'One new escape valve was immigration. ....perhaps 50,000 people made the dangerous voyage. Many signed themselves over to indentured servitude for years just to pay for the crossing. Their lot was no better than slavery.' That wasn't written this year, although it could well have been. This was written about English people in 1608. So desperate were they to leave the almost certain death they faced in their own towns and villages, they boarded barely sea-worthy vessels to make the dangerous journey across treacherous seas to reach a land spoken of as providing hope and a fresh chance for them and their families. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
If the boot was on the other foot, we might be doing this ourselves, as our forebears had to.