Colonial Period: 1687-1776

Polish immigrants to America between the years 1608 and 1776 were generally adventurers, and their numbers were few. The Old Polish Nation never needed libensraum, i.e., “elbow room,” due to overpopulation. In fact, Poland was often a destination for migrating peoples, viz., Germans, Jews, and Scots from Western Europe and the Armenians and Tartars from the East. Moreover, coterminous with the commencement of North American colonization, she was involved in defensive wars with Russians, Swedes, Turks, Tartars, and Cossacks throughout the 17th century. Exhausted by the wars and seriously weakened economically, Poland languished under her 18th century monarchs, the Saxon Kings. Such national malaise inhibited significant emigration.

Perhaps most significantly, however, the Poles’ minimal involvement in early migration to America was the result of the relatively free religious and political environment which they enjoyed. Most of Poland was not fragmented by the religious persecutions and conflicts which characterized Western Europe during and after the Reformation. Her people did not share in this turmoil that served to stimulate the migrations of, for example, Puritans to New England, or Catholics to Maryland. Even during the seventeenth century, when Poland’s constitution was being shattered, Protestants in Poland were treated far better than their counterparts in Protestant countries.^[1]

Pioneer Polish Immigrants

Immigrants to North America were ethnically diverse. Explorers and settlers from many European nations comprised the human resources from which the new American society derived its strength and character. Though few in number the Poles were part of the mosaic and assisted in the colonies’ development. Members of the Jamestown community, Poles may also have arrived prior to 1608. It is quite possible that some immigrants were part of Sir Walter Raleigh’s ill-fated venture to Roanoke in 1585. Raleigh conceivably would have needed technical specialists in the production of pitch.^[2]

Poland’s abundant forests and the expertise of her people in lumbering and associated industries were well-known in England. Forced to import enormous quantities of wood and wood products from foreign sources in order to offset the depletion of native resources, England relied upon Poland perhaps more than other countries.

Captain John Smith, leader of the Virginia Company, previously had dealings with the Poles and knew of their enterprising ways. The Virginia Company hired Poles as experts and instructors in the manufacture of the products which England was so dependent on from Poland, viz., glass, pitch, and tar. A small group of six landed with the expedition on October 1, 1608: Zbigniew Stefanski–glass production expert; Jan Bogdan–pitch, tar, and ship construction expert; Jan Mata–soap manufacture expert; Michael Lowicki–nobleman; and Stanislaus Sadowski and Karol Zrenica.^[3] Soon after their arrival, these artisans constructed a glass furnace a mile from Jamestown.

Cutting down trees in the area, they also began the first wood products manufacturing center. They worked so industriously that within three years the Poles were able to repay the Virginia Company for their passage and become free citizens of the Jamestown colony.

The Poles continued to manufacture wood products in Virginia until 1622. Between 1608 and 1622, however, their relations with the English periodically soured and their vital work halted. Production on occasion was halted because the colony disfranchised the Poles. Possessing a keen sense of freedom and civil liberties, the Poles considered disfranchisement an affront to their sense of justice and liberty. On June 30, 1619, the Virginia House of Burgesses instituted a representative form of government which granted only those of English descent the right to vote. Automatically disenfranchised, the immigrants were incensed. In response, the Poles suspended operations in their glass factory, tar distillery, and soap factory.^[4] By withholding their labors, the Poles were able to exert powerful economic pressure; most of the cash products with the highest profits to the London Company were provided by the Polish industries. Governor Yeardly and the Virginia legislature readily reversed their decision, righting a political wrong perpetrated against the Poles.

Small groups of Polish immigrants also settled in the non-English speaking colonies of the New World. In the seventeenth century Polish Protestants emigrated to New Amsterdam because of their expulsion from Poland. In part an expression of intolerance toward Protestantism, the forced migration was also an expression of their support for the Swedes who invaded Poland in 1655-1656. Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of New Holland, requested Polish immigrants to be sent to the New World. Besides needing farmers, traders, and soldiers, Governor Stuyvesant wanted colonists to prevent the English from infringing upon the Dutch beaver trade in America. On several occasions he implored the directors of the West Indian Company to send him twenty-five to thirty Polish families.^[5]

Among the early Polish settlers in New Amsterdam was Daniel Litscho (Liczko), born in Koszalin in Pomerania. He served as a sergeant, later promoted to lieutenant, in the Dutch colonial army. He participated in Stuyvesant’s expedition against the Swedes on the Delaware River that deposed the Autocratic Van Slechtenhorst, the patroon of Rensselaerswyck, freeing this settlement from feudal domination. Litscho, in addition, was a prominent citizen of New Amsterdam. He owned a tavern that was an important landmark in the social life of the community and he was an influential burgher on the Council of Burgomasters and Schepens. In his later life he was appointed the colony’s fire-inspector, a position he held until shortly before his death. A wealthy man when he died in 1662, Litscho left a sizeable estate to his family.^[6]

Alexander Karol Kurczewski, another of New Amsterdam’s prominanti, was appointed to the prestigious position of teacher in 1659. A Polish schoolmaster, he came to the colonies at the request of the New Amsterdam officials. Dr. Curtis, as he is known in American history, established the first Latin school in the New World. His academy is considered one of the oldest institutions of learning, predated only by Harvard University.^[7]

Most Polish immigrants in New Amsterdam, however, were neither as well known nor as successful as Litscho and Kurczewski. More typical were individuals such as Wojciech Adamkiewicz, John Rutkowski, and Casimir Butkiewicz. Like the majority of Colonists, they were routine laborers and craftsmen, but their industry and fortitude were no less essential for the colonies’ survival.

Poles were adventurous frontiersmen also; most prominent among them was John Sadowski. Settling at first in Philadelphia, he was the first Pole to venture across the Alleghenies. Sadowski was well-known as an Indian trader and interpreter prior to his trip west. In 1735 he crossed the Alleghenies into Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee and was one of the first white men to explore and settle in this region. His sons, Jacob and James, followed in their father’s footsteps and were instrumental in the exploration of what is today Kentucky and Tennessee.