RACE AND FAMILY IN AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 179 



vigor, depending on the nature of the race and strain. Havelock Ellis main- 

 tains that East Anglia has been particularly fecund in superior Englishmen 

 and has been a portion of the British Isles particularly open to invasion 

 by such diverse peoples as the Vikings, the Dutch, the Romans, Normans 

 and Angles. "East Anglia is productive of great statesmen and great ec- 

 clesiastics; it is also a land of great scholars." Since it is the land whence 

 were drawn so many of the colonists of the Atlantic Seaboard, we find here 

 that organic basis favorable to the growth of our American culture and the 

 carrying out of those experiments, governmental, religious and otherwise 

 for which America has come to stand. 



Among the early freebooters who crossed the ocean were such English- 

 men as Sir Francis Drake and Martin Frobisher who sought to enrich their 

 Queen with metals that proved spurious. Soon, however, these adventurers 

 gave place to middle-class traders whose object was still overseas traffic. 

 Along with this change came the operation of numerous factors which 

 selected the types of intending colonists and gave to them a high advantage 

 in planting their settlements in the new country. 



We could with profit review these factors, but we can only instance the 

 most important. First among them was the rise of the middle classes to 

 wealth and positions of political power. This made possible the financing 

 of companies to promote settlement. Then for the actual work of coloniza- 

 tion there were two landed classes from which came capable leaders in this 

 enterprise. These were the substantial landed proprietors who combined 

 the management of their estates with the functions of government. Such 

 were the Winthrops, the Endicotts, the Eatons, the Wolcotts who with their 

 spiritual advisers made the beginnings of self-governing commonwealths in 

 New England. The second were the yeomanry, free owners of small farms 

 and noted for industry and independence. They furnished chiefly mana- 

 gers to direct and if need be, take an actual hand in the practical undertakings 

 in the colonies. 



The emergence of women as economic factors outside the home was also 

 of high importance. In any event pioneer life would have necessitated 

 sharing the hardships and hazards of the new venture. What is doubtless 

 of equal consequence, the selection of such as partners in marriage, furnished 

 the all-important germinal basis for the segregation of valuable traits. In- 

 deed, the dominance of certain colonial families can, in many instances, be 

 directly traced to the coming together of worthy strains, the chief deter- 

 mining factors being the ability of the women chosen in marriage. Last, 

 but not least potent was the strong urge toward religious and political lib- 

 erty, which united rich and poor in a common bond, but which, through 



