True Founders of America
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People will debate over which of the four groups, the Puritan/Pilgrims, the Quakers, the people at Jamestown, or the Scotch-Irish, could best be considered the founding fathers of the ideals the United Sates stands for. While all of the four groups held certain qualities that contributed to the basis for creating the United States the Scotch-Irish Americans hold the traits that would make them a better candidate for the sole title of founding fathers. The Scotch-Irish came to the New World seeking true freedom of religion, had strong economic views with an entrepreneurship-like attitude, and most important, wished for more equality and freedom from a British monarchy.
One major reason the different groups came over to the New World was to seek religious freedom so they could worship how they pleased. The Puritans, Quakers, and Scotch-Irish all wanted to worship God the way they thought was best. England essentially forced everyone to do things the way the Church of England required. This made everyone who didn’t like the Church of England unhappy. When the opportunity to move to the New World came about, people flocked over to America to set up their religion the way they wanted it to be. They wanted the freedom to worship they way they believed was right. However the Quakers and Puritans began to mimic the Church of England. They imposed their way of worship and called everyone else’s inadequate forcing them to do it the Puritan way. This is somewhat hypocritical and not true freedom of religion. The Scotch-Irish, while they did have their own personal beliefs on religion, did not go around enforcing it on everyone. This is something most Americans agree with. The fact the Scotch-Irish enforced a true freedom of religion promotes them as the founders.
Americans celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit. So did the Scotch-Irish. While the people in Jamestown came over to the New World to make money, they did not want to put effort into it. They had to have men like John Smith come in and force them to work to provide food so they could survive. Many Scotch-Irish made their travel to the New World by becoming indentured servants. Committing years of hard work to come to the new land shows they had some work ethic. What sets them apart from Jamestown is they became frontiersmen who would use the land and work long and hard to survive and promote their way of life. They would grow corn and hunt to survive. The Scotch-Irish could have easily freeloaded off the settlements in Jamestown and the surrounding areas, but their religion called for them to work hard. That Protestant work ethic sets them apart from the early people in Jamestown because they adopted hard work quickly, and did not take years to get it right.
The most important factor that