Читать книгу History Of German Immigration In The United States - George von Skal - Страница 7

We must now retrace our steps because the German immigration in Pennsylvania must be treated as a distinct and separate chapter, and has not been touched upon in order to furnish a consecutive narrative of the fate of the Germans following the first settlers on Manhattan Island. The Pennsylvania Germans, or as they are generally called, the Pennsylvania Dutch, came in such numbers and kept so closely together for almost a century, preserving even to this day many of their customs and their language, though their speech has been corrupted by the adoption of English words and the change of German expressions where they sounded similar to those used by Americans, that they must be looked upon as a group different from all the others. Their importance to the United States may be judged from the fact that at the beginning of the revolutionary war at least 100,000 Germans had settled in Pennsylvania, but it will be shown here that they exerted a strong influence not by their numbers alone but also by other and more valuable qualities.

The causes which drove these masses from their homes were the same that have been explained at length in the first chapter. The misery caused by the Thirty Years War and by the tyranny of the princess after peace had been concluded, together with the failure of crops, but above all religious persecution, were the moving forces. The emigration to Pennsylvania differs from other similar movements, however, in one important particular, inasmuch as it was started by one man, William Penn. He had become a Quaker missionary and as such visited several places in Germany where small numbers of Quakers existed or where similar sects had been founded that might be converted to the creed he followed. His eyes were turned towards America where he hoped to find freedom of worship for his followers. In Frankfurt-on-the-Main he succeeded in forming a society with the object of buying a tract of land in America and emigrating thither. The opportunity for executing his plans came when Charles II, in payment of a debt of sixteen thousand pounds the crown owed to Penn's father, gave the son the vast tract between the colonies of New Jersey and Delaware. Penn immediately resolved to found a state in which religious as well as political freedom should be granted to every inhabitant. He called it a "Holy Experiment." In pamphlets printed in English and German he called attention to his plans. One of these fell into the hands of Franz Daniel Pastorius, a young law student, who was acquainted with several members of the society Penn had founded at Frankfurt. He became so enthusiastic that he decided to emigrate. His friends were not ready to join him, but he found a number of Mennonites and Quakers at Kriegsheim and Krefeld who were willing to follow him. Pastorius set out almost immediately, arriving at Philadelphia on August 16, 1683, where he was warmly welcomed by Penn. The ship Concord, frequently, and with good reason, called the German Mayflower, landed the first thirteen German families on October 6, 1683, and this day marks the real beginning of German immigration into the United States, and is to this day celebrated as "German Day." The little band settled near Philadelphia and founded Germantown, not without trials and hardships, for most of the men had been weavers and were not used to the hard work awaiting them. They succeeded, however, and after about fifty more families had followed them the tract of land heretofore held in common was divided. In 1691 Germantown was made a city and the number of inhabitants had increased to such an extent that a number of them could devote themselves to the industries they had learned in their youth. Soon Germantown became known for the excellence of the linen and knit goods its inhabitants manufactured. Thus the Germans laid the foundation of one of the most important industries of the United States long before Americans thought of producing at home anything but the plainer and coarser fabrics, and while all superior goods were imported from England.

The fame of Pennsylvania soon spread all over Germany. The country where everyone could follow his religious convictions and where nobody was persecuted, punished or banished for belonging to any church not recognized by the government and only the Catholic, the Lutheran and the Reformed Church were officially sanctioned seemed indeed like the promised land. The sufferings the German people had undergone had created in this nation, so much given to introspective contemplation, a deep religious feeling which was not satisfied but rather offended by the dogmatic strictness of the established churches. New sects sprang up almost every day, every one attempting, in its own particular way, to restore the true teachings of the Savior according to the ideas of the founders. Some of them found their peace in the most remarkable and sometimes strange forms of worship but all were imbued with that deep religious feeling which has found expression in the word pietism. They all sent colonies to America. The first were the Mystics, who arrived in 1694 under the leadership of Johann Kelpius, and settled on the banks of the Wissahickon. Their community did not last long, and the last survivor, Conrad Beissel, became the founder of the Ephrata community. Large numbers of Mennonites followed them; the founders of Germantown were German Mennonites but members of this sect did not arrive in large numbers until after some of the Swiss cantons expelled them in 1710 on account of their refusal to bear arms. The "Tunker" or Dunkards, the Schwenkfelders, the Pietists and other sects followed. The Moravians had originally settled in Georgia but came to Pennsylvania in 1738 because they had been asked to take up arms in the war between England and Spain. They differed from other sects because they were not content with practicing their religion but devoted themselves to educational and missionary work. Their work among the Indians was especially successful. They did not alone preach to the savages but they taught them how to work and proved at that early day what many people will not believe even now: that the Indian can be brought to till the soil and to learn a trade. Their work in this direction was not destined to last. The English could never be prevailed upon to look at the Indian as a brother, and considered his advancement a danger to civilization; the High Church clergy was incensed at the number of Indians who joined the Moravians, and the traders hated the missionaries because they would not allow them to sell brandy to their charges. The Moravians were driven out of New York and Pennsylvania and founded flourishing settlements in the primeval forests of Ohio. Here their Indian pupils, surrounded by fertile fields and orchards, increased in number from year to year, buried the tomahawk and lived in peace and plenty until, in 1782, a band of backwoodsmen, under the leadership of David Williamson, set upon them and with almost incredible cruelty annihilated them. The unarmed Indians were allowed to assemble in two houses where they took leave of each other, prayed and sang hymns in the German tongue until the last one had been murdered in cold blood. Only two boys, who had been fortunate enough to find secure hiding places, escaped. The villages and the work of the Moravian missionaries, extending over many years, were wiped out of existence within a few hours. To defend this awful deed some historians have claimed that the Indians and their teachers were a danger to the white population because they allowed hostile savages to dwell near white settlements under the guise of peaceful converts. Nothing can be found to substantiate this claim, and as far as the missionaries are concerned we have abundant proof that they were always ready to sacrifice themselves for the welfare of their white brothers. In 1758 one of them, Christian Friedrich Post, traveled from Fort Duquesne through the wilderness to the camps of the Indians whom France tried to make allies in her war upon the English colonies. He succeeded in winning them away from the French and thereby probably saved the day for England. His diary is still in existence and shows what terrible dangers he underwent in order to serve his country.

A word must be said as to the trials and tribulations these immigrants had to pass through before they could begin to found new homes for themselves. We have already described how they reached the coast of the Atlantic. There they were literally packed into sailing vessels which were in no way prepared for carrying human beings. As a rule they were not even sufficiently provisioned, and when the trip lasted longer than the captain had anticipated the passengers had to live on the rats and mice they caught. Caspar Wintar tells us of such a journey during which one hundred and fifty passengers died from fever and starvation. Mittelberger, who published an account of his voyage to America, says that thirty-two children died and were buried in the ocean. Ship fever was so prevalent that it was called "Palatine Fever" and was looked upon as a peculiar sickness to which German immigrants were victims. Nobody thought of disinfecting the ships, and smallpox broke out again and again on the same vessel, which continued to carry immigrants in spite of this. But nothing could break the spirit of those sturdy men and women who were imbued with the deepest religious feeling. In the hour of danger and amidst all the horrors they would assemble and sing their hymns or pray to the good Lord to deliver them, having an unbounded faith in His will and kindness. Their firm belief that they were in His hands helped them to endure all suffering.

For many of them the hardships were not ended when they had reached the new country. As soon as emigration increased to such an extent that the carrying of passengers became a profitable business, shipowners sent agents to Germany and Switzerland promising free passage to America. Many availed themselves of this seemingly liberal offer. Others who could have paid were induced to spend their money before embarking, and were then carried free. But when they reached America they were sold to people needing help and had to work for them until their passage money was paid. Children whose parents died during the voyage were sold into virtual slavery and the property of any passenger who died was taken possession of by the captain. These abuses lasted until long after the Revolution. It has been said that the custom of selling passengers to work for their passage was not wholly bad, that it was certainly not looked upon as a disgrace, that it helped many to come here who would otherwise have been compelled to remain in misery, and that this semi-serfdom gave the immigrants an opportunity to acquire a knowledge of their new surroundings before they were compelled to strike out for themselves. There is some truth in this but it must not be forgotten that a great many of the immigrants were of good education and not used to work as menials, and that frequently the different members of a family were sold to different parties living widely apart. In this way parents and children, brothers and sisters, and even husband and wife, were sometimes separated forever. It must, however, be said that the immigrants sold for service were as a rule treated fairly well, protected by the law and furnished with an outfit when their time had expired. Still the system was cruel, and not much more can be said for it than that it might have been worse yet.

These immigrants were by no means uneducated and ignorant as has been supposed by many writers. The vital fact must be kept in view that most of them did not go to America in order to improve their material welfare alone. This was one of the motives but by no means the strongest. They yearned for religious freedom, for freedom of thought, and nobody cares for this whose mind has not been awakened. Since the Reformation it had become the general custom in Protestant Germany to unite religion and education. Hardly a village was without a teacher and there were few children who did not learn how to read and write. Many of the immigrants were quite well educated and there was even a sprinkling of what might be called learned men among them. Their leaders had almost without exception received a university education. It stands to reason that they would not have gone to America with a horde of utterly ignorant people, nor would they have been selected as leaders by them. Daniel Pastorius, Josua von Kocherthal, Johann Kelpius, Heinrich Bernhard Koster, Daniel Falckner and others were men of the very highest attainments. Additional proof is furnished by the fact that the German settlers sent to Germany for their preachers when the original leaders had died. They wanted men of intelligence and learning to lead them, and they could not get them in America because there the schools had not progressed far enough. It was quite natural that they looked upon their ministers as the intellectual leaders because their whole life was centered in religious thought and they could not imagine any other way of satisfying their thirst for knowledge. In this manner many eminent men came to America as preachers and teachers and the German parochial schools were soon readily acknowledged as superior to the English. Among these men was Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg. He had studied at Göttingen and Halle and came to America in 1742 where he soon became the organizer of the Lutheran Church. Within a few years he had united the different congregations and created an organization that has lasted to this day. What Mühlenberg did for the Lutherans, Michael Schlatter accomplished for the Reformed Church. The leader of the Moravians, Count Zinzendorf, failed, however, when he came to America, in 1741, with the intention of carrying out his plan of uniting all the different sects in one Protestant Church. Numerous others came but not enough to satisfy the colonists for in examining the documents of the time we hear continually that more ministers and teachers were wanted.

It is true that the German settlers bitterly op posed the establishment of the free common schools but this does not prove, as some writers have claimed, that they were hostile to education. On the contrary, they saw clearly that their own schools were better than the first common schools established, and for this reason wanted to retain the former. They also desired very much that their children should learn the language of their parents. Above all, however, it was their deep religious feeling which made it practically impossible for them to permit their children to attend a school in which either religion was not taught at all, or where different creeds were treated with equal respect. They believed firmly that the child belonged first to God, then to its parents and then to the state. The fight was a bitter and a long one but it was finally won by the common schools, and it is significant that the governor of Pennsylvania who succeeded in having the system adopted was a German, George Wolf. That the Pennsylvania Germans were not opposed to education as such is best shown by the fact that the state they helped to found contains more high schools than most of the others, and that many of these institutions were founded by Germans. These people were very pious but by no means narrow-minded fanatics. The different sects often clashed on religious questions but they never carried their differences so far as to persecute those who believed differently. They admitted every man's right to hold and preach his particular religious convictions. While witches were burnt and Quakers executed in New England the Pennsylvania Germans, though divided into many sects, lived together in peace and practiced toleration. They had themselves suffered too much and the true Christian spirit had taken possession of them too fully to allow them to harm others who did not try to harm them, but simply had chosen a different road to reach the same goal. Their beneficial influence upon the development of the religious life and the relations between church and state, as well as between the different sects, cannot be overestimated.

It has already been mentioned that the Pennsylvania Germans were as solicitous for their mental as for their material welfare. It was only natural that above all they wanted books treating the religious side of life, for the whole trend of their mind tended to keep them away from worldly things and from literature of a worldly kind. Besides, they could not have kept up a connection with the Fatherland close enough to keep them informed of the literary activity going on there. Consequently hymn and prayer books were the first which the German printers published. Not they alone, for American printers, among them the great Benjamin Franklin, issued books and newspapers printed in the German language. In fact, Franklin published not only the first German books printed in America, but also the first newspaper of which, however, only a few numbers appeared. This was in 1732 and up to that time only small pamphlets and leaflets had been printed. But to Christoph Saur belongs the credit of having founded the first printing house that used German type. He came to America in 1724 and first tried farming in Lancaster County but did not succeed. In 1738 he imported a printing-press and type from Germany and established a business in Germantown that soon reached large dimensions. His first publication was the "High-German-American Almanach," which appeared regularly until 1778. Many other publications followed, mostly hymn .and prayer books but also quite a number of historical works, English and German school books and political pamphlets. On August 20, 1739, he published the first number of the first German newspaper on American soil (the abortive attempt on Franklin's part deserves no consideration). The paper was at first published monthly, then semi-monthly, and finally weekly. It had a very large circulation for those days and exerted great influence. Saur's greatest work, however, was the printing of the first Bible on American soil. Not the first German Bible, but the first Bible of any kind, for the first Bible in the English language was not printed in America until forty years later. Saur's enterprise was really gigantic, for the type, specially cast for this work, had to be imported from Germany, and the facilities at Saur's disposal were of a very limited kind. In addition, it was a great question whether the undertaking would pay, for the expenses were very large. But Saur succeeded, the Bible appeared in 1742, had a large sale and several editions had to be printed. The paper was furnished by another Pennsylvania German, William Rittenhouse, who had built the first paper mill in America. From now on German printing houses and newspapers increased rapidly; in 1753 Franklin stated that of the six printing houses in the province two were German, two English and the other two half English and half German. Of the newspapers founded in that period several are still in existence.

But it is as a farmer that the Pennsylvania German excelled. He did not, like his American brother of different origin, continually try to make new conquests, ready to give up the home for the hope of finding a better one farther west. He loved the soil as he loved his family. When he had found the spot that suited him he stayed and cultivated it until he had changed the primeval forest into a veritable garden spot. The best soil in Pennsylvania for farming purposes is limestone and almost every acre of this soil is still in the hands of the descendants of German settlers. They farmed not for one harvest but forever, they did not dream of leaving the homestead after the first strength of the soil had been exhausted. They carefully burned the trees they had felled to clear the land as well as the stumps and roots, and did not let them rot like other settlers; in this way they enriched the soil and saved their ploughs. They introduced irrigation and treated their horses so well that they could do twice the work other farmers made them do. They built large and substantial barns, known to this day as "Swisser Barns," and they erected comfortable stone houses. The Pennsylvania farmer introduced horticulture and truck farming in America, and it is not surprising that he prospered and increased. From the neighborhood of Germantown the Germans spread over Montgomery, Berks and Lancaster counties; they crossed the Susquehanna and settled York and Cumberland. Northampton, Dauphin, Lehigh, Lebanon, Centre and Adams followed. Under Jost Hite they advanced into the Shenandoah valley and founded Frederick, Rockingham, Shenandoah and other counties in Virginia. Others went to Ohio. Everywhere the Pennsylvania German became the pioneer of civilization who cleared the forest and prepared the soil for the masses that were to follow him.

At the beginning of the Revolution there were at least one hundred thousand Germans or children of German parents in Pennsylvania. John Fiske estimates that the descendants of the English who emigrated to New England before 1640, number about fifteen millions. According to this estimate, there must be at the least five million descendants of the Pennsylvania Germans in the United States. There are certainly two millions of them in Pennsylvania alone. The others have spread all over the country. They are difficult to trace because their names have been changed long ago, in many cases so much that the original can hardly be discovered. It is comparatively easy to detect the German origin in Wanamaker, Pennypacker, Custer, Beaver, Hartranft, Keifer, Rodenbough, etc., but it becomes more difficult when the name has undergone several transformations, as for instance Krehbiel to Krehbill, Grebill, Grabill and finally Graybill, or Krummbein to Krumbine and Grumbine, or Schnaebele to Snavely, Gebhard to Capehart, Herbach to Harbaugh or Gnege to Keneagy, and it is almost impossible to trace the descent if the names have been translated like Froehlich into Gay, or Klein into Little or Small. The radical changes have mostly been made by those families who went to other states; of those remaining in Pennsylvania the larger part has retained names which show the German root and can be traced with comparative ease, except of course where the name has been translated into English.

Nowhere else have the Germans remained together in such compact masses as in Pennsylvania, and nowhere else can, therefore, their influence upon the formation of the character of the American people be better observed. They still retain their characteristics to a marked degree, the peculiar forms of the religious life, the habits and even the physical appearance of their forebears. Their language is still different from that of other parts of the population; it is a composite of English and German words and forms, foreign to either and yet in many respects akin to both. It is wonderful how these people have preserved, at least in part, the language of their ancestors who settled in Pennsylvania more than two centuries ago, for they did not receive any additions to speak of which might have kept the memories of the Fatherland and its language green and fresh. Most of the immigration from the same districts that came in later periods remained in the cities or went to the West and Northwest. We find likewise the traits that distinguished the first settlers still in existence; the strong desire for independence and the almost stubborn resistance against every fancied or real attempt to encroach upon their rights, the untiring industry, strongly marked honesty, frugality and the inclination to take life seriously. All these qualities have produced a conservatism which has frequently caused the statement that the Pennsylvania Germans were obstinate and self-willed but which withal has exerted a very beneficial influence. It has kept them and their offspring upon their farms and perhaps retarded the development of the region they in habited in a certain sense; at least their cities have not grown as rapidly as those of the West, but on the other hand the soil their ancestors conquered has not been given up and left unfilled because the young men became restless and went away to more distant regions, as has been the case in New England. The compact mass of the Germans in Pennsylvania still forms a reservoir from which the American people draw strength and conservatism, and it is still a great factor in the equalization of the many qualities brought here by immigrants from widely differing countries. The statement is justified that the often ridiculed and sometimes despised Pennsylvania Dutchman has been one of the most valuable factors in the development of the mighty republic that has arisen on the North American continent, and he deserves the fullest appreciation and gratitude.

While the bulk of the German immigration of the period under consideration went to Pennsylvania and New York, it must not be supposed that these states alone received settlers from Germany. All through the South we find German names in old records and deeds. According to the Colonial Records of Virginia, a number of the victims of the massacre of March 22, 1622. led by Chief Opechancanough, were undoubtedly Germans. We know that .the Salzburgers settled in Georgia in 1734 and that a large body of immigrants from Switzerland arrived in South Carolina in 1732. About the same time German Valley and Friesburg were founded in New Jersey and a German Roman-Catholic Church existed in Maryland in 1758. Even in New England we find German settlements, for in 1740 Waldoborough in Maine was founded and about ten years later Leydensdorf in the same state, its name indicating the sufferings the immigrants had to undergo. But, as has been stated, most of these groups have entirely disappeared among the English population, and none of them differed enough from the great mass that settled in Pennsylvania to deserve separate treatment.