Speaker. I would call to the attention of the House an historical event of utmost importance to a large segment of the American communitythe arrival at Jamestown. Va.. exactly 360 years ago. of colonial vessels of the London Co. bearing the first Polish immigrants to American shores. As was the custom then. almost all the colonists had worked out their passage by pledging themselves to labor for the company that owned the settlement. Within 2 to 3 years. the Polish immigrants had repaid the London Co. for the passage by ship from Europe. and become free citizens of the community. Immediately upon their arrival they set to work to build a glass furnace on a tract of land allotted them about a mile from the fort. They also cut down trees for wood manufacturers. When the English ship was ready to sail for England across the Atlantic Ocean. it carried a full line of samples the Polish glassmakers were prepared to turn out in commercial quantities. as well as a cargo of pitch distilled by Polish lumbermen from Virginias pine trees. and other products of the field and forest which the Poles had manufactured. These were. in fact. the first products of American industry. In addition to their energy and craftsmanship. the Polish immigrants to Jamestown brought with them an abiding concern for civil liberty. Colonial records of Virginia reveal a group of Poles somewhat disturbed during the session of the first Virginia Assembly. In June of 1619. when the House of Burgesses ushered in representative government in Virginia. nonEnglish settlers were specifically excepted from the advantages of enfranchisement.
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immigrants