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this principle. The ships were often so overcrowded that a part of the passengers had to sleep on deck. Christoph Sauer, 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 ten ships arrived in Philadelphia with 5,000 passengers. One ship was seventeen weeks at sea and about 60 passengers thereof died. Christoph Sauer, in 1758, estimates that 2,000 of the passengers on the fifteen 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 3121/2 passengers on board of the ship, wherein he crossed the ocean, 250 died during the voyage. In February, 1745, Christoph Sauer relates in his newspaper: "Another ship has arrived. 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
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and his wife, who had eaten 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 survive 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 sur- vivors had to pay for the bread which the dead ought to have had.
Not on every ship were the emigrant passengers so ill provided for. The same newspaper reports that in 1748 seven ships left Rotterdam with German emigrants, and as far as known all arrived in good health and vigor. In the next year twenty ships with German emigrants left Rotterdam for Pennsylvania. One of them lost over one- half of its human freight by sickness, etc. In 1750 the government of Pennsylvania passed laws for the better protection of emigrant passengers, but the laws were in- sufficient and not enforced, and so the evil increased from year to year, fed by the large profits arising therefrom to the owners and captains of the vessels out of the per- nicious redemptioner system. It rivaled the horrors of the slave trade in its heartless cruelty. To what extent this redemptioner system could be abused is shown by the authentic and pathetic story of the white slave, Sally Müller .*
In the year 1817, three vessels, the ship "Emanuel," 300 tons; the brig "Juffer Johanna," 370 tons, and the brigantine "Johanna Maria" sailed from the port of
*Prof. Hanno Deiler, Geschichte der Deutschen am Mississippi, 1901, New Orleans.
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Helder, in Holland, with 1,100 redemptioners for New Orleans, La. They arrived there after a passage of about four months on the sixth of March, 1818, with only 597 redemptioners on board, the others (503) had perished during the passage by sickness, from want of food, water and medical attendance. The survivors testified that, although there had been sufficient provision on board of the vessels, the officers and sailors withheld it to extort whatever money the passengers might have, and that the water was foul and full of long worms. Entire families perished and many children who thus had lost their parents were landed. The horrible suffering of these people became known and great indignation and excite- ment was aroused in the city of New Orleans, so that fourteen days thereafter the legislature of Louisiana passed laws for the better protection of emigrants and the governor was directed to appoint two or more compe- tent men as commissioners to board incoming immigrant vessels to examine their shipping contracts, and afford them the protection of the law ; and especially prohibiting the sale of the survivors for the payment of the passage money of their fellow passenger who had died during the voyage.
Already, on the 9th of March, 1818, three days after the arrival of the vessels, Senator Clark offered in the senate of Louisiana a resolution: "that a committee be appointed to join a committee as may be appointed by the house of representatives to ascertain what number of children there are among the German and Swiss redemp- tioners lately arrived in this port: their names and prob- able ages; whether any have been sold, and, if sold, to
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whom, and at what prices, and to report as early as pos- sible to the legislature."
The resolution was adopted in the senate by nine to one vote, but failed to pass the next day in the house of repre- sentatives. If it had passed the fate of the little German girl, which was then sold and kept for twenty-seven years in slavery as a colored person, ignorant of her white descent, married to a negro slave to whom she gave birth of three children, would have been different.
Her name was Salome (called Sally) Mueller, then in her third year of age, a daughter of Daniel Mueller, a shoemaker, and Dorothea Mueller, his wife, born in the village of Langensulzbach, in Elsass.
In 1817 Daniel Mueller, with his wife and four chil- dren, a boy eight years old, two younger girls, Dorothea and Sally and a baby, his brother George Mueller, a lock- smith, with his wife and two sons; the family Kropp and their daughter Eva, sixteen years old, a cousin of Sally, the families Kolhofer, Thickner and a Mrs. Schutz- heimer, a friend and neighbor of Mueller who was mid- wife at the birth of Sally, and others of the village of Langensulzbach, were emigrants on the aforenamed brig "Juffer Johanna." The wives of both the Mueller brothers died on the high sea and the baby followed in the watery grave. Then Eva Kropp took care of her little cousin Sally and on landing in New Orleans, Eva, although sold in service as a redemptioner, was willing to keep Sally with her, but Sally's father would not con- sent to it. The father with his children had been sold as a redemptioner to Fitz John Miller, the owner of a planta- tion at Attakapas, La., and he took Mueller with his three
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children to his plantation. A few weeks after they left New Orleans. It was reported that Daniel Mueller, the father, had died of the fever, and soon thereafter that his eight-year-old boy had drowned in the river. Nothing was heard of the two little girls. Years passed, the terms of service of the redemptioners of the "Juffer Johanna" expired in the course of time; Uncle George and his two sons became free men again, and settled and prospered in Woodville, Missouri.
The memory of the terrible experience these redemp- tioners had endured in their long voyage across the ocean remained a bond of common sympathy and the fate of the two missing children was a theme of frequent inquiry and conversation among them. Their Uncle George Mueller made several journeys in search for his lost nieces, but without finding a trace of them. . The children seemed lost. Twenty-four years had passed and not the slightest information of their existence or abode had come to their friends and kindred, when in 1842, Madame Karl, a cousin and fellow passenger of them, passed the coffee- house of Louis Belmonti, near the levee in New Orleans.
The door of the coffee house stood wide open and Madame Karl observed a woman in the room cleaning, who, at the same moment, looked up from her work at her. As Madame Karl saw the features and eyes of the woman, she stood as petrified, the apparition of a woman dear and near to her who had perished on their dreadful voyage appeared to her. Trembling and without breath, she stared at the woman, and in the next minute she rushed into the room with the cry, "You are Sally Muel- ler, my cousin," and embraced her with tears of joy.
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The woman was utterly surprised, assuring Madame Karl that she was mistaken in her, as she was Mary Brid- get, a colored woman, a slave belonging to Mr. Belmonti, who had bought her of Fitz John Miller, of Attakapas, and that she did not know anything of her parents or relatives.
Madame Karl, however, felt that she was not mistaken. The long lost child was found, her figure, the black hair, the eyes, nose, chin and general appearance were too striking like the deceased mother, Dorothea Mueller, to admit of a mistake.
She persuaded the woman to go with her to her cousin Eva Kropp, who was married to Franz Schubert, who had been one of the redemptioners on the "Juffer Johanna." Mary Bridget was kindly treated by Mr. Bel- monti, who allowed her much freedom. She went with Madame Karl to the suburb Lafayette, the home of the Schuberts. Mrs. Eva Schubert happened to be standing in her house door. Seeing them coming, she greeted from afar Madame Karl, who had not been to visit her for some time. Madame Karl, however, pointed to her companion, the slave, and asked, "Do you know her?" " 'My God! this is one of the Mueller's children, my cousin Sally,'" cried Mrs. Schubert, and rushed to the slave, and her husband, who came to the door and seeing the slave, ex- claimed : "Isn't this one of the lost children?" There was no doubt with them that the slave, Mary Bridget, was the lost Sally Mueller.
All Lafayette had heard the sad story of the lost chil- dren and now, when it was rumored that one of them had been found, the people rushed to Schubert's house to see
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her. Mrs. Schutzheimer, the midwife at the birth of Sally, recognized her, and, when a doubt was expressed whether her owner, Belmonti, would credit the identity of his slave to be Sally Mueller, she called attention to two very peculiar birth marks which Sally, the child, had inside of each of her thighs and which Mrs. Eva Schubert. who had taken care of and washed the child for three months after the death of her mother on board of the ves- sel, well knew, and often when the lost children were the subject of conversation the female redemptioner had remarked that there would be no difficulty in establishing the identity of Sally by reason of these peculiar birth marks on her body. The woman now took the slave to Mrs. Schubert's bed-room, and the birth marks were found. Mrs. Schubert at once went to Mr. Belmonti and claimed the freedom of his slave as a free born white woman, her cousin Sally Mueller. Mr. Belmonti refused to give her up, but mentioned that Miller, of Attakapas, shortly after the sale by him to Belmonti of the slave, had said to him that Bridget had as much claim to her freedom as a free born woman and for him to treat her well and kindly, so she would remain in his service. And Belmonti further remarked, "If I had then a pistol with me, I would have shot Miller."
Mr. Belmonti now restrained his slave in her freedom and from intercourse with her relatives and threatened her with bodily chastisement if she failed to obey.
Her relatives and friends then caused a petition for her freedom to be filed in the first district court of New Orleans. Judge Buchanan and many prominent Ger- mans contributed money to pay the costs, expenses and
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lawyers' fees in the celebrated and protracted case. The renowned attorneys, W. Upton, Christian Roselius (also a former redemptioner ), F. Upton, and Bonford appeared for Sally Mueller, and Messrs. Grymer, Micon, Canon, Sigur and Caperon were the attorneys for Belmonti; Franz Schubert gave bail of $1,000 when Sally, for an attempt to leave Belmonti, was thrown into prison. On the 23rd day of May, 1845, the trial commenced. Wit- nesses who lived near Kattakapas in the years of 1820 to 1824 testified that the child, Mary Bridget, was called the "Dutch Girl;" doctors testified that the birth marks on the body of Sally Mueller could not be produced by arti- ficial means. Numerous witnesses testified to her family resemblance of the Muellers and that she was a white per- son; but there were also witnesses to the contrary pro- duced by Fitz John Miller, who testified that they knew of negro slaves as white in color and features as Sally Mueller. The case went up to the court of appeals of Louisiana and, on the 23rd day of June, 1845, Sally Mueller was declared a free born white person, the daugh- ter of Daniel Mueller, deceased. Aside of the testimony of the relatives, the presence of the birth marks were con- sidered as of weight in establishing her identity. Sallie Mueller had only a dim recollection that she had been in early childhood on board of a vessel at sea. She had no recollection of her sister who forever remained lost, nor of how she had come to Attakapas. On obtaining her freedom she lived with her cousin, Mrs. Schubert. She later left the city and is reported to have married a white man named Frederick King with whom she went to Cali- fornia.
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The sale of free white persons as redemptioners to free negroes does not appear isolated, for we read in section XIII, Louisiana Digest of Civil Laws, 1808:
"Whereas free colored persons in violation of the true intent and meaning of the law passed on June 7th, 1806, have bought the service of white persons, etc." The act then annuls all such contracts and instructs the attorney- general to proceed against those who do not immediately release the persons so in their service.
In Pennsylvania and Maryland the service of the Ger- man redemptioners were usually bought by Germans or their descendants of earlier immigration and stood there- fore on a more social equality with their fellow men. It is known that many of these redemptioners after their years of service rose by their industry, skill and economy to wealth and influence.
The author in his youth was acquainted with several old gentlemen of wealth and high social standing in Balti- more city, who, in their youth, had come here as redemp- tioners.
But with all this, Freiherr von Fürstenwerther, who traveled in America in 1817, in his book relates that two free negroes had bought in Baltimore two German fami- lies as redemptioners and that the German citizens of Baltimore hearing of it, at once contributed the money and bought their freedom and took proper measures to prevent a repetition of such occurrence.
Whilst there were many abuses of redemptioners in their service, it was the horrors of the ocean trip across from Europe which was the principal cause for the forma- tion of the "German Societies" in the Atlantic ports in the eighteenth century.
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The German newspapers in Pennsylvania were in those years numerous and influential. (Benj. Franklin pub- lished three.) Christian Sauer, and after his death in 1757 his son, Christian Sauer, Jr., in their, Germantown paper, especially, published the terrible suffering, lists of the dead and horrors on these Dutch emigrant vessels and appealed to the governor and authorities for redress.
It was then on the 26th of December, 1764, that sixty- five citizens of Philadelphia, Germans or of German descent, among them men of wealth and influence, met in the Lutheran schoolhouse and organized the renowned "German Society of Pennsylvania" for the protection and aid of German immigrants and their descendants. It was a strong organization from its beginning. Heinrich Keppele, a wealthy German merchant, was its first presi- dent from 1764 to 1781. In the first year of its existence, 1765, it procured better laws from the legislature for the protection of the emigrants and remained vigilant as to the strict observance of the same. It cared for the indigent sick and assisted the poor. Illustrious men deemed it an honor to serve as officers. Major General Mühlenberg, of the Revolutionary War, whose statue adorns the hall of fame in the national capitol at Wash- ington ; his brother, Fr. H. Mühlenberg, the president of the first house of congress, and other prominent famous men have been its presidents and officers. In 1806 it erected a fine building, maintained schools, opened a large library, helped the poor, and as a strong public spirited organization after 144 years of existence promises for generations to come to diffuse the humane sentiments of its noble founders.
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THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA,
Organized January 15th, 1766.
It is not generally known that the colony of South Carolina had an early and numerous German immigra- tion. In 1675 many Hollanders and Germans settled on James Island and founded Jamestown. Rev. Pastor Bolzius, one of the leaders of the Salzburger refugees, who settled in 1734 on the Savannah river, in Georgia, mentions in his diary that Germans were inhabitants of Charleston, S. C .; in the years from 1730 to 1750, Ger- mans constantly arrived by English ships and settled in the western parts near the border of the Indian country. In 1735 an organized congregation under their pastor, Rev. Johann Giessendanner, came and settled Orange- burg. On the forks of Saluda and Broad river so many Germans had settled that it was called "Dutch Forks." In 1760 there were numerous German settlements at Hard Labor Creek, in Edgefield; Lexington, Newberry, Spartanburg, Laurens and Richland. In 1763 a Baron Stümpel, a Prussian officer who had obtained from the English government a grant of a large tract of land in South Carolina, induced about 600 Rhinelanders to follow him to his new possession. On the way across his money gave out and he abandoned them. They arrived in the spring of 1764 in two ships at Charleston short of funds .* The legislature granted them 500 pounds sterling and 200
*Ramsay's History of South Carolina, 1809.
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muskets with ample ammunition and sent them under the escort of Captain Calhoun to the German district of Saxe-Cobourg in the western part of the colony, where they settled on land given to them. In 1752 the first Ger- man Lutheran Church was organized in Charleston. Rev. Johann Luft was the first pastor ; his successors were the pastors, Rev. Johann S. Hahnbaum, Rev. Friedrich Daser, Rev. Christian Streit, Rev. Johann Christopher Faber, Rev. Matthias Friedrichs, Rev. Carl Faber, and 18II Rev. Dr. Johann Buchanan, under whom it became an English Lutheran Church.
Michael Kalteisen, the first president of the German Society of Charleston, S. C., is first mentioned in the year 1762 as a partner of the firm of "Braun & Kalteisen," merchants. He was very popular and con- sidered the leading citizen of the German population of the city to whom they would go for advice and assistance. The arrival of the destitute 600 emigrants of Baron Stümpel's ill-starred enterprise, abandoned by their leader and assisted by the colony, and hearing of the organiza- tion of the humane "German Society" in Philadelphia, induced Kalteisen to appeal to his friends to meet in his house to form a similar society in Charleston. On the fifteenth day of January, 1766, fifteen citizens met and, after due deliberation, organized "The German Friendly Society of Charleston," which now, after an existence of over 142 years, is still in full vigor of life, continuing the good work and noble principle of its founders. Michael Kalteisen was elected its first president, and held that office for the next eight years. The society prospered and at the breaking out of the revolution it had a hundred
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members and so well financially provided that its patriotic members advanced the revolutionary government of the state in its struggle for independence in the war from 1776 to 1782 out of the funds of the society the sum of £2,300. Kalteisen, an ardent American patriot, on the 12th day of July, 1775, set on foot the plan of a German military organization, which, under the name of the Ger- man Fusileers, in 1776, numbered over a hundred mem- bers, Kalteisen being its second lieutenant. These fusi- leers* took an honorable part in the war. In 1779 they took part in the battle at Port Royal and with the conti- nental army under General Lincoln in the siege of Savan- nah, where their Captain Scheppert was killed in the same assault in which General Pulaski fell.
After the war Kalteisen served in the first and several succeeding legislatures of South Carolina.
On the 18th day of July, 1794, he was appointed cap- tain of artillery and engineers of the regular United States Army, and given the command of Fort Johnson in the Charleston harbor, which command he retained until his death was announced on the 3rd day of November, 1807, by the firing of seventeen guns from the fort, which were answered by the same number of guns from boats in the harbor, and all flags in town and shipping were placed at half-mast. He was born at Wachtelsheim, in Würtem- burg, and died at the age of 79 years, 4 months and 17 days.
He remained all his life an active member and took a deep interest in the affairs of his beloved German society.
*German Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1871, General Wagner, 1736-40.
iHeitman's Historical Register of U. S. Army for 1789-1903.
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It was at his special request that his remains were buried in a vault under the hall of the fine building which the society had erected on Archdale street in the year 1801. A costly memorial of fine marble with appropriate inscrip- tion was placed in front of the vault. The bombardment of Charleston by the Union forces on the 17th of Septem- ber, 1864, destroyed the building, memorial and vault. A new vault has been built with suitable inscription. In the year 1803 the society opened a German school, wherein beside German and English, Latin and Greek were taught and twenty poor children were instructed free of charge. In 1805 a German library was opened. A special fund was set aside for the assistance of German emigrants in distress, which amounted in the years 1850 to 1860 to over $50,000, and about $1,500 were annually disbursed in support of widows and orphans of Charles- ton.
In 1791 the society was incorporated with a member- ship of 169 and a capital of $8,643.58 and continued to prosper financially so that at the time of the destruction of their building by the bombardment in 1863 it had a capital of more than $100,000, which, being invested mostly in southern securities, was like its membership materially reduced by this calamity. The remaining members, steadfast in their devotion to its noble humane work, continued with renewed energy and gained mem- bers now also citizens of English, Scotch and Irish descent. They bought a lot of ground for the erection of a new building and, in 1866, January 17th, celebrated the first centennial of its existence, in which celebration most all societies of Charleston took part. After religious
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services in the St. John's Lutheran German Church a banquet was held. Rev. John Buchanan, who, at the fiftieth annual celebration had rendered the same service, delivered the oration. The society at the Charleston Exhibition in the year 1902 celebrated a jubilee banquet at which 250 persons took part, among them the officials and most prominent citizens of Charleston.
The German Society of Maryland next in time was organized not later than the year 1783 and its interesting history will hereinafter be given at large and in detail as far as the records, not lost or destroyed by the great fire of 1904, are available.
The fourth of these societies was organized on the 23rd day of August in the year 1784 by thirteen citizens of the city of New York under the name of The German Society of New York.
Col. Heinrich E. von Lutterloh was its first president, and Col. Friedrich von Weissenfels (both officers in the Revolutionary Army) its vice-president. General von Steuben was president from January 21, 1795, to January 25, 1804. This large and influential society, which by its report for the year 1903 shows a membership of 1,070 and a capital of $181,001.34, and by its employment bureau in 1903 assisted 10,801 persons, has had amongst its officers many renowned men. Philip D. Arcularius was president 1804-06; George Arcularius, 1810-12 and 1824-26; Jacob Lorillard, 1819-21 and 1835-37; Johann Jacob Astor, 1837-45; L. W. Faber, 1841-45; Gustav Schwab, 1855; Sigmund Kauffman, 1874, Gustav H. Schwab, 1903-06,
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1303732
THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND.
The records of the organization and of the early period until the year 1817 of this society are lost. We do not know the exact date of its organization. Travelers who visited North America in the eighteenth century mention its existence, and Franz Löher in his admirable history of the Germans in America (Cincinnati, 1847, p. 81 ) states that it was organized at the same time, "1764," when the Pennsylvania Society was founded. This date being, however, uncertain, we will take a short review of the conditions of the German inhabitants of the State of Maryland generally and especially of the inhabitants of Baltimore before and within the period of its probable beginning.
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