To What Extent Was Colonial America A Pluralist Society

TO WHAT EXTENT WAS COLONIAL AMERICA A PLURALIST SOCIETY
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Introduction
The general society has continued evolving over the past several centuries, with various adjustments and adaptations. While most societies were tightly-knit and bordering on hardline stands in the early days, there has been a gradual adjustment to constitute what is currently typical of most of them; all-inclusive. People have continued learning ways of living either with each other or by each other for mutual benefit and survival. This is essentially the foundation of a pluralistic society welcoming and tolerant of new ideas, cultures, and practices. Colonial America was, to a great extent, a pluralist society since it welcomed and contained all sorts of people, even though there was also a small element against pluralism.
Colonial America and Pluralism
There is a good reason why the U.S. is so commonly known as a nation of immigrants. There was a thriving trans-Atlantic trade between the Americas, Africa, and Europe during colonial times. In what would be known as the triangular trade, there was the movement of labor in the form of slaves from Africa to the U.S. to provide labor in the farmlands. They mainly worked in sugar, tobacco, and rice plantations. On the other hand, the products from these farms and valuable materials generated revenue for the Crown back in Britain. Then, the Irish, English, and Scottish immigrants were trooping into the new continent to search for better living conditions and opportunities than in their relatively impoverished homelands by then. All these resulted in the growth of American society in the colonial days.[Eric Foner, Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2017), 65]
As initially noted, pluralism is whereby diverse ideas, beliefs, and cultural practices are embraced. This was largely what was there in colonial America. Everyone seemed to have a distinct role to play, and at the same time, they had to do it while living in the same environment as the others. This bred a new society, a pluralist one, as it had people from diverse walks of life living side by side and learning to tolerate each other despite their fundamental differences in cultural beliefs and religious practices. An important element of this pluralist society is that apart from the settlers from different countries constituting the U.K., the African slaves also came from Africa's different regions and ethnic groups.[Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History: One Volume. WW Norton & Company, 2017.]
Pluralism was also evident from the manner in which most of the colonies strived to enforce tolerance within their populations. Of greatest impact was the insistence on religious tolerance by most of these colonies. It is worth noting that some of these settlers had come to America because they were fleeing religious persecution in their homelands. This was therefore t...