USA > Maryland > Annual report of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland, 1st-6th, Vol. 1-6 > Part 4
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But the House of Delegates did not let the matter rest here.
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The law as it stood did not allow Mr. Hagar a seat, and the House proceeded to change the operation of the English laws by passing a provincial law covering the ground, and thereby super- seding them so far as they affected the right of a naturalized citizen to a seat in the House. This was done so expeditiously that it not only prevented similar injustice to other naturalized subjects, but enabled Mr. Hagar to take his scat before the close of the session. .
Mr. Hagar was rejected Oct. Sth. Oct. 9th an order was passed for the issue of a new writ of election to the sheriff of Frederick County "to elect a delegate to serve in this present session of Assembly, in the stead of Mr. Jonathan Hagar, whose seat is declared vacant." A committee was granted leave to bring in a bill "for vesting in such foreign protestants as are now naturalized or shall be hereafter naturalized in this province, all the rights and privileges of natural born subjects." Mr. Ilagar's colleagues from Frederick Co., and two others of the minority, with Mr. Chase of the majority in the vote of rejection, were placed on the committee. The bill was brought in and read the first time Oct. 11th, the second time Saturday, Oct. 12th, sent to the Upper House Monday, Oct. 14th, and returned on the same day en- dorsed, "Read the first and second time by a special order, and will pass." Oct. 16th, "Mr. Speaker left the chair, and (with the members of this House) went to the Upper House, and there presented to his Excellency" the above bill and another for the adjournment and continuance of the High Court of Appeals. "Both which his Excellency passed into laws in the usual man- ner" "by sealing it with the Right Honorable the Lord Proprie- tary his Great Seal at Arms and subscribing it on behalf of the Right Honorable the Lord Proprietary of this Province I will this be a Law."
Thus in eight days from the declaration of his ineligibility Mr. Hagar was rendered eligible, for the new act conferred all the rights and privileges of natural born subjects without the ob- noxious proviso of the English law.
Nov. 16th, Mr. Hagar, having been re-elected, qualified and took his seat to serve in his own stead, in time to vote in favor of that famons address to Governor Eden, protesting against his at- tempt to fix the fees of officers by proclamation, a subject which
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agitated the minds of the good people of Maryland until the open- ing scenes in the revolutionary drama distracted attention from all minor matters.
The act which gave Mr. Hagar his seat reads: "Whereas many foreign protestants have already settled in this province, and others from the lenity of our government, the purity of our religion, and the benefit of our laws, may be hereafter induced to settle there- in, if they were made partakers of the advantages and privileges which natural born subjects enjoy :
Be it therefore enacted by, etc., That all such foreign prot- estants who have been already naturalized in this province pur- suant to the directions of the Stat." 13 Geo. II., cap. 7 - before quoted as that under which Mr. Hagar was naturalized - "and all foreign protestants who shall be hereafter naturalized in this province pursuant to the directions of the said statute, shall be deemed, adjudged and taken, to be natural born subjects, to all intents, constructions and purposes as if they, and every of them, had been born within the kingdoms of Great Britain or Ireland, or within any other of his majesty's dominions, any law to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding." .
Mr. Hagar was re-elected a delegate to the Assembly of 1773. The committee on elections and privileges again reported, June 26th, that Jonathan Hagar was not a natural born subject, "and is the same person who was returned a Delegate for Freder- ick County to the late General Assembly, October Session, 1771, and by the late lower House voted and declared to be ineligible for that cause." Frederick, the last Lord Baltimore, died Sept. 14th, 1771, and as the legislature which passed the act of 1771 was called Oct. 2d, in his name and by his authority, doubts were entertained as to the validity of the laws passed by it. In case the laws were not valid, Mr. Hagar was still ineligible, until they had been made valid by a new act confirming them. Here was a new difficulty, but the House made quick work with it. The report was read and they concurred therewith, except that part relative to Mr. Jonathan Hagar.
"Ordered, That that part be referred for consideration on the third day of the next session of Assembly. Ordered, That the clerk of this House give Mr. Hagar notice thereof."
Mr. Hagar continued a member of the House to the end of
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the session, though he had leave of absence from June '24th to July 3d. His name is found with the majority in several di- visions, and he was placed on several committees.
" Both the Jonathan Hagars," says Mr. Scharf, "father and son, were very popular with the citizens of Hagerstown, and en- joyed almost unbounded influence. The elder Hagar was acci- dently killed on Nov. 6th, 1765, in his sixty-first year, at a saw- mill near Hagar's mill by a large piece of timber rolling upon and crushing him. The timber was being sawed for the Ger- man Reformed Church, which Mr. Hagar was very active in building." In "an act for the benefit of the vestry of the Ger- man Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in and about Elizabeth Town, at St. John's Church, in Washington County," we learn that Jonathan Hagar conveyed three lots of ground, to wit: lots number 131, 132 and 221, situated in said county, containing half an acre each, to certain trustees in trust for the Lutheran congregation of Elizabeth Town. These lots are not found on the original plat, and must have been part of an addition to the town made at a later date. Mr. Hagar's religious faith is best shown by the quotation of a passage in his family Bible, the translation of which from the German is found in a note, page 1060, Scharf's Western Maryland. Speaking of his wife, he says: "We lived together.until the 16th of April, 1765. Then it pleased the Lord to call her, after severe suffering, out of this world. ' What God does is well done.' Her funeral text is re- corded in 2 Tim. i, 12. The hymn was sung, 'Lord Jesus Christ, true man and God,' also the hymn, 'Think ye children of men, on the last day of life.' O, my child, lay rightly to heart the words of this hymn, and do right and fear God, and keep ITis commandments. And if you have anything, do not forget the poor, and do not exalt yourself in pride and haughtiness above your fellow-men. For you are not better than the humblest be- fore God's eyes, and perhaps not as good. And so, if you have no fear of God within you, all is vain. My child, keep this in re- membrance of your father, and live according to it, and it will go well with you here while you live, and there eternally."
Mr. Hagar intended that the town he had founded should bear the name of Elizabeth-Town, in honor of his beloved wife, but by the operation of the law of the survival of the fittest, it
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was destined to commemorate its founder. The public were bet- ter acquainted with Jonathan Hagar and his work, than with Elizabeth, his wife. To many it was always Hagar's town. In- deed before the town was in existance so well was Mr. Hagar known that neighboring farms were located as "near Capt. Hagar's in Frederick County." Others gave it its legal name. Even in the laws it is mentioned indifferently as Elizabeth-Town and Hagar's Town after 1802. This "struggle for existance" between two names has interested me much. In 1770, Eddis says the name of Hagar's Town is given to it "in honour of the intelligent founder." A letter from a school boy to his father, Capt. Wmn. Ileyser, at the American Camp, Philadelphia, is dated "Hagar's Town, Oct. 12th, 1776," Hart and Rochester advertise "nails, brads and sprigs of their own manufacturing in Hager's-Town,"' over date " Hlager's-Town, August 20th, 1790." The "Washing- ton Spy," of January 1st, 1290, is printed by. Stewart Herbert "Elizabeth (Hlager's) Town," - that is, Elizabeth-Town, or if you like it better Hager's Town. In the laws we find "an act to os- tablish a market-house in Elizabeth-Town," in 1783; Commis- sioners of Elizabeth-Town were appointed and incorporated as such in 1:91. The laws further mention it as Elizabeth-Town in 1792, 1793 and 1794. An issue of the "Herald and Advertiser" is dated "Elizabeth (Ilager's) Town (Maryland), Wednesday, March 31st. 1802." Two laws mention Elizabeth-Town in 1802 and in 1804 one mentions Hager's-Town, which is the first recog- nition of this name in the laws. In 1807 it is twice called Eliza- beth-Town and twice Hager's-Town, and the "Hager's-Town Bank at Elizabeth-Town" is established. In the "Description of the States of Maryland and Delaware, by Joseph Scott, Phila- delphia, 1807," he says, "Elizabeth-town, commonly called Hagers- town, a handsome and flourishing town, and the capitol of the county. It is situated near Anti-Etam creek and 71 miles from Baltimore, and contains about 300 houses, a court house, jail. market house, school house, and four churches, viz .: one for German Lutherans, one for German Calvinists, one for Episcopa- lians, and one for Roman Catholics. The town has a great num- ber of clock and watch makers, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, gun and lock smiths, hatters, tanners, boot and shoemakers, saddlers, weavers, dyers, potters, coachmakers, and taylors ; also a rope and nail manufactory."
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The laws mention in 1808 Elizabeth-Town twice, in 1810 Hager's-Town, in 1811 Elizabeth-Town, and Hager's-Town twice, and in 1812 Hager's-town. In 1813, the name was changed from Elizabeth-Town to Hager's-Town by act of the legislature, though the first mention of the name in its present form, Hagerstown, which I have been able to find in the laws, is in 1829.
Thus the justice of the people has proved in this case stronger than the affectionate desire of the founder, and legislative enact- ments. The fittest name has survived. Long may "Hagar's Town" flourish in honour and prosperity, a living memorial of " its intelligent founder."
THE R EDEMPTIONERS
AND THE
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND.
THE REDEMPTIONERS
AND THE
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND,
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
Read by Louis P. Hennighausen at a Meeting of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland, held on the 9th of January, 1888.
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IT is not my object in this paper, to give a complete history of the German Society of Maryland, but only of the condition of public affairs which led to its organization, and of its activ- ity and success in fighting a system of a sort of slavery of white people then in existence in the State of Maryland.
In law this system 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 en- tered. The servants by performing the service were redeeming themselves and therefore called "Redemptioners." In practice however, with a certain class of people and in instances herein- after related, this system was as revoltingly brutal and degener- ating as the negro slavery abolished in our own time in its worst aspects.
It was conceived and had its beginning in the harmless and in some respects benevolent idea, to help a poor person in Europe, who wished to emigrate to America, and had not the money to pay for his passage across the ocean, by giving him credit for his passage money, on condition that he should work for it after his arrival here, by hiring as a servant for a term of years, to a per- son who would advance him his wages, by paying his passage money to the owner or master of the vessel.
Lord Baltimore found this system in vogue in the colony of Virginia, before he came to Maryland, and he adopted it in or- der to colonize more rapidly his province of Maryland, and fixed the time of service for redemption at five years. By an act of the Assembly passed in 1638, this term of service was reduced to four
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years, but by the act passed 1715 all servants above the age of 25 years were to serve five years, those between the age of 18 and 25 years to serve six years, those between the age of 15 to 18 years to serve seven years, and all below 15 years up to their 22d year of age.
In most cases, according to the character and temper of the master and the intelligence and obedience of the servant, these servants were well treated. 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. Many of these servants, after serving their time, became prosperous and even wealthy citizens, it was no disgrace to be or to have been a servant, and intermarriages between masters and servants were not of rare occurence. There are instances on record when school teachers, and even ministers of the Gospel, were in this manner bought by congregations to render their services in their respective offices. Laws were passed for the protection of the masters and of the servants. 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 family; 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 shipper. I have read many reports of the barbarous treatment they received, how they were literally worked to death, receiving insufficient food, scanty clothing and poor lodging. Cruel punish- ments 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 better, 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 only, and all his vital force was worked out of him during the years of his service.
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As with many masters these servants were treated alike, and ยท had to live in common with and among their negro slaves, it happened that some of the white female Redemptioners 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 the most abominable law which ever disgraced the legis- lative code of even a Slave State, it reads as follows:
AN ACT CONCERNING NEGRO AND OTHIER SLAVES.
Seet. 1. 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 here- after 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.
Sect. 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 doth befall the master of such negroes, for prevention whereof, for de- terring 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 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 such a law, the child was a slave when either father or mother was a slave. So the pre- sumption was always in favor of slavery. We must assume that this law was honestly intended to prevent future marriages be- tween white women and negro slaves, but these honest legislators little knew and understood the cupidity and depravity of human
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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 Redemptioner. 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, and immediately secured the repeal of this horrible law and the enactment of a new law, which effectnally 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 connivance of their masters, mistresses or dames, and always to the satis- faction of their lascivious and lustful desires, and to the disgrace not only of the English but also of many other Christian nations, do intermarry with negroes and slaves, by which means divers inconveniences, controversies and suits may arise, touching the issue or children of such free born women aforesaid, for the pre- vention whereof for the future, be it further enacted, &c., That if any master, 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 con- trivance 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, mistress or dame, of any such free born woman as aforesaid, shall forfeit and loose 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
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present act, absolutely discharged, mannmitted and made free, instantly upon her intermarriage as aforesaid from the services, employment, use, claim or demand of any such 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 in- formation ; 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 of Maryland (Harris and McHenry case of Butler rs. Boarmann) decided, that Nellie having been married to the negro slave Butler before the passage of the law of 1681, she as well as her after born children were slaves
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 dupli- cates of their contracts. They were sometimes, and could be, mortgaged, hired ont 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 con- ditions they were at a great disadvantage against a rapacious master who kept them in servitude after the expiration of their true con- tract time, claiming their services for a longer period.
As the number of slaves increased in the colony, and labor became despised, the Redemptioner lost caste and the respect which is accorded to working people in non-slave holding com- munities. Ile was in many respects treated like the black slave. He could not purchase nor sell anything without the permission of the master. If caught ten miles away from home without a
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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 runa- ways, and the Indians received for every captured runaway they turned in a "match coat." For every day absence from work, ten days were added to his time of servitude. The master had a right to whip his Redemptioner for any real or imaginary offense, pro- vided he gave him no more than ten lashes for each offense, which must have been a very difficult matter to determine, for offenses may be multiplied. 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 influential friends who would take up his case.
For many years the Redemptioners in Maryland had come principally from England and Ireland. The abuses of the system having become known in England rigorous laws and measures were adopted in England for their better protection, and letters and articles appeared in the newspapers warning the poor people from entering into these contracts. The first and early immi- gration of Germans came into Maryland from Pennsylvania. From Lancaster County it extended into Baltimore, Harford, Frederick and the Western counties of our State. As wages ad- vanced, the trade of shipping Redemptioners to the colony be- came highly lucrative. Large profits were made in a success- ful voyage with a full cargo of human beings, who on their ar- rival 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 pur- suit of the negro slave trade from distant Africa, discovered that it was less troublesome and equally renumerative 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
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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 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, delud- ing the poorest and most ignorant to follow them to the New Eldorado.
Whenever such an agent had collected a sufficient number, he would take them personally to the shipping harbor in Hol- land. It was a gay crowd which travelled in this manner in wagons across the country. The horses and wagons were deco- rated 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 liberality of the agent until they were safely aboard the ship. From thence such a life of suffering, privation and hardship commenced, that it seems incredible that the Christian Nations of Europe and America should have permitted such a trade to flourish up to nearly the end of the first quarter of the present century. I myself know several very old persons yet living in Baltimore, who came to this country in this manner. The con- tracts which these Redemptioners had to sign in Holland, and which few of them then understood, contained the proviso, that if any passenger died on the voyage, 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 chil- dren, 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 mer- chant 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 on this principle. The ships were often so overcrowded, that a part of the passengers
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