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HISTORY OF THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
Gc 975.2 H38h 1303732
M.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
PROPER
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
WALT
3 1833 02251 9745 IANN IW. BISHOPS ROAD
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HISTORY
OF THE
German Spriety of Maryland
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4.
JOHN STRICKER
HISTORY
OF THE
German Spriety of Maryland
COMPILED BY
LOUIS P. HENNIGHAUSEN
(
READ AT THE MEETINGS OF
BLIC LISAS b 1
THE SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF THE GERMANS IN MARYLAND
1909
For Sale by W. E. C. Harrison && Sons, Booksellers and Stationers 214 E. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Md.
1909
Copyright, 1909, by Louis P. Hennighausen
Press of The Sun Job Printing Office Baltimore
806 -11
-17-1-9
HISTORY
OF THE
1303732
Berman Society of Maryland.
The history of "The German Society of Maryland" will be more interesting and better understood by some knowledge of the formation and histories of similar soci- eties in other Atlantic ports of North America during the eighteenth century, who still continue their noble work of charity at the present time. They came into existence during the years of 1764 to 1784 in the cities of Phila- delphia, Pa .; Charleston, South Carolina; Baltimore, Maryland, and New York, with the object to assist Ger- man immigrants in distress and to mitigate and finally to abolish a pernicious system of contract labor of free white persons, which in reality became a system of slavery limited in years. We find that most of the laws govern- ing the conduct of negro slaves, were in the course of tinie made applicable to the white contract immigrant laborers usually called "Redemptioners."
There is an erroneous impression that these redemp- tioners were all Germans, when, in fact, persons of all nationalities were kept under that bondage. For many years English, Irish and Scotch had preceded them, and the earliest German immigrants to our country were free settlers who paid for their passage and for their home- steads.
Negro
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It is to the everlasting credit to these early German immigrants and their descendants that they were the first and, as far as known to the author, the only men who combined to mitigate and at last to free their poor fellow immigrants from the thraldom of this bondage.
THEIR PATRIOTISM AS AMERICANS.
Nor did these early settlers who formed these societies confine themselves to mere humanitarian work, building churches, schools, orphanages, etc., they were also pa- triotic, public-spirited citizens. When the colonies rose to throw off the English yoke in the years 1776 to 1782, they took an active part in the war for the independence of our country. Every one of these large German soci- eties elected men as their officers, who rendered or had rendered voluntary military service in the American army during the Revolutionary War.
General F. W. Von Steuben, Col. H. E. Lutterloh, Lieut. Col. F. H. von Weisenfels, of New York; General Peter Mühlenberg, Fr. A. Mühlenberg, the first speaker of the House of Congress ; Col. Ludwig Farmer, of Penn- sylvania; Major Michael Kalteisen, Commander of Fort Johnson, Charleston, South Carolina; Major Karl Fried- rich Wiesenthal, M. D., of Baltimore, Maryland, werc all distinguished officers of the War of Independence, and served as presidents of the several German societies in their respective states.
An interesting full history of the German Society of Pennsylvania was published by the historian, Dr. Oswald Seidenstricker, Philadelphia, 1876; the history of the New
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York Society by Anton Eickhoff, in his "Der Neuen Heimath," E. Steiger and Company, New York, 1884. The history of the German Society of Charleston, South Carolina, has to my knowledge never been published or written. I have therefore given it more space in this work and made use of information furnished by its officer from the records; and of the historical sketches by Gen- eral J. A. Wagner, published in Deutsche Pioneer, Cincin- nati, 1871, p. 2 and 36; The Germans in Colonial Times by Lucy Forney Bittinger, J. P. Lippencott Co., Philadel- phia, 1901; Koerner's Deutsche Element, 1880, A. E. Wilde and Company, Cincinnati. The history of the German Society of Maryland is taken from the original records of the society, the earliest records up to the year 1817 being lost, and of later records partly destroyed by the great fire of 1904, also from contemporaneous publi- cations, newspaper and manuscripts, many legislative acts, law reports, personal conversation with old persons who had been redemptioners, letters, etc., etc., relating to the redemptioners.
A redemptioner was a person from Europe, desirous, and often induced and persuaded to emigrate to the Eng- lish colonies of North America, to better his condition, and had not the means to pay for his passage.
The owners and captains of an emigrant vessel to these colonies were willing to take such persons across, if the persons, and if minors, the parents or guardians for them, would sign a contract : that on their arrival they would pay for the passage, by the captain hiring them as ser- vants for a term of years to masters willing to pay the wages in advance to the amount of the passage money.
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In law this was known as an apprenticeship, or service entered into by a free person, voluntary, by contract for a term of years, on wages advanced before the service was entered, and a violation of the contract by the servant was punished by corporal punishment and imprisonment. The servants, by performing the service, were redeeming themselves and therefore called "Redemptioners." Vari- ous laws were passed from time to time in the several colonies, intended for their protection and defining their status with their masters. By an act of the assembly of Maryland, passed in 1638, the term of service of a re- demptioner was limited to four years, but by the act passed in the year 1715, all servants above the age of twenty-five years were to serve five years; those between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five years to serve six years; those between the age of fifteen to eighteen years to serve seven years and all below fifteen years up to their twenty-second year.
A so-called custom of the country grew up to give to the servant at the expiration of his service a reward, which was in 1637 (Md. Archives, case of Henry Spinks) judicially ascertained to be: One cap or hat, one new cloth or frieze suit, one shirt, one pair of shoes and stockings, one ax, one broad and one narrow hoe, fifty acres of land and three barrels of corn, which Henry Spinks was adjudged to be entitled to out of the estate of his deceased master, Nicholas Harvey.
Redemptioners came or were sent to Virginia and later to Maryland from their first settlements. The first settlers had taken possession of and were granted large tracts of rich, virgin soil, but there were no laborers to
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cultivate it. England, to foster the value of her new colonies, transported her prisoners of war, taken in the insurrections of the Scots and Irish, to America to be sold as redemptioners ; the city of London, at one time, sent a hundred homeless children from its streets. In 1672, the average price in the colonies for a full term of a redemp- tioner was about ten pounds, while an African negro slave for life was worth twenty or twenty-five pounds .* So it appears the master obtained the services of a white person for five years at less than ten dollars a year wages, and the captain of the ship, who transported the redemp- tioner, received nearly fifty dollars' passage money, a most profitable venture on part of the captain and master, but as hereafter will be read, a most wretched, unprofit- able venture on part of the redemptioner.
In most cases, according to the temper and character of the master and intelligence and obedience of the servant, these servants were well treated, but it was mere good luck if they came into the hands of kind, human masters. Many of these servants, after serving their time, became prosperous and even wealthy citizens. It was no dis- grace to be or to have been a servant, and intermarriages between masters and servants were not of rare occurrence. There are instances on record where school teachers, and even ministers of the gospel, were in this manner bought by congregations to render their services in their re- spective offices.
The Reverend Samuel Schwerdfeger, a native of Neu- stadt in Bavaria, a graduate of the University of Er- langen in the studies of theology and law, when twenty-
*Bancroft's History, Vol. I, p. 125
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four years of age, and very poor, fell into the hands of emigrant runners, who shipped him as a redemptioner to Baltimore. He arrived here in the spring of the year 1753, and was offered as "a studiosus theologian" for sale for a term of years to pay for his passage. The Lutheran Congregation of York, Pennsylvania, being at the time at loggerheads with their good old Pastor, Rev. Schaum, heard of this bargain and concluded to buy Rev. Schwerd- feger as their pastor. He remained at York until 1758 joined the Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania, and was sent by the synod as pastor to Frederick, Maryland. A learned apothecary was sold in Baltimore as a redemp- tioner.
Whilst this is the bright side of the redemptioners' life, it had also a very dark side. The redemptioners on their arrival here were not allowed to choose their masters nor kind of service most suitable to them. They were often separated from their famliy; the wife from the husband, and children from their parents, were disposed of for the term of years, often at public sale to masters living far apart, and always to the greatest advantage of the ship- per. There are many reports of the barbarous treatment they received, how they were literally worked to death, receiving insufficient food, scanty clothing and poor lodg- ing. Cruel punishments were inflicted on them for slight offences when they were at the mercy of a hard and brutal master. Their fellow black slave was often treated bet- ter, for he was a slave for life, and it was in the interest of the master to treat him well to preserve him, whilst the poor redemptioner was a slave for a number of years
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only, and all his vital force was worked out of him during the years of his service.
As with many masters these servants were treated alike. and had to live in common with and among their negro slaves, it happened that some of the white female re- demptioners cohabited and intermarried with the negro slaves and gave birth to mulatto children. This became a great offence to the better portion of the society of the colony, and to remedy this evil the general assembly of Maryland in 1663, chapter 30, passed a most curious, but also one of the most abominable laws which ever dis- graced the legislative code of even a slave state. It reads as follows :
AN ACT CONCERNING NEGRO AND OTHER SLAVES.
Section I. Be it enacted by the right honorable the Lord Proprietary, by the advice and consent of the Upper and Lower Houses of this present assembly, that all negro or other slaves within the Province, and all negro and other slaves to be hereafteer imported into the Province, shall serve durante vita, and all children born of any negro or other slave, shall be slaves as their fathers were for the term of their lives.
Sec. 2. And for as much as divers free born English women forgetful of their free condition and to the disgrace of our nation, do intermarry with negro slaves, by which also divers suits may arise touching the issue of such women, and a great damage both befall the master of such negroes, for prevention whereof, for deterring such free born women from such shameful matches, be it further enacted by the authority, advice and consent aforesaid, that whatsoever free born woman shall intermarry with any
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slave, from and after the last day of this present assembly, shall serve the master of such slave during the life of her husband, and that all the issue of such free born woman so married shall be slaves as their fathers were.
This law was in violation of the ancient maxim that the children of a free woman, the father being a slave, follow the status of their mother and are free. In Maryland therefore, the only State I believe that ever enacted sucit a law, the child was a slave when either father or mother was a slave. So the presumption was always in favor of slavery. We must assume that this law was honestiy intended to prevent future marriages between white women and negro slaves, but these honest legislators little knew and understood the cupidity and depravity of human nature. For, instead of having this effect, many of the owners of white female redemptioners purposely intermarried them with their negro slave men, and thereby legally secured the white female redemptioners as slaves, and also their children. This seems to have been done extensively. In 1681, however, a case occurred which led to the speedy repeal of this law. In the spring of that year Lord Baltimore came on a visit to his Province of Maryland. Among his servants he brought with him an Irish maid servant, named "Nellie." She was a redemp- tioner. Lord Baltimore soon returned to England, and Nellie was sold for the unexpired term of her service to a resident of the colony. Within two months thereafter the new master of Nellie married her to his negro slave Butler, and thereby made her his slave, and her children also became his slaves under the operation of the law. Lord Baltimore, hearing of this, became very indignant.
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and immediately secured the repeal of this horrible law and the enactment of a new law, which effectually did prevent future marriages of white female redemptioners with negro slaves. The preamble of the new law is especially instructive to show us the condition of these poor female redemptioners. It reads :
"And for as much as divers free born English or white women sometimes by the instigation, procurement or con- nivance of their masters, mistresses or dames, and always to the satisfaction of their lascivious and lustful desires, and to the disgrace not only of the English but also of many other Christian notions, do intermarry with negroes and slaves, by which means divers inconveniences, controver- sies and suits may arise, touching the issue or children of such free born women aforesaid, for the prevention whereof for the future, be it further enacted, &c., That if any mas- ter, mistress or dame, having any free born English or white woman servant as said in their possession or property, shall by any instigation, procurement, knowledge, permission or contrivance whatsoever, suffer any such free born English or white woman servant in their possession, and wherein they have property as aforesaid, to intermarry or contract in matrimony with any slave from and after the last day of this present assembly, that then their said master, mis- tress or dame, of any such free born woman as aforesaid, shall forfeit and lose all their claim and title to the service and servitude of any such free born woman; and also the said woman servant so married, shall be, and is by this present act, absolutely discharged, manumitted and made free, instantly upon her intermarriage as aforesaid from the services, employment, use, claim or demand of any such
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master, mistress or dame so offending as aforesaid. And all children born of such free born woman, so manumitted and free, as aforesaid, shall be free as the woman aforesaid ; as also the said master, mistress or dame shall forfeit the sum of ten thousand pounds of tobacco, one half thereof to the Lord Proprietor, and the other half to him or them that shall inform and sue for the same, to be recovered in any Court of Record within this Province by bill, plaint or information ; and any priest, minister, magistrate or other person, that shall from and after the publication hereof join in marriage any negro or other slave, to any English or other white woman servant as aforesaid, shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten thousand pounds of tobacco, &c."
The passage of this law did not, however, set poor Nellie free, nor liberate her two sons, for they in 1721 petitioned for their freedom, but the Court of Appeals ot Maryland (Harris and McHenry Reports, case of "But- ler vs. Boarmann") decided that Nellie having been mar .. ried to the negro slave Butler before the passage of the law of 1681, she as well as her after born children were slaves.
In the first half century of the British colonies the pro - portion of negro slaves to the white inhabitants was smal !. Virginia in 1650 contained but one black to fifty white inhabitants (Bancroft Hist., Vol. I, p. 126) and Mary- land still less. The white immigration could not supply the increasing want of farm laborers and the number of black slaves increased rapidly. It was then that the re- demptioner lost caste in the colonies south of Pennsyl- vania. Laws were enacted in Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, placing him in some respects on a
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level with the negro slave. In Maryland he could not purchase nor sell anything without the permission of the master. If caught ten miles away from home without written permission of his master, he was liable to be taken up as a runaway, and severely punished. The person who harbored a runaway was fined 500 pounds of tobacco for each twenty-four hours, and to be whipped if unable to pay the fine. There was a standing reward of 200 pounds of tobacco for capturing runaways, and the In- dians received for every captured runaway they turned in a "match coat." For every day's absence from work, ten days were added to his time of servitude. The master had the right to whip his redemptioner for any real or imaginary offence, provided he gave him no more than ten lashes for each offence, which must have been a very difficult matter to determine, for offences may be multi- plied. The laws also provided for his protection. For excessively cruel punishment the master should be fined and the redemptioner set free. I presume in most cases this was only effective when the redemptioner had in- fluential friends who would take up his case.
No public records were kept of the contracts entered into abroad by the redemptioners, nor of the time of the expiration of their service. The redemptioners were not furnished with duplicates of their contracts. They were sometimes, and could be, mortgaged, hired out for a shorter period, sold and transferred, like chattel, by their masters. (Md. Archives, 1637-50, pag. 132, 486). The redemptioners belonging to the poor and most of them to the ignorant class, it is apparent that under these condi- tions they were at a great disadvantage against a ra-
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pacious master who kept them in servitude after the ex- piration of their true contract time, claiming their services for a longer period.
For many years the redemptioner had come princi- pally from England, Ireland and Scotland. The grow- ing abuses of the system having become known in Eng- land, rigorous laws and measures were adopted and en- forced in England for their better protection, and letters and articles appeared in the newspapers warning the poor people from entering these contracts. Public opinion had set against them.
THE GERMAN REDEMPTIONERS.
The great German immigration commenced with the landing of the German Quaker in Germantown, 1683, in Pennsylvania; the Labadist, 1684, in Maryland; the Palatinates, 1709, in New York; the Menonites, 1717 to 1727, in Pennsylvania ; the Tunkers, 1719, and Schwenk- felders, 1730 to 1734, in Pennsylvania; the Salzburgers, 1734, in Georgia; 1735 to 1745, the South Germans in South Carolina, and 1710 in North Carolina. These were organized German immigrations under leaders. Not a single redemptioner is reported from among them. Nor do we find that any of the 1,060 Germans who arrived in the years 1753 to January, 1755 (earliest and later records missing) at Annapolis, Maryland, were sold as redemptioners. Hon. Cecilius Calvert, acting Pro- prietary of Maryland during the minority of Frederick, Sixth Lord of Baltimore, in a letter sent from London to the authorities in Annapolis recommends :
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"That these emigrants may be assisted and accommodated in a proper manner to Monocacy (which he understood to be in Frederick County) or where else they shall want to go to settle within the Province. The charges for any serv- ice to be in the most moderate manner. The increase of people being always welcome" (Fifth Annual Report of History of Germans in Maryland, p. 15).
It is uncertain when the first German redemptioner arrived in Maryland, and it is doubtful whether many arrived here before the War of Independence.
As wages advanced the trade of shipping redemptioners to this country became highly lucrative. Large profits were made in a successful voyage with a full cargo of human beings, who, on their arrival here, were sold to the highest bidder for a term of years.
The Dutch who in 1620 had sent the first cargo of negro slaves to this country, and had amassed great wealth in the pursuit of the negro slave trade from dis- tant Africa, discovered that it was less troublesome and equally remunerative to engage in a sort of a white slave trade by shipping redemptioners from their own country, Germany, Switzerland and adjoining countries, to the American colonies. The shipping merchants of Holland would send regular agents, or drummers as we now would call them, who received one-half of a doubloon for every redemptioner shipped by them into these colonies. These agents generally appeared in gaudy dress, with flourish of trumpets, and in glowing language depicted the wealth and happiness of the people of this country, whereof all could partake if they only would come here ; that they did not need any money for their passage, as
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all they had to do was to sign a contract that on their arrival here they would pay for the same out of their first earnings. In this manner these agents would travel from village to village, deluding the poorest and most ignorant to follow them to the new Eldorado.
Whenever such an agent had collected a sufficient num- ber, he would take them personally to the shipping harbor in Holland. It was a gay crowd which traveled in this manner in wagons across the country. The horses and wagons were decorated with gay ribbons, and joyous songs were heard from the emigrants, who believed they were leaving toil and poverty to go to the fabulously rich America to enjoy the ease and plenty of this world's goods. This spirit was artificially kept up by the liber- ality of the agent until they were safely aboard the ship. I have known several very old persons living in Balti- more who came to this country in this manner. An old man related to me years ago how he came to Baltimore as a redemptioner. He said: "I was a journeyman baker in a small town in Germany; had much work and scant wages. One day being dissatisfied and in bad humor over my condition, I was standing at the door of the bakery, when a well-dressed man passing by stopped and said : 'What is the matter, young man? Why so downhearted?' I told him my condition. 'Why,' said he, 'don't you go to America, where you can earn plenty money with much less work?' I told him that I had not the money to pay for my passage across. 'You don't need any,' said he. 'I will take you along if you want to go. You can pay me for the passage over there out of the first money you will earn. If you do want to go,
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make yourself ready; in ten days I will pass here again with a wagon full of emigrants for America, then you may go along.' He then departed. Without my boss knowing anything of it, I packed my clothes in a bundle and made ready to leave. On the appointed day my friend really came into the town in a fine decorated wagon full of emigrants. I seized my bundle, cried a farewell into the room where my boss with his family was sitting, crying to them, to their great astonishment, that I was off for America and jumped on the wagon. Away we went toward Amsterdam, full of joy and in the best of spirit, till we were on board of the vessel and had signed the contract. Then there came a change."
The contract which these redemptioners had to sign in Holland, and which few of them then understood, con- tained the proviso, that if any passenger died on the voy- age, the surviving members of the family, or the surviving redemptioner passengers would make good his loss. Thereby a wife, who had lost her husband during the sea voyage, or her children, on her arrival here would be sold for five years for her own voyage and additional five and more years for the passage-money of her dead husband or dead children, although they may have died in the very beginning of the voyage. If there were no members of the family surviving, the time of the dead was added to the time of service of the surviving fellow passengers. The effects and property of the dead were confiscated and kept by the captain. By this the shipping merchant and the captain of the vessel would gain by the death of a part of the passengers, for the dead did not require any more food and provision. It seems that many acted 011
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