.
----------
The first of my ancestors to arrive here came in 1633, 13 years after the Mayflower. The Rev. John Cotton was a Puritan minister at King's Chapel in Boston, MA.
He lived and died British, as did his grandson Rev. Cotton Mather who was famed as author of a book supportive of the Salem witchcraft trials. These, and their descendants, were British colonial citizens who never emigrated, they simply migrated within the British empire.
A century and a half later our U.S. founders were frustrated British who rebelled against the crown. With French help, they won their freedom and nationhood.
Hat tip to my uncle, the late Colonel Cotton, USA (ret.), for the genealogical data. I'd already earned my Ph.D. when I learned he'd done a Ph.D. in Military History at Georgetown U. in 1931.
In my family, his rank of Colonel was the big deal. Nobody mentioned his doctorate, it's likely they didn't know.
