He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

Life in the Revolutionary era was rough. One quarter of children born in this era died before the age of nine. Deaths during childbirth were extremely common. War, a highly prolific factory of death in its own right thanks to advancing weaponry, also rapidly spread disease, even more potent thanks to lack of a proper diet, exposure to the elements, and fatigue. One cannot read many diaries of travels during this era without tales of various harsh deaths meeting colonists of all income levels at an alarming rate. For every American soldier who died as the result of a British or Hessian weapon during the Revolution, nine others died of disease. Even George Washington did not escape the touch of mortality among family, losing step-daughter Patcy Custis to an epileptic seizure at 17 and step-son John to camp fever at 23.

All the while, the overall population of the colonies kept increasingvia high birth rates and, more importantly, immigration. Workers were needed to farm the fields, to fish, to build ships and tools and houses and hats and all types of products for the growing colonial interests. Besides opportunity, religious tolerance was also drawing many European settlers to America. England, crowing itself to be the champion of Protestantism for the world, issued an official invitation to persecuted Protestants in any nation welcoming them to the shores of America, virtually guaranteeing they would be welcome and have freedom of worship.

It was understood in North America, and certainly by King George and Parliament, that immigration was critical to the economy of the colonies.  With the passing of the Royal Proclamation Act of 1763, Britain thought it was promoting the benefits of the entire British empire by keeping the American population closer to the shoreline, which meant more business centered on ports and trade with the mother land. This act not only prevented colonial settlers from expanding westward, but it hemmed the colonies in from the north (Canada), south (East and West Florida) and even the Caribbean (Grenadines).  The Proclamation allowed the new governors to bequeath land to soldiers who participated in the Seven Year’s War.

So, you might be thinking, if you’re a colonist -- what’s the big deal, right? So what if there is are new colonial governments to the north, to your south, and in the Caribbean? It’s all one big, happy, British family, so what does this have to do with your own well being? How does the Proclamation impact your self interest and pursuit of happiness?

One of the most critical things for a new colonial government is to promote immigration. The granting of large tracts of land to former British soldiers, along with the sale of land at cheap prices, can change immigration patterns significantly. Suddenly, a potential immigrant looks at the American Atlantic colonies and sees most land already spoken for, and little opportunity to expand, while seeing opportunity to the north and south. Fewer immigrants means lower population, which means smaller markets in the immediate trading area.

Of course, the wealthy still had the ability to seek out opportunities, even with this new colonial arrangement. George Washington tried to jump on the opportunity by reaching out to William Cawford, voicing urgency because “ nothing is more certain than that the Lands cannot remain long ungranted when once it is known that Rights are to be had for them.”

The gentry of colonial America had the means and connections to ignore the new boundaries and try to establish footholds west of the Appalachians. Yet the middling class lacked the same. On the rare occasions British troops enforced the borders, forcing some to move back east, it was settlers who suffered, not the wealthy. Whereas the gentry looked at the westward lands as a means to increase wealth, the middle and poorer classes looked at it as an opportunity for survival, or to practice religion freely.

They also looked at it as a reward for fighting in the Seven Years’ War for the British, as the British. And with the economy in recession, there were few other opportunities, and colonists did not take well to sitting idle.  “If we are industrious we shall never starve; for, as Poor Richard says, at the working man's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter,” wrote Ben Franklin. Indeed, the very essence of America was a reward to those who worked hard, who were industrious, who were “bred to labor” and punished those with “genteel pretensions and fallacious expectations.”

It is clear, with these points, that the British decision to restrict immigration by rerouting it to new colonies and by giving land to other subjects but preventing American colonial subjects the same access, that the impact on the middling class was felt harshly. It struck at the heart of the new American opportunity for hard work and advancement, and sought to shackle (at least, temporarily) its growth in return for a quieter western frontier. This proclamation, unlike many others, not only restricted the pursuit of happiness, it practically forbade it.

1. Burnaby, Andrew, and Francis Fauquier. Burnaby's Travels Through North America. Edited by Rufus Rockwell Wilson. A. Wessels Company, 1904.

2. Thompson, Mary V. "The Lowest Ebb of Misery: Death and Mourning in the Family of George Washington." Historic Alexandria Quarterly (Spring 2001)(2001): 1-14.

3. Joseph E. Fields, “Worthy Partner”: The Papers of Martha Washington. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994), p.174. November 18, 1777.

4. Proclamation of Queen Anne to the Protestants of Germany. Rupp’s Collections, 5.

5. Narvey, Kenneth M. "Royal Proclamation of 7 October 1763-The Common Law, and Native Rights to Land within the Territory Granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, The." Sask. L. Rev. 38 (1974): 123.

6. George Washington to William Crawford, September 21, 1767. Washington, George, William Wright Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Philander D. Chase, Beverly H. Runge, and Frank E. Grizzard. The Papers of George Washington. Vol. 1. University Press of Virginia, 1983.

7. Franklin, Benjamin. The way to wealth. London, 1790.

8. Miller, Kerby A., Arnold Schrier, Bruce D. Boling, and David N. Doyle, eds.Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan: Letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815. Oxford University Press, 2003.