[Red Badger]

I was referring to them as coming as slaves or prisoners vs free men and women............

[muawiyah]

Actually, most of my own ancestors came as legal exiles, prisoners or refugees (except for the ones who owned the boats).

Up until the development of relatively safe ships in the 1820+ period, virtually all immigrants to America came as something other than "free men".

May be the sort of background to make folks really and truly interested in freedom.

Spain's earliest immigration policy pretty much favored small freeholders settling towns in fertile areas in the Caribbean islands.