by Rose Weiner Two and half million new immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean the decade before the Civil War. Sixteen million pilgrims were added to their number before 1924. One newspaper affirmed that there had been nothing to compare with the American migration in diversity "since the encampments of the Roman Empire." In the entire history of human mobility, nothing stands out in the scope, speed, and magnitude as the American migration. Most who came were of humble origins. Seeking religious freedom, driven by famine and economic hardships, fleeing from fierce persecutions and political oppression, they came seeking, above all else, the freedom to worship God, individual liberty, and a better way of life. Could God be seeking to unite the nations of the world here in America, that He once dispersed at Babel, in true brotherhood and Christian love as a "light to the nations" and as "a city set upon a hill which cannot be hidden" so that Christianity can spread to the ends of the earth? For as it is written, in Abraham and in his seed, who is Christ, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
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They Came for Freedom, eBook
