USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > The German immigration into Pennsylvania through the port of Philadelphia from 1700 to 1775 : part II: The Redemptioners > Part 10
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of The country artbook of Sawny al le well known, runs more to ContDy tas eramedha. 5 Gramas immigrants brought their old- wid building idess with Uvezo. The result is there are to-day many substan- Ge Aws Actores, dwelling howws and barns standing all over the earliest - - mums of the State, whose well-laid walls have bid defiance to the i + ielury and a half, and even more, and are to-day in such a state of --- - ja paise another century or two of life. So far as is known aminty, the structure shown on the opposite page is the oldest house wodhuy, erected in Lancaster county. The legend 17 C. H -H. R. 19 a sadstone forming part of the wall, tells the story of its building . lu 1119, by the Rev. Christian Herr, a minister of the Mennonite Ablo the country from the Palatinate, in 1709. The hanne Viih of Lancaster city.
MONAT CALZE OLAH NOLIVUOILILLI NWWAGO
The OLDEST HOUSE IN LANCASTER COUNTY.
THE CHRISTIAN HERR, BUILT 1719.
I35
Other Nationalities have Disappeared.
Although the foregoing evidence abundantly disproves the absurd statement that the German colonists found less enjoyment in agriculture than other nationalities, the panel of witnesses is by no means exhausted and the testimony could be expanded into a volume. Most of it is from con- temporaneous sources and deals with the question as it stood one hundred or one hundred and fifty years ago. Let us turn from that long-gone time and look at the situa- tion as we find it at this very hour.
I invite the reader to accompany me for a brief interval to Lancaster county, as typical a Pennsylvania region to- day as it was one hundred and fifty years ago. Its earliest settlers were Germans and Swiss Huguenots. They were agriculturists. They bought lands, settled on them, farmed them, and their descendants in the fourth and fifth genera- tions are engaged in the same enjoyable pursuit to-day. Other men also came into the county : Quakers, Scotch- Irish and Welsh, but to-day nineteen twentieths of the more than 10,000 farms in the county are owned and cultivated by the descendants of the early German settlers. The town- ships of East and West Donegal, Conoy, Mt. Joy and por- tions of West Hempfield were settled almost exclusively by the Scotch-Irish. To-day there is not a single farm in
84 The country architecture of Germany as is well known, runs more to durability than ornamentation. The German immigrants brought their old- world building ideas with them. The result is there are to-day many substan- tial stone structures, dwelling houses and barns standing all over the earliest settled portions of the State, whose well-laid walls have bid defiance to the storms of a century and a half, and even more, and are to-day in such a state of preservation as to promise another century or two of life. So far as is known with certainty, the structure shown on the opposite page is the oldest house still standing, erected in Lancaster county. The legend 17 C. H .- H. R. 19, carved on a sandstone forming part of the wall, tells the story of its building It was erected in 1719, by the Rev. Christian Herr, a minister of the Mennonite church, who came into the country from the Palatinate, in 1709. The house stands several miles south of Lancaster city.
136
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
any of those districts owned and farmed by a Scotch-Irish- man ! In this instance at least, it was " the other fellow " and not the German farmer that did not find enjoyment in his vocation. In the townships of Fulton and Little Brit- ain the settlers were almost exclusively Scotch-Irish ; these have maintained themselves more stubbornly on the an- cestral acres, but in recent years an invasion of German farmers has been steadily encroaching on their ancient do- main, and the fate that has befallen the Donegals seems to be awaiting them also.
Let the man-or men, if there be more than one-who does not believe the German pioneers had pleasure, en- joyment and content on their broad acres, go into that same county of Lancaster and look the landscape over. He will find a territory of unsurpassed fertility-another evidence of the sound agricultural judgment of these peo- ple-yielding as abundantly to-day as when it was virgin, two centuries ago. It has enriched every gen- eration of those who have owned it. There have, of course, been some failures, but the record on the whole, stands unchallenged. Pride of own- ership went hand in hand with agri- cultural skill. The land was treated EARLY PENNSYLVANIA PRINTING PRESS. even as their cattle were, carefully and plentifully. The result is there are no deserted farms and ruined farmhouses, as may be seen all over New England. Even at the present depre- ciated prices for real estate, the farms still sell at $200 and more per acre. Look at the great barns in which their crops are stored and their cattle housed ! Large as they are they are generally inadequate to contain the farm prod-
137
The Homes of Comfort and Luxury.
ucts, and a dozen grain and hay ricks are built elsewhere on the farm until the grain can be threshed. Nor is the barn the only building besides the dwelling house, on the farm; sheds, stables, and other outhouses are scattered around until the farmer's home resembles a hamlet in itself. All the modern farm machinery, and that too of the best possible type, is there ; cunning devices of many kinds that rob labor of half its terrors.
The farmer's house is generally a model of a farmhouse. There are some that have all the best modern accessories- steam heat, gas, electric bells, cemented cellars, and simi- lar improvements. Within, there is not only comfort but luxury-fine furniture, pictures, costly carpets, imported crockery, generally an organ and often a piano. There are books, magazines and newspapers, and much else. The son, and often the sons, have their individual teams, and they use them too. No farmer's outfit in these days is complete without a fine vehicle or two. It may safely be said that there is no spot encompassed by the four seas that hem in this North American continent, nay, none be- neath the blue canopy that overspreads the entire earth, where the agriculturist is better educated, more intelligent in his calling, better fed and clothed and enjoys so many of the luxuries of life as the Lancaster county families in the year of grace, 1900. Go and look at him where he is ; sit at his table and see the fullness thereof, and you will then be able to give a fitting answer to the calumny, born of ignorance, that says the German colonists in Pennsyl- vania did not, and inferentially do not, find that enjoy- ment in agricultural pursuits as the races whose farms they have bought and now own and cultivate.
One paragraph more will be pardoned : the theme is an attractive one and I leave it with reluctance. To under-
I38
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
stand fully what these Germans have done for themselves and for the county of Lancaster a few figures may be in- troduced. Being official, and on record they will be ac- cepted. Lancaster county is not one of the large counties of the State or Nation, but it is the richest so far as its agri- cultural wealth and products are concerned of all the three thousand or more within all the States and Territories. For a quarter of a century it has stood at the head of them all in the money value of its agricultural products. The cen- sus of 1890 gives them at $7,657,790. Her nearest com- petitor does not come within a million and a half dollars of equalling it. The assessors' lists for 1899 give the value of her real estate, at the usual low estimate, at $86,796,064 and of her horses and cattle at $1,958,802. Her citizens report $20,802,634 at interest : the real amount is three times that sum. To give even a more condensed idea of what these farmers, who took such little enjoyment in their chosen pursuit, have done to make their county rich, it may be stated that there are at the present moment on this little area of 973 square miles, 26 National Banks, with an aggregate capital of $3,750,000, and deposits aggregating $7,000,000 ; also 3 Trust companies, with large assets, and 7 Building and Loan Associations, controlling large sums of money.
It is aggravating that it should be necessary at this late day to be compelled to enter into a discussion of this sub- ject. But we cannot forget that all the opprobrium and misrepresentation that has been cast upon the Germans of Pennsylvania has long been borne without a protest. The chief offenders during the present century are men who have had no intimate acquaintance with the characteristics of the men whom they falsely deride and abuse. New England has contributed even more than her quota to the
I39
Germans the Earliest Abolitionists.
number of these defamers. Their scurrilous falsehoods have so long gone unchallenged that some have accepted them as truths and reiterated them with all their original fervency. The day for that has gone. The faults and shortcomings of the German pioneers and their descendants were many and obvious. I do not seek to extenuate them in the slightest degree, but I do assert-and the authorities to prove it are legion-that with all their short- comings, they were the peers of any race of men that set its feet upon the Western Hemisphere, and that in every qualification that goes to the making of the highest class of citizenship, they stand at the very forefront to-day.
They brought with them none of the vindictive bigotry that burnt witches and swung Quakers from the scaffold. They at once made their own the doctrines of the broad- minded Penn, that religious and political tolerance were among the natural and inalienable rights of men. The subjects of kings and princes in Europe, they left king- craft behind them and proclaimed the evangel of free- dom in their new home. Let it not be forgotten through all the years, that these people, whom a few historians and a host of inconsequent minor scribblers have denounced and derided as indifferent boors, were nevertheless the first men on the continent of America to denounce the wrong of human slavery and petition for its abolition ; yea, a cen- tury before the sensitive soul of New England even took thought of the subject, while it was still selling Indians and Quakers into West Indian slavery and only forty years after the great celebrity of Massachusetts, Governor Win- throp, disposed of slaves in his will.
The age of the defamer has not gone by, and most prob- ably never will. Like the liar and the thief he will main- tain his footing among men even unto the end. The men
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The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
who have assailed the good name of the German immi- grants to Pennsylvania are, however, in a fair way to die out. The truth confronts their falsehoods at every stage and the latter are borne down in the contest. Even now their numbers are growing fewer and their idle gossip no longer receives credence as history. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the greatest and grandest of all the mem- bers in the Brotherhood of States, confronts them and con- futes their idle tattle, born of misapprehension and igno- rance, and here I may safely leave them.
AY . PENS
DIEV . ET .MONA DROITS
ARMS OF GREAT BRITAIN.
The Redemptioners.
CHAPTER I.
WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE .- A CONDITION BORN OF NE- CESSITY BEYOND THE SEA AND TRANSFERRED TO AMERICA. - THE SEVERAL KINDS OF BOND SERVANTS .- A STRIKING FEATURE IN THE HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
" Haz gala, Sancho, de la humilidad de tu linage, y no te desprecies de decir que vienes de labradores ; por que viendo que no te corres, ninguno se pondrá a correrte."
"Und wenn wir dankbar auch ermessen, Was uns das neue Heim beschied, So können wir doch nie Vergessen Der alten Heimath, Wort und Lied."
T HE history of the Germanic im- migration to the Province of Pennsylvania naturally divides itself into two well-defined parts or chap- ters. Of one of these, dealing with the arrival and dispersion of these people, I have endeavored to write with that fullness and exactitude which the importance of the sub- ject deserves, in the earlier part of this work. The other, which re- mains to be taken up, will deal with that portion of these people whose means were scant even at the outset of their journey, and wholly inadequate to (143)
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144
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
bear the strain of a long and tedious sea voyage. Who arrived virtually penniless and dependent; who had not been able to pay for their passage across the ocean, and who, upon their arrival, were compelled to barter or sell their personal services for a stated period of time, at a stipulated price, and under prescribed legal regulations, to such of their fellowmen as stood in need of their labor, and who were willing to discharge the debts they had been compelled to incur through their desire to reach this prom- ised land, this modern Eden, a new Canaan in a new world.
The inflowing tide of German immigrants to the Prov- ince of Pennsylvania, through the port of Philadelphia, is not secondary in importance to the coming of William Penn himself and the establishment of his Government on the banks of the Delaware. Considered in its historic bearings, it is not only one of the most noteworthy events associated with the colonization of America, but is besides invested with a more special interest, all its own, of which I shall attempt to give the more important details.
The first Germans to come to America, as colonists in Pennsylvania, were, as a rule, well to do. Nearly all of them in the beginning of that mighty exodus had sufficient means to pay all the charges incurred in going down the Rhine to the sea, and enough besides to meet the expenses for carrying them across the ocean, and yet have some left when they arrived to pay for part or all of the lands they took up.& The large tracts taken up by the colony at Ger- mantown and at Conestoga are all-sufficient evidences of this. And this continued to be the rule until about 1717,86
85 FRANZ LÖHER, Geschichte und Zuständen der Deutschen in America, p. 80.
86 Also RUPP.
145
Pennsylvania the Land of Promise.
and perhaps later, when the great exodus from the Palati- nate set in. Then the real race to reach the New World began. The poorer classes had not been unobservant of what was going on. If America was a place where the rich could become richer still, surely it must be a place where the poor also might better themselves. At all events, nothing could be lost by going, because they had the merest pittance to begin with. Besides, all the accounts were favorable. Those already in Pennsylvania sent back glowing descriptions of the ease with which land could be acquired, the productiveness of the soil, the abundance of food, the freedom from taxation and the equality of all men before the law to their natural rights and their religious creeds.
Such arguments were irresistible to men whose fathers and themselves had felt all the pangs that poverty, perse- cution and wrong can bring upon the citizen. The desire to flee from the land of oppression to the land of promise became paramount, and to attain their wish, no hardship was too great, no sacrifice too costly. Unable to raise the sum necessary to bring them here, they sold their few meager belongings, and with the proceeds were enabled to reach a seaport. Once there, they found plenty of men ready to send them across the Atlantic. The terms were hard. They knew they would be, but long before they reached the western Patmos, the "Insel Pennsylvanien" as it was frequently written in those days, they often rea- lized what kind of a trap it was into which they had fallen. What they suffered on the voyage, how they were mal- treated, and how many of them died, forms perhaps the most pathetic picture in the history of American coloniza- tion, not excepting that drawn by Las Casas three hundred and fifty years ago, nor the later one limned in Longfel- low's Evangeline.
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I46 The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
The evidence concerning the manner in which this im- migration was aroused, fostered and carried on, is cumu- lative rather than diverse, and there is a close resemblance in the many narratives I have examined. It is true, the same series of facts presented themselves to every investi- gator and the result is a somewhat tedious sameness in the various accounts. Once the facts were put on record they became public property and the latest writer simply fol- lowed those who had preceded him. So graphic, how- ever, are some of these accounts that I have deemed it a matter of interest to give several of them, those of Mittel- berger, Pastor Muhlenberg and Christoph Saur at some length. Their testimony, coming from both sides of the ocean, and from men personally familiar with all the cir- cumstances they describe, has never been challenged and has accordingly become part and parcel of the history of German immigration into America.
The persons without means, who availed themselves of the facilities offered them by shipmasters to come to this country, were called " Redemptioners " by their contem- poraries, and down even to our own times. It deserves to be stated, however, that this term does not appear in the indentures entered into between themselves and those by whom their obligations were discharged and to whom they sold their personal services for a term of years. Neither is the term to be found in any of the legislative acts of the period. Such persons, whatever their nationality-many came from British lands-were called indentured or bond servants, and those terms were invariably applied to them. As such they were known in all the Acts of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania and those of the three lower counties, New Castle, Kent and Sussex. It was the common term prevailing in the mother country and natur-
GERMAN IRtoRATION INTO PENXSILVAHMA
1
5
4
6
2
3
A
AU STENSILS
SHAVING OUTFIT, A.D. 1733
1 SHAVING CLASS
2 BASIN TO CATCH LATHES
3 RAZOR AND SYPOC
4 SHAVING MUQ
A POWDER AND FÜNF SOS
1
-
146 The German Topew
The evidence contemplar W. manner in which but migration was umowami, do-tered and carried on, in ciomy lative rather than diverse, and there is a close resemblance in the mans narratwey Thwyr examined. It is true, the same denovof Facty presented themselves to every investi- gator And the meuit in a somewhat tedious sameness in the voyhoy grosin Crire the tacts were put on record they income publier property and the latest writer simply fol- Level por abn bud preceded him, So graphic, how- -HA KAO M Tweecomith that I have deemed it a total o gier several of them, those of Mittel- mio, Masty Mallenberg and Christoph Saur at some wagiky Thuat textbumpy, comoing from both sides of the away umi From meu personally fassbar with all the cir- vovniLajoie Niey desaribili Bas urter been challenged and has accordingly become part sind augel od Se Nonry ad German immigratie ...
The person to pekne de 2 41s .f the facilities ofrer
country, wmir cil
poraries, and domin eres
indentures entered into aprinc che. cut down by whom their obligetoms were dis valgil und In sbor they Hold their personal serviols hit - vos af join Niibet is the term to be ommd in any of Ce lapluslive ges of the period. Such person . Nopets bos sageaby -many came from Melseby lade- Kers Vit todermaut u hand servants, and thoper terms .... ..- lably apodund to them. As such they were krown lo ad Me Acti nf 100 Assembly of the Province of Pensoyiestis and those pd the three lower counties, New Cande, Keat and Sures, It was the common term prevailing in the mother country and natur-
GERMAN IMMIGRATION INTO PENNSYLVANIA.
1
em
5
das
6
4
2
3
DOMESTIC UTENSILS.
1 COPPER KETTLE.
2 JAPANNED TINWARE.
3 EARTHENWARE PIE DISH.
4 JAPANNED COFFEE POT
SHAVING OUTFIT. A.D. 1733.
1 SHAVING GLASS
Z BASIN TO CATCH LATHER
3 RAZOR AND STROP
4 SHAVING MUG.
5 POWDER AND PUPF BOX
6 AMSEL AND STAND
DANNER COLLECTION.
147
Various Classes of Immigrants.
ally followed them to this. It is found in Penn's Condi- tions and Concessions issued while he was still in England, in 1681, and was reiterated many times subsequently.
But while we must distinguish between the men who had money to transport themselves and their families to Pennsylvania, and those who came under conditions to sell their services until their obligations were repaid, we must not lose sight of a broad distinction between some of these indentured immigrants. They may very appro- priately be divided into two classes. The first was com- posed of persons who were honest men and good citizens ; men who came here of their own volition, who had under- gone many trials at home, some because of their religion and most of them because of the hard conditions of life they were compelled to face from youth to old age. Political changes were of frequent occurrence and each one was generally accompanied by fresh exactions on the part of the new ruler. After the demands of the tax gatherer had been met, about the only things that were left were visions of fresh exactions and possible starvation. Such people were excusable for contracting terms of temporary servitude in a distant land to encountering an unending repetition of their former intolerable state. Their action was at least voluntary.
But the other class was a widely different one. They did not come to America because of any special desire on their part to do so. On the contrary they would doubtless have preferred to remain in the land of their birth had they had a voice or a choice in the matter. They were crim- inals and felons, the scum of the population, which the mother country dumped upon her new Province in order to rid herself of the most objectionable portion of her crim- inal classes. The very jails were emptied of their in-
148
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
mates and the latter sent to her colonies, North and South. This action was naturally resented by the honest and in- dustrious colonists of Pennsylvania, and as early as 1722 the Provincial Assembly attempted to prevent the coming of these people by imposing a tax upon every criminal landed in the Province, and in addition made the ship- owner responsible for the future good conduct of his pas- sengers. But nothing could keep them out and the early criminal record of Pennsylvania is no doubt largely made up from this class of her population. It is probably owing to the dual classes of these indentured servants or redemp- tioners, that much of the obloquy, which some persons, ignorant of the circumstances, have visited upon this class of our colonists, is owing. Ignorance has been the prolific mother of many of the silly and untruthful accusations that have from time to time been trumped up against the German colonists of Pennsylvania.
They differed wholly from the Germans who came to better their condition and frequently against the protests of the potentates under whose rule they were living. They were, indeed, the very flower of the German peasantry, and Europe boasted of no better citizens. They were men of robust frame, hardy consti- tution, inured to toil and accustomed to earn their liv- ing with their hands-Men who trod the soil of the New A PIONEER'S CABIN. World as if it was their right- ful inheritance, and able to help themselves. They fought the battle of civilization in the depths and solitudes of the
149
The Victims of Sharpers Continually.
wilderness. There they established the equality of man in place of hereditary privileges. They were born com. monwealth-builders, and their handiwork in Pennsylvania is one of the marvels of modern colonization.
Under conditions of discouragement, deceit and con- tumely, of wrong and robbery that almost exceed the limits of human belief, these poor people continued to come over to the land of promise. The story of their treatment on shipboard equals all the horrors of the " middle passage " during the African slave traffic, while here, land sharks in the shape of the commission merchant and money broker, stood ready upon their arrival to complete the work of spoliation and plunder. It was little that many of these forlorn sons of toil had. In their wooden chests heir- looms that were sometimes generations old were gathered, and the few remaining household treasures they had been able to save out of the wreck of their fortunes, small though the latter were. These at once attracted the cu- pidity of the thieves who lay in waiting for their prey. Thousands of them found themselves possessed only of their lives and their strong arms when they stepped on the Philadelphia wharfs, wherewith to begin anew the battle of life, the struggle for existence. But handicapped as they were, they faced adverse fate with stout hearts and fulfilled their contracts with their purchasers and masters as faithfully as if their efforts were directed to keep alive their own hearth-fires or to support their wives and chil- dren.
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