USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania: The German influence in its settlement and development, Pat VII > Part 18
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their fathers and masters will be regarded as true citizens. They will have the right of suffrage not only for the elec- tion of Magistrates of the place where they live but also for that of the members of the Council of the Province and the General Assembly, which two bodies joined with the Governor are the Sovereignty, and what is much more they may be chosen to exercise some office, if the commu- nity of the place where they live considers them capable of it, no matter what their nationality or religion." 157
It will be seen from the foregoing that these 50 acres of land which were allotted to Redemptioners at the conclu- sion of their term of service, were not an absolute gift or donation by the Proprietors, as so many writers seem to think, but were rented to them on more reasonable terms than to their masters. I have nowhere found whether other equally favorable concessions were made when the Redemptioner purchased his 50 acres outright or when he after a while preferred exclusive ownership in preference to the payment of quit-rent. Doubtless, in the latter case, he came in on the same footing as any other original pur- chaser. A recent history ventures upon the following ex- planation : "The land secured by settlers and servants who had worked out their term of years, was granted in fee under favor which came directly or indirectly from the crown." 158 To the average reader that must appear like an explanation that does not explain, and is incorrect in addi- tion. The regulation did not convey an absolute title to land. It was granted under a reservation and not in fee simple. Every student knows that all the laws passed in the Province were subject to revision by the crown, and
17 See article by Judge S. W. PENNYPACKER in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. VI., pp. 320-321.
158 SCHARF & WESTCOTT'S History of Philadelphia, Vol. I., p. 134.
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Lands Given to Redemptioners.
therefore whatever law or custom, to be legal, must have received the royal assent. What is much more to the point is when and where that concession to indentured servants was first proclaimed and put upon record. It seems un- reasonable that there was no legal authorization of the practice.
ADDENDA.
Long after the foregoing remarks and speculations con- cerning the time and place where the custom of allowing indentured servitors to take up 50 acres of land at a nom- inal quit-rent had been written, and after the chapter in which they appear had been printed, I had the good for- tune to find the authorization that had so long eluded my search.
On March 4, 1681, King Charles signed the document which gave to William Penn the Province of Pennsylvania. Very soon thereafter Penn wrote an account of his new possessions from the best information he then had. It was printed in a folio pamphlet of ten pages, entitled : " Some ACCOUNT of the PROVINCE of PENNSILVANIA in AMERICA; Lately Granted under the Great Seal of ENGLAND to WILLIAM PENN, ETC. Together with Priviledges and Powers necessary to the well-governing thereof. Made publick for the Information of such as are or may be disposed to Transport themselves or Servants into those Parts. London : Printed, and Sold by Benjamin Clark Bookseller in George-Yard Lombard-Street, 1681." The title of the tract in fac-simile will be found on page 272.
In this scarce and valuable little tract Penn sets forth the " Conditions " under which he was disposed to colonize his new Province. Condition No. III. reads as follows :
.
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SOME ACCOUNT
OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSILVANIA IN AMERICA; Lately Granted under the Great Seal OF
ENGLAND TO
William Penn, &c.
Together with Priviledges and Powers necef- fary to the well-governing thereof.
Made publick for the Information of fuch as are or may be difpofed to Tranfport themfelves or Servants into thofe Parts.
LONDON: Printed , and Sold by Benjamin Clark Bookfeller in George-Yard Lombard-freet, 1691, PENN'S FIRST PAMPHLET ON HIS AMERICAN POSSESSIONS.
ИПОЗВА
TWEL
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Fifty Acres Allotted to Each Servant.
" My conditions will relate to three sorts of people : Ist. Those that will buy : 2dly. Those that take up land upon rent : 3dly. Servants. To the first, the shares I sell shall be certain as to number of acres ; that is to say, every one shall contain five thousand acres, free from any Indian in- cumbrance, the price a hundred pounds and for the quit- rent but one English shilling or the value of it yearly for a hundred acres ; and the said quit-rent not to begin to be paid till 1684. To the second sort, that take up land upon rent, they shall have liberty so to do paying yearly one penny per acre, not exceeding two hundred acres .- To the third sort, to wit, servants that are carried over, fifty acres shall be allowed to the master for every head, AND FIFTY ACRES TO EVERY SERVANT WHEN THEIR TIME IS EXPIRED. And because some engaged with me that may not be disposed to go, it were very advisable for every three adventurers to send an overseer with their servants, which would well pay the cost."
SPEM
ALIT
SUCCESSUS
COAT-OF-ARMS OF GEORGE ROSS, SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, FROM LANCASTER, PA.
IT
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THE OLD MARKET SQUARE AT GERMANTOWN.
CHAPTER IX.
THE TRAFFIC IN REDEMPTIONERS AS CARRIED ON IN THE NEIGHBORING COLONIES-MEN KIDNAPPED IN THE STREETS OF LONDON AND DEPORTED-PRISONERS OF WAR SENT TO AMERICA AND SOLD INTO BONDAGE IN CROMWELL'S TIME.
"God's blessing on the Fatherland, And all beneath her dome ; And also on the newer land We now have made our home."
"Ein dichter Kreis von Lieben steh , Ihr Brüder, um uns her ; Uns Knüpft so manches theuere Band An unser deutsches Vaterland, Drum fällt der Abschied schwer."
HILE my discussion of this question has special reference to the Pro- vince of Pennsylvania, the trade had so ramified into the neighboring regions to the south of us, that a brief glance OLD-TIME WOODEN LANTERN. at what prevailed there will assist us in understanding the situation at our own doors. In fact we may be said to have taken it from them, because
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Servant Laws in Maryland.
it prevailed there many years before it developed in Penn- sylvania. It prevailed in Virginia from an early period, and when Lord Baltimore established his government in his new Province of Maryland, he was prompt to recognize the same system in order to more rapidly secure colonists. In the beginning the term of service there was fixed at five years. In 1638 the Maryland Assembly passed an act reducing it to four years, which remained in force until 1715, when it was amended by fixing the period of service for servants above the age of twenty-five years, at five years ; those between the age of eighteen and twenty-five years, at six years ; those between fifteen and eighteen at seven years, while all below fifteen years were compelled to remain with their masters until they reached the age of twenty-two years. 159
Servants in Maryland were from the first placed under the protection of the law, which no doubt threw many safeguards around them, preventing impositions in many cases, and securing them justice from hard and inhuman masters. Either by law or by custom the practice grew up of rewarding these servants at the expiration of their time of service, as we find in 1637 one of these servants entitled to " one cap or hat, one new cloth or frieze suit, one shirt, one pair of shoes and stockings, one axe, one broad and one narrow hoe, fifty acres of land and three barrels of corn " out of the estate of his deceased master.160 There, as in Pennsylvania, the way to preferment was open to man and master alike. There as here many of these Redemptioners became in time prosperous, promi- nent people. No stigma was attached to this temporary ser-
159 LOUIS P. HENNIGHAUSEN, The Redemptioners and the German Society of Maryland, pp. 1-2.
160 LOUIS P. HENNIGHAUSEN, Case quoted from Maryland Archives, 1637.
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vitude, and intermarriages between masters and their female servants were not infrequent, nor between servants and members of the master's household. But these people could not select their masters. They were compelled to serve those who paid the sums due the ship captain or ship owner. Indeed their lot was often during its duration actu- ally harder than that of the negro slaves, for it was to the owner's interests to take care of his slaves, who were his all their lives, while the indentured servants remained with him for a few years only. There were consequently as many complaints there as in Pennsylvania.
We must not lose sight of the fact, however, that for many years these Redemptioners were almost exclusively of English and Irish birth. It was not so easy to deal with them as with foreigners. They sent their complaints to England, and measures were taken there to prevent the abuses complained of. The press even took up the refrain and the letters sent home appeared in the newspapers, ac-
8pm Markham
companied by warnings against entering into these con- tracts. It was not until the institution was in full career in Penn's province that it began there. The first Germans who reached Maryland in considerable numbers were such as migrated out of Pennsylvania. Lancaster county lay on the Maryland border, and the migrating instinct soon took them to Baltimore, Harford, Frederick and the western counties. As these people made themselves homes and be- came prosperous, they needed labor for their fields and naturally enough preferred their own countrymen. The
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Redemptioners in Maryland.
Newlanders, however, were just as willing to send their ship-loads of human freight to Baltimore as to Philadelphia, and it was not long before ships began to arrive in the former port even as they were doing at the latter.
While Pennsylvania, in 1765, at the instigation of the German Society newly formed in the State, passed laws for the protection of these immigrants, nothing of the kind was done in Maryland until a long time afterwards. The Maryland newspapers of the period teem with notices of the arrivals of immigrant ships and offerings for sale of the passengers, just as did those of Philadelphia. Here are a few examples :
From the Baltimore American, February 8, 1817- -
"GERMAN REDEMPTIONERS.
" The Dutch ship Jungfrau Johanna, Capt. H. H. Bleeker, has arrived off Annapolis, from Amsterdam with a number of passengers, principally farmers and me- chanics 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 Annapolis, to whom those who wish to supply themselves with good servants, will please apply ; also to Capt. Bleeker on board."
Two weeks later this appeared in the same paper :
" That a few entire families are still on board the Johanna to be hired."
Here is another :
"FOR SALE OR HIRE.
" A German Redemptioner, for the term of two years.
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He is a stout, healthy man, and well acquainted with farm- ing, wagon driving and the management of horses. For further particulars apply to
"C. R. GREEN, Auctioneer."
Redemptioners.
THERE ftill remain on board the fhip Aurora, fram Amflerdam, about 18 paffengers, amongi whom are,
Servant girls, gardeners, butchers, mafons, fagar bakers, bread bakers, 1 fhoemaker, i.filver fmich, I icather dreffer, 1 tobacconitt, I pafhry cook, and fome a little acquainted with waiting on families, as well as farming and tending borfes, &c. They are all in good health. Any perfon, defirous of being accommodated in the above branch es will pleafe Speedily to apply to
Captain JOHN .BOWLES, in the fiream, off Feil's.Point:, Who offers for Sale, 80 Tren-bound Water Calks 1 cheft elegant Fewling Pieces, fagle and dou- ble barrelkd 15,000 Dutch Brick, and Sundry fhips Proviffons. July 14 .. dat:eget
SHIPMASTER'S ADVERTISEMENT OF REDEMPTIONERS.
On April 1Ith we have this :
"GERMAN REDEMPTIONER-$30 REWARD. ·
"Absconded from the Subscriber on Sunday, the 5th inst., a German Redemptioner, who arrived here in November last, by name 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 making of brushes. He is a good German scholar, understands
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Price of a German Boy.
French and Latin, an excel- lent workman, speaks Eng- lish imperfectly. $30 Re- ward if lodged in jail.
" Jos. M. Stapleton, " Brush Maker,
"139 Baltimore Street."
On March 3d a reward is offered for the capture of a German Redemptioner, a tailor who took French leave from Washington.
On March IIth a reward of $30 is offered for the capture of a German Re- demptioner, a bricklayer.
As late as April 7th of the same year, 1817, I find our old friend, the Johanna, which, arriving on Febru- ary 8th, had not yet dis- posed of her living cargo, as the following advertisement shows :
" GERMAN REDEMPTION- ERS.
"The Dutch ship Johan- . na, Captain H. H. Bleeker, has arrived before this City, and lies now in the cove of Wiegman's Wharf; there are on board, desirous of
In Jawrance
Rice Phil. Some 10 1757
own) Les Shillings of two pence iface for.
Carles & Alex Hedman
a Oneth Boye loni pon
TTO: 6:2
THE PRICE OF A "DUTCH BOYE."
W
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binding themselves, for their passage, the following single men : Two capital blacksmiths, a rope maker, 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 stonemason, a miller, a baker, a sugar baker, farmers and other professions, etc."
Two months in port and not all sold yet !
One more extract from the Baltimore American and I am done. It is this, in the issue of February 7, 1817, a winter of extraordinary severity in that latitude :
" A ship with upward of 300 German men, women and children has arrived off Annapolis, where she is detained by ice. These people have been fifteen weeks on board and are short of provisions. Upon making the Capes, their bedding having become filthy, was thrown overboard. They are now actually perishing from the cold and want of provisions."
No bedding, few provisions, with the thermometer rang- ing from five degrees above to four below zero. Surely the Maryland Redemptioner was tasting all the miseries of servitude, as his Pennsylvania brother had done for three-quarters of a century previously.
In answer to a strong newspaper appeal made by a German descendant, a meeting of Germans and descend- ants of Germans was called on February 13, 1817, to form a society to protect and assist, so far as was possible, the German immigrants. That action resulted in the forma- tion of the German Society of Maryland. The member- ship was composed of the best and most prominent men in the State, and it at once went to work with an energy and determination that promised good results. The captain of the Johanna was prosecuted for illegal practices and for appropriating to his own use the effects of dead passengers. The sick on board were sent to hospitals.
THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY.
Shu Gran
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The German Society of Maryland.
In 1818 the Society was instrumental in securing the passage of an act by the Maryland Assembly consisting of numerous sections in which provision was made to do away with the evils which had hitherto prevailed in the importation, sale and treatment of Redemptioners of Ger- man and Swiss ancestry. Every one of the disgraceful practices which formerly obtained was done away with. The Society took care that this excellent law was strictly enforced and in a few years the bringing over of Redemp- tioners became so unprofitable that the very name disap- peared from the records. Upon one occasion-it was in March, 1819-a ship, the Vrouw Elizabeth, reached Balti- more with a number of immigrants, who before embarking had subscribed to the usual conditions. But when they reached this country, they refused to comply with their agreements. The officers of the Society refused to coun- tenance this action and wrote them a letter in which they said that as the Captain of the ship had treated them with the utmost kindness, they must comply with their con- tracts and that the Society would not countenance their attempt to evade their honest obligations. Herein the So- ciety manifested its desire to deal fairly with Shipmasters as well as with the poor people they brought over. 161
It deserves to be stated that, in addition to the large num- ber of Germans who went to Maryland from Pennsylvania, there was also considerable immigration into that State through the port of Annapolis. From the entries at that city we learn the fact that from 1752 to 1755, 1,060 Ger- man immigrants arrived there ; in 1752, 150 ; in 1753, 460 ; and in 1755, 450. They are spoken of as Palatines. 162
161 I desire to express my acknowledgment for many of the foregoing facts relating to the Redemptioners of Maryland, to the excellent little work of LOUIS P. HENNIGHAUSEN, Esq., to which I have already referred.
162 Publications of the Society for the History of the Germans in Mary- land, for 1890-1891, pp. 18-19.
Tira
1
Blue Anchor Tavern
Smil
the Best front on Front Street
the south front
THE BLUE ANCHOR TAVERN. 163
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The Pennsylvania- German Society.
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Condition of Redemptioners in Maryland.
" No public records were kept of the contracts entered into abroad by the Redemptioners (of Maryland) nor of the time of the expiration of their service. The Redemptioners were not furnished with duplicates of their contracts. They could be, and sometimes were, mortgaged, hired out for a shorter period, sold and transferred like chattel by their masters. (Maryland Archives, 1637-50, pp. 132-486.) The Redemptioners, belonging to the poor and most of them to the ignorant class, it is apparent that under these circumstances were at a great disadvantage against rapa- cious masters, who kept them in servitude after the expira- tion of their true contract 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 communities. He was in many respects treated like the black slave. He could neither purchase nor sell anything without the permission of the master. If
163 One of the historical buildings of early Philadelphia was "The Blue Anchor Tavern." It was built at the confluence of Dock Creek with the Dela- ware. This creek was formed by several springs leading out of the swampy ground near its mouth. The tavern was built by George Griest. It stood on what is now the southwest corner of South and Ninth streets. The river bank in front of it was low and sandy and elsewhere high and precipitous. Penn left the ship Welcome on which he had come over, at Upland, now Chester, and came up the river in a boat, landing at "The Blue Anchor." Tradition as- signs to it the honor of being the first house built in Philadelphia. It was small in size, having fronts on both Front and Dock streets, with ceilings 81% feet high. While it looked like a brick house it in reality was framed of wood with bricks filled in. The tavern, from its favored locality, was a noted place for business. All small vessels made their landing there. There was a public ferry across Dock Creek at the tavern, Dock Creek being then navigable for small craft. Griest, the first landlord, was a Quaker, as were his successors, Reese Price, Peter Howard and Benjamin Humphries. Proud says the house was not quite finished at the time of Penn's arrival in November, 1682. Later the tavern went by the name of "The Boatswain and Call." It was torn down in 1828. (See WATSON'S Annals of Philadelphia.)
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caught ten miles away from home, without the written per- mission of his master, he was liable to be taken up as a run- away 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 Indians 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 a right to whip his Re- demptioner for any real or imaginary offense, which must have been a very difficult matter to determine, for offenses may be multiplied. The laws also provided for his pro- tection. For excessively cruel punishment the master could 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." 164
THE SYSTEM IN NEW YORK.
New York had a similar system, although, owing to the fact that the many large landed estates owned by the Pa- troons, were worked by free tenant farmers, the number of white indentured servants was not nearly so great as in Pennsylvania. The character of this labor was, however, the same as in Pennsylvania and Maryland. They con- sisted of convicts sent from England and Ireland, of the miserably poor who were kidnapped and sold into servi- tude, and of Redemptioners who were disposed of on their arrival, as in Pennsylvania, to pay the cost of transporta- tion and other expenses. 165 It is elsewhere stated in these
164 LOUIS P. HENNIGHAUSEN, The Redemptioners, pp. 5-6.
165 See JOHN FISKE'S Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, Vol. II., p. 286.
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Al a Council as the Court House, Saturday the Eighth of September 1753- Present
Joshua. Maddox Esquire.
The Foreigners whose , names are underveston . imported in the ship " michael, Thomas Ellis Commander from Hamburgh bit lass from lowes did this day wake the usual. Qualifications. NOG2
sharm Benedictus Breiten feld friaring gning Cza-12.
Andereas + Liminer formen in Günß
fruk Jarred Rofon John Henry + Ratifer J. Henry + gootjar Kofman Gorja of Morgon Hans Harry + Fete Johanne Erich Reicher
Johan: Harry x Sager Cription seifen till
9. George X Saxe Johannes Friedrich + Ranking.
Willhelm + Latimk Christian + Latinck .) Harry + JegoPing Lorentz × Schlüter I. friederich × utter .3. Aridereus + Voigt J. Christoph + Warmken. & Henry to krape Coro Henry × Sonter 9. Deter x mill borg (Las Coffen X. Kröger 3. Cristian & Heji. Michael × kind JoJan Daniel Slave
finommo Einfluss Como) & Cirkler Zuidewig fink Töpper H. Christoph + gall
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pages that many of the children of parents who died on the ten ships that brought over the more than three thou- sand Germans to New York in 1710, were bound out to ser- vitude by the Government authorities.
The State of New York also legislated on this perplex- ing question, as may be seen by the following :
"AND WHEREAS, the emigration of poor persons from Europe hath greatly conduced to the settlement of this State, while a Colony ; AND WHEREAS, doubts have arisen tending to the discouragement of further importations of such poor persons ;- therefore be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid that every contract already made or hereafter to be made by any infant or other person coming from beyond the sea, executed in the presence of two wit- nesses and acknowledged by the servant, before any Mayor, Recorder, Alderman or Justice of the Peace, shall bind the party entering into the same, for such term and for such services as shall be therein specified : And that every assignment of the same executed before two credible witnesses shall be effectual to transfer the same contract for the residue of the term therein mentioned. But that no contract shall bind any infant longer than his or her ar- rival to the full age of twenty-one years; excepting such as are or shall be bound in order to raise money for the . payment of their passages, who may be bound until the age of twenty-four years, provided the term of such service shall not exceed four years in the whole." 166
THE TRAFFIC IN VIRGINIA.
The early Virginia colonists were a class, who came not to work themselves, but to live on the labor of others.
166 New York Laws, Chapter 15. "An act concerning apprentices and Ser- vants." Passed February 6, 1788.
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Redemptioner Life in Virginia.
This required the aid of servile labor. Negro labor was at first resorted to. That was in 1619, but as the demand was greater than the supply, other sources had to be found. Convicted criminals were sent from the mother country in large numbers. But other means were also resorted to. Men, boys and girls were kidnapped in the streets of Lon- don, hurried on ship-board and sent to the new colony, where they were indentured as servants for a term of years. The usual term of service was four years but this was only too frequently prolonged beyond that period for trivial of- fenses. Fiske says " their lives were in theory protected by law, but when an indentured servant came to his death from prolonged ill usage or from excessive punishment, or even from sudden violence, it was not easy to get a verdict against the master. In those days of frequent flogging, the lash was inflicted upon the indentured servant with scarcely less compunction than upon the purchased slave."167 But the majority of the indentured white servants of Vir- ginia, like those of Pennsylvania, were honest, well- behaved persons, who like the latter sold themselves into temporary servitude to pay the charges of transportation. The purchaser paid the ship master with the then coin of the colony, tobacco, and received his servant. There as in Pennsylvania they were known as Redemptioners, and like those in this State numbered many of excellent char- acter. There was no let up in this importation of convicts and servants until it was terminated by the Revolutionary War. It has been variously estimated that the number of involuntary immigrants sent to America from Great Britain between 1717 and 1775 was 10,000 and during the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries 50,000. 168 Probably a ma-
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