​AMISH

During the reformation the religious world saw several breakaway reformists, and one of these was the Anabaptists. These breakaways occurred as the Bible was now being translated and printed in book printers. The Bible was no longer available just for the academics but for the common man too. Anabaptists were branded as heretics and both Calvinists, Lutherans and Catholics persecuted them. Anabaptists fled across Europe, but in most countries they were killed, except in the Netherlands, as it was a very religiously tolerant country (here, there are still active churches).

Many of these persecuted religious communities were nearly wiped out. One of these communities was Amish. Amish formed in Alsace in the 1600's.

It was formed by a bishop named Jacob Ammann who led a small religious sect. Ammann  felt that they needed new and stricter rules because the Anabaptists according to him were too weak in their faith. According to him, the Bible should be observed to the letter. Many of these religious sects were given an opportunity to travel to America when a man named William Penn from the Quaker sect sought settlers to the state of Pennsylvania, where he had made ​​a small colony. In this colony religious liberty was guaranteed and around 1681 the Amish began to immigrate. The largest immigration did however take place in the period 1727-1770.