USA > Pennsylvania > Progressive Pennsylvania; a record of the remarkable industrial development of the Keystone state, with some account of its early and its later transportation systems, its early settlers, and its prominent men > Part 5
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It appears, therefore, that, while the term Pennsylva- nia Dutch is now a misnomer, it was not so originally and had ample reason for its existence. In our country we
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now invariably hear of Germany and not of Deutschland. But "use doth breed a habit in a man," and we shall probably hear of the Pennsylvania Dutch for many years to come. We shall certainly hear the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect spoken in many Pennsylvania counties. There are to-day hundreds of communities in Pennsylvania in which this dialect is habitually spoken to the exclusion of Eng- lish. It is really a corruption of the original Platt-Deutsch, as it contains many English words and some words of French and other origin. Very little Pennsylvania Dutch literature is now published, although a generation or two ago some notable publications in Pennsylvania were printed in this dialect, and a few columns in country newspapers are still so printed. The pamphlet laws of Pennsylvania were once printed in German for the use of justices of the peace and other officials whose mother tongue was Pennsylvania Dutch. The people called Penn- sylvania Dutch and the dialect they speak are not, how- ever, confined to Pennsylvania. This State has sent many thousands of its Mennonites and Dunkards to Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa, and they have taken their South German dialect with them and held on to it.
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REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS.
CHAPTER IV.
REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS.
THERE were two classes of white bonded servants who came to Pennsylvania and other colonies, and to Pennsylvania down to the first decades of the nineteenth century,-redemptioners and indentured servants. The first class, by far the most numerous, was chiefly com- posed of Protestant emigrants from Germany and other European countries who were glad to escape from religi- ous persecution or unfavorable social conditions but who were too poor to pay their passage across the ocean, and hence agreed with the masters of the vessels in which they sailed or with speculators, sometimes called Newlanders, that their personal services were to be sold at the end of the voyage for such periods as would yield sufficient sums to pay the cost of their passage, usually from three to five years for adults, and children for longer periods-often until they were twenty-one years old. The other class, never numerous, was composed of men and women who emigrated from the British Isles and the Continent un- der conditions which were the same in effect if not in de- tail as those which applied to the redemptioners, the dif- ference being that those belonging to the indentured class obligated themselves before sailing to serve employers in the colonies for specified periods, these employers or their agents paying the cost of passage of these servants. Dif- fenderffer and other historians make little distinction be- tween these two classes of indentured or bonded servants. The laws of Pennsylvania recognized both conditions of servitude and imposed penalties for violation of contracts, either by servants or by their masters. Washington pur- chased the services of redemptioners.
Diffenderffer has found no mention of redemptioners in Pennsylvania statistics relating to servants, but this class was given this name in cotemporaneous literature as well as colloquially. A few years ago a distinguished
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Representative in Congress from Pennsylvania, in deliver- ing a eulogy in the House upon the life and public servi- ces of another distinguished Representative from the same State who had recently died, referred to his colleague as the son of a redemptioner. Pennsylvania received more redemptioners than any other colony because Penn had made special efforts to attract attention to his province, and because his promise of both civil and religious liberty strongly appealed to those who possessed neither the one nor the other. As Germany, Switzerland, and France were torn with religious and political dissensions it naturally happened that these countries sent many redemptioners to Pennsylvania, as did also England, Scotland, and Ire- land. They were called redemptioners because, after they had been sold into temporary slavery, they could regain, or redeem, their freedom with money contributed by their friends or accumulated by their own efforts. The selling of immigrants to pay the cost of their passage came_to an end in Pennsylvania about 1831.
It is probably true that a majority of the immigrants who came to Pennsylvania in colonial days as redemp- tioners and indentured servants were farmers or farm la- borers, who soon aided materially to make this province the leader in agriculture among all the colonies, but it is worthy of special notice that many others of these classes were skilled workmen in the various handicrafts of that time. This fact is made plain by the following advertise- ments which are reproduced by Diffenderffer from Phila- delphia newspapers, with many others of similar character. They also prove that many redemptioners came from Eng- land, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as from the Continent.
From The American Weekly Mercury, November 7, 1728 : "Just arrived from London, in the ship Borden, William Harbert, Commander, a parcel of young likely men-servants, consisting of Husbandmen, Joyners, Shoemakers, Weavers, Smiths, Brick-makers, Bricklayers, Sawyers, Taylers, Stay- makers, Butchers, Chair-makers, and several other trades, and are to be sold very reasonable either for ready money, wheat Bread, or Flour, by Edward Hoone, in Philadel- phia." From The American Weekly Mercury, February 18,
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1729 : "Lately arrived from London, a parcel of very likely English Servants, men and women, several of the men Tradesmen ; to be sold reasonable and Time allowed for payment. By Charles Read of Philadelphia, or Capt. John Ball, on board his ship, at Anthony Milkinson's Wharf." From The American Weekly Mercury, May 22, 1729 : "There is just arrived from Scotland a parcel of choice Scotch Servants ; Taylors, Weavers, Shoemakers, and ploughmen, some for five and others for seven years : Imported by James Coults, they are on board a sloop lying opposite to the Market Street Wharf, where there is a boat constantly attending to carry any one on board that wants to see them." From The American Weekly Mercury, May 22, 1729 : "Just arrived from London in the ship Providence, Capt. Jonathan Clarke, a parcel of very likely servants, most Tradesmen, to be sold on reasonable Terms; the ship now lies at Mr. Lawrence's Wharf, where either the Master or the said Lawrence are to be spoke with."
From The Pennsylvania Berichte, Philadelphia, August 16, 1756 : "A ship having arrived from Ireland with serv- ants, some artisans, those interested can call on Thomas Gardens, at Mr. Parnell's wharf, or on the Captain, Na- thanael Ambler, on the ship. They are Irish." From The Pennsylvania Staatsbote, November 9, 1764 : " To-day the ship Boston, Captain Mathew Carr, arrived from Rotter- dam, with several hundred Germans. Among them are all kinds of mechanics, day laborers, and young people, men as well as women, and boys and girls. All those who de- sire to procure such servants are requested to call on David Rundle, on Front Street." From The Pennsylvania Staats- bote, January 18, 1774 : " There are still 50 or 60 German persons newly arrived from Germany. They can be found with the widow Kriderin, at the sign of the Golden Swan. Among them are two Schoolmasters, Mechanics, Farmers, also young children as well as boys and girls. They are desirous of serving for their passage money."
In the New England Magazine for October, 1896, Lewis R. Harley gives the following illustrations of the sale of re- demptioners in Pennsylvania, even in Revolutionary times. " Many of the Philadelphia papers contained advertise-
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ments like the following: 'Just arrived in the ship Sally from Amsterdam a number of German men, women, and children redemptioners. Their times will be disposed of on reasonable terms by the Captain on board, lying near Race Street wharf.' One in the Pennsylvania Messenger, April 4, 1776, offers for sale : 'A young girl and maid servant, strong and healthy ; no fault. She is not qualified for the service now demanded. Five years to serve.' The same paper, on January 18, 1777, contains the following notice : 'Germans-we are now offering fifty Germans just ar- rived-to be seen at the Golden Swan, kept by the wid- ow Kreider. The lot includes schoolmasters, artisans, peas- ants, boys and girls of various ages, all to serve for pay- ment of passage.' As late as September, 1786, the follow- ing advertisement appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette : 'To be sold. (For ready money only.) A German woman serv- ant. She has near three years to serve, is well qualified for all household work ; would recommend her to her own country people particularly, as her present master has found great inconvenience from his not being acquainted with their manners, customs, and language. For further particulars inquire at Mr. Ormsby's in Pittsburg.'"'
The Philadelphia newspapers of the colonial period published rewards for the apprehension of many redemp- tioners and other bonded servants who had left the serv- ice of their masters without leave. As an illustration of another class of advertisements of that day we copy the following from Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet, published at Philadelphia on July 8, 1776, and containing the text of the Declaration of Independence : " June 17, 1776. Now in the gaol of Newcastle the following runaway servants, viz. John Jacob Plowman, who confesses himself to be an indented servant to a certain James Porter, but can not tell where his master lives, as he talks the German dia- lect. John Langley, about nineteen years of age, who says he belongs to Nathan Shephard, of Cumberland county, West Jersey. Their masters are requested to come and take them away in three weeks from the date hereof, oth- erwise they will be discharged according to law. Thomas Clark, Gaoler."
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REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS.
Schoolmasters frequently came over as redemptioners. In the New England Magazine for June, 1903, Annie Net- tleton Bourne mentions that the Reverend John Christo- pher Kunze writes from Philadelphia on May 16, 1773, of a student who had been at the University of Halle and who wanted to start a Latin school in the city. This young man, Herr Leps, said to Mr. Kunze : "If I could only raise twenty pounds I would buy the first German student who lands here and owes for his passage, put him in my upper room and begin my Latin school, teaching myself and having the servant teach, and so from the fees get my money back."
Colonel R. A. Brock, the accomplished Virginia anti- quarian, says that many of the early schoolmasters of the Virginia colony were indentured servants in the families of the planters, which is additional evidence to that already presented to show that many of the immigrants in colo- nial times who could not pay their passage were above the rank of farm servants. He also says that an act was passed by the British Parliament in 1663 under which the " Moss Troopers of Cumberland and Northumberland, " Cromwell- ian soldiers, were sent to Virginia, where they gave trouble to the authorities. Other writers submit abundant proofs that the British Government in colonial days sent large numbers of convicts and other objectionable persons to the colonies, notwithstanding repeated protests in legal enact- ments by Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Bolles says of Pennsylvania : "As early as 1682 the Provincial Council took steps to prevent the importation of vaga- bonds and felons, the dregs of the British population who were cast by Great Britain on her colonies without the least regard for their feelings."
As has already been stated Washington purchased the services of redemptioners. In his diary, under the date of June 4, 1786, appears the following entry : "Received from on board the brig Ann, from Ireland, two Servant Men for whom I had agreed yesterday-viz .- Thomas Ryan a shoe- maker, and Caven Bon-a Taylor, Redemptioners for 3 years Service by Indenture if they could not pay, each, the sum of £12 Sterling which sums I agreed to pay."
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Most of the redemptioners who came to Pennsylvania in colonial times were Germans from the Rhine provinces and Switzerland ; the others were Huguenots and natives of the British Isles. The Germans from the Palatinate and other Rhine provinces who came to Pennsylvania before the great German exodus in 1717 were, as a rule, able to pay the cost of their passage and provide homes for their families. About 1717 began the immigration of Palatine and other redemptioners. At this period the great ma- jority of the immigrants from the Rhine provinces had been much impoverished by the wars and persecutions of that bloody period and had lost everything but their faith. Diffenderffer, who has made a more thorough study of this subject than any other writer, says that in The American Weekly Mercury for September 1, 1720, he had found the earliest record of any ships carrying Palatines. The Mer- cury was the first newspaper to be published in Pennsyl- vania and it did not appear until 1719. On the above date it said : "On the 30 (arrived) the ship Laurel, John Coppel, from Liverpool and Cork, with 240 odd Palatinate Passengers come here to settle." These passengers are not mentioned as redemptioners. The same author also says that "the first public notice of the redemptioner traffic" that had come under his notice he had found in an adver- tisement published in the Mercury in 1722, as follows : " Thomas Denham to his good country friends adviseth : That he has some likely servants to dispose of. One hun- dred Palatines for five years, at £10 a head." After this year many thousands of redemptioners from the Rhine countries and from Great Britain came to Pennsylvania, "great floods of Palatines" coming in some years. After the Revolution their number greatly declined. The total number of redemptioners who came to Pennsylvania is not a matter of record but it was very large.
In the days when redemptioners and other immigrants came to Pennsylvania and other colonies it required great courage to attempt a long voyage, even under the most favorable circumstances, and many who had been tempt- ed to leave the wretched conditions from which they had been promised relief bitterly regretted the step they had
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REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS.
taken. Herded together like cattle in unsanitary ships, which were devoid of every comfort and were often com- manded by rapacious captains, whose cruelty to their help- less victims was equaled only by that of the owners of African slavers ; with insufficient food, often of the mean- est quality ; they became an easy prey to malignant dis- eases and during the long weary voyages many died and were buried at sea. It is amazing that the oppressed people of those days should have possessed the courage to brave the hardships and privations of a long voyage, at the end of which many of them were to voluntarily enter into a state of bondage like that of negro slavery itself. The lot of all these in the land of their birth must have been hard indeed to drive them to a new country under such unfavorable and distressing conditions as those we have briefly described and in the frail ships of that day.
Hessian prisoners of war, captured by the Continental army, were sold into slavery for specified periods by au- thority of the Continental Congress. For this disposition of prisoners Congress followed the example of England, which had sold many Scotch, Irish, and even rebellious English prisoners, who were sent to the colonies and there resold. Many of the Hessian prisoners were disposed of in Pennsylvania, as the following details will show.
After Elizabeth furnace, in Lancaster county, came into the possession of Robert Coleman in 1776 he cast shot and shells and cannon for the Continental army. On No- vember 16, 1782, appears the following entry to the credit of Congress in one of Mr. Coleman's account books : " By cash, being the value of forty-two German prisoners of war, at £30 each, £1,260 ;" and on June 14, 1783, the follow- ing: "By cash, being the value of twenty-eight German prisoners of war, at £30 each, £840." In a foot-note to these credits Mr. Coleman certifies "on honour" that the above seventy prisoners were all that were ever secured by him, one of whom being returned is to be deducted when he produces the proper voucher. Rupp, in his history of Lancaster county, mentions that in 1843 he vis- ited one of the Hessian "mercenaries" who was disposed of in this manner at the close of the war for the sum of
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$80, for the term of three years, to Captain Jacob Zim- merman, of that county.
There is additional proof of the sale of Hessian prison- ers of war by the Continental Congress. Charming forge, in Berks county, which was built in 1749, was bought in 1774 by George Ege. About 1777 Mr. Ege purchased from Congress the services of thirty-four Hessian prisoners, for the purpose of cutting a channel through a bed of rock to supply with water power a slitting mill which he had pre- viously erected. This noted mill-race was one hundred yards long, from twelve to twenty feet deep, and about twenty feet wide. It was cut through a mass of solid slate rock as smoothly as if done with a broadaxe. It was in use until 1887, one hundred and ten years.
Diffenderffer has observed that the German population of Pennsylvania was largely increased by the addition of almost five thousand German (Hessian) soldiers, who de- serted from the British army at the close of the Revolution and remained in the State and "scattered among their countrymen throughout Pennsylvania." The opprobrious name of "Hessian mercenaries" has preserved to the pres- ent time the infamy of George the Third in hiring from more infamous German princes about 30,000 of their poor subjects to make war upon his own countrymen in the American colonies. The enslaved Germans who were hired to the British king were in no sense to blame, but rather to be greatly pitied for the part they unwillingly played in our Revolutionary struggle. That many of them con- cluded to remain in Pennsylvania and settle among their countrymen is of itself sufficient evidence of their own love of liberty and of their detestation of the conduct of the princes by whom they had been held in bondage. Diffen- derffer says that the exact number of the Germans who were sent to America as soldiers of George the Third was 29,867, of whom 17,313 returned to Europe in the autumn of 1783, leaving 12,554 who did not return, divided as fol- lows : killed and died of wounds, 1,200; died of illness and accidents, 6,354; deserted, 5,000, of whom nearly all set- tled in Pennsylvania. They were called Hessians because they came from the Hessian States of Germany.
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A letter from Mr. Diffenderffer gives us the following additional details : "The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel sent in all 16,992 men, more than one-half of the entire num- ber that came over. The Landgrave made the best bar- gain with England of all the German Princes. He got £7 4s. 4}d. for every man and an annual subsidy of £108,- 281 5s., the same to be continued for one year after the return of the soldiers. In addition he insisted on being paid an old claim arising out of the Seven Years War, but which England had disallowed up to that time; it amounted to £41,820 14s. 5d. He was the worst of the lot."
Imprisonment for debt was another form of slavery which prevailed in Pennsylvania until 1842, when it was abolished. It was, of course, a relic of barbarism, but the student of history can not overlook the fact that it ex- isted in Pennsylvania until the first half of the nineteenth century was nearing its close, as did also the barbarous punishment of solitary confinement for criminals as Dick- ens found it in 1842 in the eastern penitentiary of Penn- sylvania and described it in his American Notes. In 1705 an act of the General Assembly was passed which provid- ed for the sale of debtors into slavery for specified periods. This act was not repealed until March 20, 1810, one hun- dred and five years after its passage. Under this act, says Bolles, "if a debtor had no estate he was compelled to make satisfaction by a period of service, not exceeding seven years if he were single and under the age of fifty- three or five years if he were married and under the age of forty-six." Convicted criminals were also sold into tem- porary slavery. Bolles gives one instance of the operation of this law : " On one occasion a man in Lancaster county stole £14 7s. He received twenty-one lashes and was then sold for £16 to a farmer for a term of six years."
There was another class of white servants in Pennsyl- vania in colonial days and long afterwards which deserves mention. These were servants indentured to learn trades or to render personal service. They were correctly called servants, because they were not their own masters dur- ing the terms of their apprenticeship and could be appre- hended if they ran away. In proportion to the total pop-
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ulation of the province their numbers were very large. The long periods for which some of these servants were indentured is surprising.
It was a common occurrence, sanctioned by law, for the original purchasers of the services of the redemption- ers and of other indentured servants to sell the unexpired time of these servants to others. We give a few examples of these transfers of ownership, which we copy from a very long " account of servants bound and assigned be- fore James Hamilton, Mayor of Philadelphia," in 1745, to be found in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Bi- ography for 1907. " Elizabeth Hoy assignes Mary Parker to William Morris of the County of Chester for the re- mainder of her time two years and a half from Nov. 29th, 1745-Consideration £8. Edward Cathrall assigns Adam Stoles his servant to Hugh Roberts of Phila. for the re- mainder of his time for thirteen years from Feb. 12th, 1738. Consideration £20: customary dues. George Okill assigns Margaret Hackabuck to Thomas Lacey, of New Jersey, for the remainder of her time eight years from Nov. 3rd, 1743. Consideration £14: customary dues. Abigail Petro assigns Mary Murray to William White of Kent Co. for the remainder of her time, four years from April 10th, 1745. Consideration £13: customary dues."
The same "account of servants bound and assigned" from which we have above quoted contains these illus- trations of the apprenticeship system in colonial days :
" Phillis Harwood, in consideration of £2: 3:8 paid Joseph Scull and sundry other small sums of money paid for her use and at her request by Allmer Grevile, indents herself a servant to said Grevile for four years from this date, customary dues. William Musgrove, Jr., by consent of his father Wm. Musgrove, indents himself a servant to Aylmer Grevile, of Phila., for five years from this date ; is to be taught to read, write, and cypher, and at the end of his time is to have five pounds in money and a new suit of clothes. Jonathan Hurst, Jr., by consent of his mother Anne Hutchins, indents himself apprentice to James Gottier, of Phila., cooper, for eight years from this date, to have six months day schooling and six months
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REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS.
evening schooling to learn to read, write, and cipher, to be taught the trade of cooper, and at the end of his time to have two suits of apparel, one of which is to be new. John Warner, son of John Warner, with consent of his father, indents himself apprentice to John Peel, mariner, for six years from April 29th, 1746, to be taught the art or mystery of a mariner, and at the end of his time to have two suits of apparel, one whereof to be new. Maria Rody, with consent of her mother-in-law, Catherine Rody, and in consideration of £7, paid said Catharine by Nicho- las Crone of Bucks county, indents herself servant to said Nicholas for seven years and a half from this date, to have customary dues. Nathaniel Falkner indents himself apprentice to Joseph Rivers, of Phila., mariner, for seven years from this date, to be taught the art of navigation, and at the end of the time to have one new suit of ap- parel. James Kelly, with the consent of his father Ed- ward Kelly, indents himself apprentice to Joseph Saull of Phila., chairmaker, for eight years and seven months from May 21st, 1746, to be taught the trade of a chairmaker and spinning-wheel maker, and to read, write, and cipher."
It is very apparent from a survey of all the facts that have been presented in this chapter that the re- demptioners and others in Penn's province who were born to poverty were not as free men and women as colonial traditions would lead us to believe, nor did they possess the ordinary comforts of life as poor people do in our day. Whatever may be said of the ideal life of our co- lonial ancestors it was very far from being an illustra- tion of the proposition that "all men are created equal."
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