USA > Maryland > Annual report of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland, 1st-6th, Vol. 1-6 > Part 5
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had to sleep on deck. Christoph Saur, in his petition to the Governor of Pennsylvania in 1775, asserts that at times there were not more than twelve inches room for each passenger. (I presume he means sleeping room below deck) and but half sufficient bread and water. Caspar Wister, of Philadelphia, in 1752 writes: last year a ship was twenty-four weeks at sea, and of the 150 passengers on board thereof, more than 100 died of hunger and privation, and the survivors were imprisoned and compelled to pay the entire passage-money for themselves and the deceased. In this year 10 ships arrived in Philadelphia with 5000 passengers. One ship was 17 weeks at sea and about 60 pas- sengers thereof died. Christoph Saur in 1758 estimates, that 2000 of the passengers on the 15 ships which arrived that year, died during the voyage. Heinrich Keppele, the first president of the German Society of Pennsylvania, writes in his diary, that of the 312} passengers on board of the ship, wherein he crossed the ocean, 250 died during the voyage. In February, 1775, Christoph Saur relates in his newspaper: Another ship has ar- rived. Of the 400 passengers not more than 50 are reported alive. They received their bread every two weeks ; some ate their portion in four, five and six days, which should have lasted 15 days. If they received no cooked victuals in eight days, their bread gave out the sooner, and as they had to wait until the 15 days were over, they starved, unless they had money, with which to buy of the mate flour at three pence sterling a pound and a bottle of wine for seven kopstick thalers. Then he relates how a man and his wife, who had ate their bread within eight days, crawled to the captain and begged him to throw them overboard, to relieve them of their misery, as they could not sur- vive till bread day. The captain refused to do it, and the mate in mockery gave them a bag filled with sand and coals. The man and his wife died of hunger before the bread day arrived. But notwithstanding, the survivors had to pay for the bread which the dead ought to have had. Pennsylvania in 1765, at the instigation of the German Society, passed rigorous laws for the protection of the Redemptioners, but Maryland remained in- active until more than fifty years later.
I found the following advertisements in the "Baltunore American," published in the year 1817.
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On the Sth day of February, a card headed :
GERMAN REDEMPTIONERS.
The Dutch ship, "Jufvrouw Johanna," Capt. H. II. Bleeker, has arrived off Annapolis from Amsterdam with a number of passengers, principally farmers and mechanics of all sorts, and several fine young boys and girls, whose time will be disposed of. Mr. Bolte, ship broker of Baltimore, will attend on board at An- napolis, to whom those who wish to supply themselves with good servants, will please apply ; also to Capt. Bleeker on board. On February 25th, the following advertisement appeared :
That a few entire families are still on board the "Johanna" to be hired.
On March 3d, a reward is offered for the capture of a Ger- man Redemptioner, a tailor, who absconded from Washington. And the following :
FOR SALE OR HIRE.
A German Redemptioner, for the term of two years. He is a stout, healthy man and well acquainted with farming, wagon driving and the management of horses. For further particulars apply to C. R. GREEN, Auctioneer.
On March 11th, Patrick McCrystal offers $30 reward for the capture of a German Redemptioner, a bricklayer.
On March 13th, Aquila H. Sparks offers $50 reward for an absconded German Redemptioner. On April 11th, the following:
GERMAN REDEMPTIONER .- $30 REWARD.
Absconded from the subscriber on Sunday, the 5th inst., a German Redemptioner, who arrived here in November last, by name of Maurice Schumacher, about 30 years of age, 5 feet, 9 inches, well proportioned, good countenance, but rather pale in complexion, short hair, has a very genteel suit of clothes, by trade a cabinet maker, but has been employed by me in the mak- ing of brushes. He is a good German scholar, understands French and Latin, an excellent workman, speaks English im- perfectly. $30 Reward if lodged in jail.
JAS. M. STAPLETON,
Brush Maker, 139 Baltimore Street.
I
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From March 21st, to April 7th, the following appeared :
GERMAN REDEMPTIONERS.
The Dutch ship "Johanna," Capt. II. II. Bleeker, has ar- rived before this City and lies now in the cove of Wiegman's Wharf; there are on board, desirous of binding themselves for their passage, the following single men: two capital blacksmiths, a ropemaker, a carrier, a smart apothecary, a tailor, a good' man to cook, several young men as waiters, etc. Among those with families are gardeners, weavers, a stone mason, a miller, a baker, a sugar baker, farmers and other professions, etc.
This ship had arrived off Annapolis in the first days of Feb- ruary, and on the 7th of April there were still some of these Re- demptioners detained on board. These are the last advertise- ments relating to Redemptioners that I have found in the "American." The misery and suffering of these poor people at last aroused the sympathy and indignation of the humane people of our City and State.
The winter of 1817 was of unusual severity for our climate ; the thermometer on February the 5th registered five degrees above zero, on the 6th, 13th, 15th and 17th at zero, on the 14th four degrees below and on the 16th four degrees above zero. The bay was frozen from shore to shore. On the 7th of February the following appeal appeared in the "American," it came from Annapolis and was addressed "to citizens generally and to benevo- lent societies":
"A ship with upward of 300 German men, women and chil- dren has arrived off Annapolis, where she is detained by ice. These people have been fifteen weeks on board and are short of provision. Upon making the Capes, their bedding having become filthy, was thrown overboard. They are now actually perishing from the cold and want of provision."
On the 13th of February another strong appeal was made by a German descendant for aid of the distressed immigrants on board of said ship. The same paper contained a call for a meeting of Germans and descendants of Germans to be held at Kaminsky's tavern that evening to form a Society for the better protection and assistance of German immigrants. This was the beginning of the German Society of Maryland. Kaminsky's tavern, I am
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informed, was at that time and for many years later, a well known popular resort, located in Water street near Light street, and the building is still standing.
The meeting was attended by many influential and wealthy citizens. Among the organizers and first members of the Society we find General John Stricker, the commanding general of the Maryland Militia and an officer of the revolutionary war, the merchants Christian Mayer, B. J. von Kappf, Heinrich Schroeder, Louis Brantz, Frederick Leypold, Johann Hoffman, Frederick W. Brune, Michael Kimmel, F. L. E. Amelung, the founder of the first glass furnace in the State, Wm. Krebs, John Frick, Samuel Keerl, John F. Friese, Peter Sanerwein, Frederick Waesche, Jesse Eichelberger, Dr. Diffenderfer, Justus Hoppe, Lewis Mayer, Philip D. Sadtler, J. J. Cohen, Samuel Etting, Conrad Schultz, Dr. A. J. Schwartz, Benj. J. Cohen, Charles W. Karthaus, Lawrence Thomson, the eminent attorneys David Hoffman, Wm. Frick and Charles F. Mayer.
The descendants of most of these are still living in our midst and maintain the high character, the virtues and influence of their ancestors. Stricker, Waesche, Schroeder, Hoffman, Etting and Decker streets perpetuate some of these names in our city.
At the next meeting of the Society, which was held on the 18th of February, 1817, a constitution was adopted, and at the following meeting on the 3d of March the following Board of Officers were elected: President, Christian Mayer ; Vice-Presidents, Dr. A. J. Schwartz, B. J. von Kappf, IIeinrich Schroeder and General John Stricker; Managers, Justus Hoppe, Louis Brantz, Conrad Schultz, Jacob Small, F. L. E. Amelung, William Krebs, John F. Frick, Samuel Keerl, John F. Friese, Peter Sauerwein, Michael Kimmel and Jesse Eichelberger; Secretary of the Society, Louis Mayer; Secretary of the Officers, Lawrence Thomson; Treasurer, Friedrich Waesche; Counsellors, David Hoffman and William Frick, Esqs .; Physicians, John Geo. Wolf and Jacob Baer. All officiating German clergymen in the State were made honorary members. The objects of the Society were declared to be: The protection and assistance of poor immigrants from Germany and Switzerland, and of their descendants, who may re- side in the State of Maryland or be temporarily sojourning therein.
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The Society must have been prosperous from the beginning, for we find at the first meeting of the officers, held on the 6th . of March, 1817, a resolution, entered : that two thousand dollars of the funds of the Society be forthwith invested in United States stock.
The attention of the Officers of the Society was immediately after its organization directed to the grievances and complaints of the Redemptioners who came from Germany and Switzerland. In England the government had assumed control over and had passed laws regulating the contracts of servitude and shipment of these servants. Appeals had been made to the Government of Holland to pass similar laws, but were not heeded, although cases of barbarous cruelty had been brought to its notice. Noth- ing, however, added so much to the misfortune of the German and Swiss Redemptioners as their total ignorance of the Dutch and English languages, and of the laws, manners and customs of this country. They were at a terrible disadvantage against crafty, unscrupulous shippers and masters. The officers of the Society soon found enough work on their hands, and a lively time they had of it.
It was the good fortune of the Society to have had from the beginning a man of superior intelligence as its president. Ile was master of the English, as well as of the German language, bold in the protection of the poor Redemptioners against hard and cruel masters, yet moderate and firm in the exercise of the law, confining himself to the ways and means sanctioned by it to alleviate their suffering. IIe bettered their condition by prompt- ing the enactment of wise and just regulations and was in truth an eloquent defender of the legal rights of the poor man. Of no less marked ability was Lawrence Thomson, its first secretary, a German of rare attainments, his writing in the English, as well as in the German language does not betray his nativity. After the passage of the registration act of German and Swiss Redemption- ers, Mr. Thomson was highly recommended by the Society for and appointed by the Governor to the office of Register at the City of Baltimore. He died on the 20th of April, 1819, and resolutions of sorrow for his loss were passed by the Board of Managers.
One of the first acts of the officers was to instruct their legal counsellors to proceed against Captain Bleeker of the Dutch
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ship "Jufvrouw Johanna," then off Annapolis, for the cruel treat- ment and selling of the Redemptioners on board of his ship, contrary to law, and appropriating to his own use the effects of deceased passengers. C. E. Stieff, a sick passenger abcard the ship, was ordered to be removed to a hospital and to be taken care of. A committee consisting of the president and the two coun- sellors of the Society was elected to secure at the next session of the Legislature the enactment of a body of laws and regulations for the protection of German and Swiss immigrants arriving in the State of Maryland. The provisions of the laws prepared by this committee and enacted, clearly indicate the principal evils complained of.
At the next session of the Maryland Legislature, on Feb- ruary 16th, 1818, the Society was incorporated and the following law was enacted, viz .:
AN ACT RELATIVE TO GERMAN AND SWISS REDEMPTIONERS.
Whereas it has been found that German and Swiss emigrants, who for the discharge of the debt contracted for their passage to this country are often obliged to subject themselves to cruel and oppressive imposition by the masters of the vessels in which they arrive, and likewise by those to whom they become servants, Be it enacted :
Sect. 1. Providing for the appointment by the Governor of a trustworthy person, skilled in the German and English lan- guages, as Register of all contracts for apprenticeship of German or Swiss emigrants arriving in this State.
Sect. 2. Regulates the manner of making these contracts, and none shall be valid, unless the same be drawn by the Register or approved by him.
Sect. 4. Provides for the recording of these contracts, or indentures, in a Court of Record.
Sect. 5. Provides that the Master must give every minor under the age of 21 years at least two months schooling annually during his servitude.
Sect. 6. No emigrant shall in any case be bound to serve longer than four years.
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Sect. 7. That no German or Swiss emigrant arriving here shall be detained longer than 30 days on board of the vessel after such arrival, and receive during the detention on board good and sufficient provisions, without increase in the period of their servitude.
Sect. S. Makes it the duty of the Register to remove on shore any sick emigrant or any emigrant having been cruelly or ill-treated by the officers of the ship, at the expense of the vessel. If no purchaser is found for him within sixty days after arrival, the master or owners of the vessel shall have no further lien on such emigrant.
Seet. 9. That no children shall be answerable for the pass- age-money of their parents, dead or alive, nor parents for their deceased children, nor a husband for his deceased wife, nor a wife for her deceased husband, any pretense of custom in con- traet, promise or agreement made beyond sea, to the contrary not- withstanding.
Seet. 10. That the Masters of the vessels arriving shall in case of the death of any German or Swiss emigrant within ten days after arrival deliver to the Register an accurate inventory of all the property of such emigrant on board of such vessel. The Register shall then sell such property, pay the Master the passage- money, provided that if the passenger died before the expiration of one-half of the voyage no passage-money shall be due, and the heirs of the deceased shall be entitled to the proceeds, and if after advertisement and due search no heirs of the deceased can be found within three years after the arrival of the ship, then the proceeds to go to the German Society of Maryland.
By these laws the Society received an official recognition. It possessed talent, influence and money, and now it had also the powerful arm of the law to assist it in its noble efforts in behalf of the oppressed. The Governor appointed only such persons to the office of Register, as were recommended by the Society.
The fight in behalf of the Redemptioners seems to have been short, vigorous and effective. A few years after the passage of the above laws, the name of Redemptioner disappears from the records, as well as from publie print, and but few of the living generation know what a "Redemptioner" means, or that such a
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system had prevailed in the Colony and State of Maryland for nearly two hundred years.
The following letters I have copied from the Record and Minute book of the Board of Managers of the Society. I have selected only such letters as by their contents throw light on or give information of the fate of some of these Redemptioners, and on the manner of the officers in dealing with their grievances and rendering them assistance.
On May 29th, 1817, the President of the Society addressed the following letter to one W. Martin Gillet.
Sir: - The bearer, John Bernet, has applied to the German Society for their aid in a complaint he has against you. They have referred him to one of their counsels, who is of opinion, that you have no right to the servitude of Bernet's children. The officers of the Society wish to inform you of this opinion of their counsel, and to invite you to an amicable arrangement of the business if possible by reference or otherwise. Bernet is will- ing to pay whatever impartial persons may think him indebted to you for his children and begs that you will cease sending officers of Justice after him. Your reply, written or verbal, if you are disposed to settle the difference in a friendly manner, will oblige, etc.
This affair seems to have been amicably arranged, for no further complaint is made. In July following, one Solomon W. Davis, who appears to have been the owner or manager of a marble quarry in Montgomery County, inquires of the President about a runaway Redemptioner named Theis. The President informs him that Theis had called upon him and complained of ill usage and that he was given work which, he having a rupt- ure, it was impossible for him to do ; that Theis had left for parts unknown, probably for Philadelphia, where he had friends living. The letter contains further the following significant language.
"These poor people, sir, are ignorant that the custom of its inhabitants (at least of those of British and Irish descent) make no difference between white servants and black slaves, and when they are treated accordingly they fancy themselves ill used, - which to be sure is inconvenient to their masters." Many Re- demptioners complained to the President of being ill treated, and we find one case were the Society proposes to Charles Ridgely,
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Jr., Esq., that Mr. P. A. Karthaus, a member of the Society, will employ a servant of Mr. Ridgely, who made complaint, at the highest wages, to reimburse him the money he had paid for the servant's family. The President laments that the want of under- standing the language is frequently the occasion of injustice on the part of the master, and more frequently of his agents and the im- propriety of conduct on the part of the servant.
In January 1819, a German, named Johann Bodenwerber, appealed to the Society for protection. He was a servant of one Henry Freeburger who had treated him with the utmost cruelty, and inflicted such injuries on him that he was for a long time laid up in the hospital under medical treatment. The President first tried to obtain a release of Bodenwerber from his bondage, and wrote the following letter to Freeburger:
"Sir: - If as a small atonement for the barbarous treatment, which Johannes Bodenwerber experienced from you, you will give up his indentures, the officers of the German Society will prevail on the Magistrate who issued a peace warrant against you, to have the prosecution withdrawn .- Should you unexpectedly not consent to this lenient measure, you may depend upon the Society's utmost endeavors to bring you to deserved shame and punishment. I have before me a physician's certificate which fully justifies my using this language to you. Signed, Christian Mayer, President of German Society of Maryland."
It is gratifying to us that Henry Freeburger in his cupidity and hardness of heart did not accept this proposition, for he was promptly indicted by the Grand Jury and tried in the Criminal Court of Baltimore City, and found guilty, and sentenced.
Johann Bodenwerber however was released from his bondage, became a free man again and married his sweetheart. The papers of Bodenwerber and of his sweetheart, that is, their pass- ports and certificates of their good moral conduct from different public authorities of their native country, which had been in the custody of the German Society were delivered to them, together with a sum of money and the good wishes of the Society. The President speaks of Bodenwerber as a very worthy man who de- served a better fate.
In January 1819, there arrived here the Swedish ship "Prima" from Norway after a long tempestuous voyage with upwards of 250 German emigrants in the greatest distress. The master of the
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ship did not have the means to pay the required foreign tonnage and the passengers were not permitted to land. The German Society deposited the money at the Custom House, and the pas- sengers were allowed to land.
On February the 12th, 1819, the 'German Society made an appeal for aid to the Germans and descendants of Germans resid- ing in Frederick and Washington Counties by sending a letter to Dr. J. Baer in Frederick and a duplicate thereof to Dr. Schnebly in Hagerstown, wherein they request that an enclosed translation of the proceedings of the Society may be published in the German newspapers of these towns, and one or two copies of the papers be mailed to the Society. The doctors are kindly requested to solicit subscription to the Society. A copy of the constitution is enclosed to serve for subscriptions, and the letter closes in the words, "As you doubtless appreciate the humane and benevolent purpose for which the Society was instituted, and which it is their anxious wish to bring more and more into beneficient oper- ation, - and your place of residence, sir, and its neighborhood - abound in Germans and Swiss and descendants of them, who are well able to contribute to the relief of their or their fathers' dis- tressed countrymen, we flatter ourselves that we shall not in vain solicit your kind assistance in this work of love and charity. l'er- mit us to request you to favor us with an answer to this address, the freedom of which you will generously excuse when you con- sider its purport," &c.
On the 15th of March, 1819, the President wrote the follow- ing letter which certainly was not within the scope of his authority as the President of a Society which only had for its ob- ject the protection of the immigrant, and not of the ship owners. It is addressed, "To the German Immigrants yet remaining on board of the Dutch ship ' Vrouw Elizabeth'." "Captain Bredero has applied to the German Society of Maryland, and represented that you refuse to hire yourselves on reasonable condition for the payment of your passage money. As Captain Bredero consci- entiously performed his part of the contract, and up to the present time, as we are informed by everybody, treated you very kindly, your refusal is unjust, unlawful and ungrateful. The German Society makes it its duty to assist your countrymen when they are in need, and to protect them as far as it is able; but it will
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also not suffer any injustice to be done by immigrants, and by ad- vise and act induce them to fulfill their obligations. I declare therefore to you, that Captain Bredero has a lawful right to have you committed to prison, to remain there on meagre fare, until your debt is paid, if you do not consent to hire for a reasonable time - that is not more than four years, for the payment thereof. The Captain can exercise this right after the expiration of thirty days of your arrival, and the German Society will assist him in this. Please conform to this, and it will please us. You are hereby warned of the consequences. (Signed) Chr. Mayer, President," &c.
On the 11th of May, 1819, the President gave to Captain Bredero a certificate that he treated his passengers with kindness and humanity.
The most interesting and important Redemptioner's case, which led to the resignation first of the two Attorneys of the So- ciety, and later it seems of the President and Secretary, and almost broke up the Society was that of the "Breuning boys." The Breu- ning boys Christian and Adam, with their father and mother, ar- rived here aboard the Swedish ship "Prima," for which the Society had deposited the tonnage money to allow the passengers to land. Mr. Lawrence Thomson, the first Secretary of the Society, who was now the Register of the German and Swiss Redemptioners appointed by the State, went on board of the ship to attend to the indentures of the Redemptioners. Whilst there, the Captain of the ship sold the two infant sons of the Brenning parents to a farmer named W. Denny of Queen Anne's County, separating them from their parents. Mr. Thomson, being appealed to, interfered, and offered himself to pay the passage money. The farmer had the children already in his boat, Mr. Thomson called to him to return the two lads on board to the Captain who would return to him the money paid by him, but instead of doing so the farmer carried off the boys in his boat to Queen Anne's County without even having them legally bound and registered, leaving the be- reaved and grief stricken parents on board of the ship, who were afterwards hired or sold to a farmer in Pennsylvania. These facts were reported to the President of the Society, and aroused his sympathy as well as his abhorrence. He was determined to act at once with the greatest energy in behalf of these unfortunate children and their parents. At the time, however, he had re- ceived from the Attorneys of the Society, Messrs. Hoffman and
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Frick, an unfavorable opinion as to the right of the Society to interfere in behalf of a gardener named Stoffel, who claimed that he was kept in unlawful servitude by W. Carren. The son of the President, Mr. Chas. F. Mayer, who became one of the most distinguished lawyers at our bar, differed in opinion with the So- ciety's Attorneys, and was in favor of taking legal steps in behalf of Stoffel. The President agreed with his son's views, and was not ' in harmony with the lawyers of the Society, he therefore sent them the following letter:
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