forcing more people into the redemptionist class. With over-speculation came the crowding of large bodies of immigrants into vessels too small for their numbers. Their baggage was then quite generally put into another vessel or lost altogether. The mortality on board increased terribly. Sauer, in his newspaper in 1749, announced "that in that year over two thousand had died during transportation, mostly because they were not treated like human beings, being packed closely together, so that the sick breathed another's breath, and that from all the uncleanness and stench and failure of food, diseases arose like scurvy, dysentery, smallpox, and other contagious sicknesses." It was the rule in that day that the immigrant should furnish his own food supplies, but when his baggage was not received on board, the provision made for him was of course not ample. Starvation, and death from thirst, were of common occurrence on the long sea-trips consuming many months. Shipwrecks were frequent, and the danger ever present of being captured by hostile fleets or pirates. Heinrich Keppele, the first president of the German Society of Pennsylvania,' arrived in America 1 Mittelberger claims that a large number of the shipwrecks were not reported in Germany, "for fear that it might deter the people from emigrating, and induce them to stay at home." (See p. 36.) Among the many shipwrecks that he tells of, the following is characteristic: "The following fatal voyage, where all the passengers were Germans, has probably not become known in Germany at all. In the year 1752 a ship arrived at Philadelphia, which was fully six months at sea from Holland to Philadelphia. The ship had weathered many storms throughout the winter, and could not reach the land; finally another ship came to the assistance of the halfwrecked and starved vessel. Of about 340 souls this ship brought 21 persons to Philadelphia, who stated that they had not only spent fully six months at sea, and had been driven to the coast of Ireland, but that most of the passengers had died of starvation, that they had lost their masts and sails, captain and mates, and that the rest would never have reached the land if God had not sent another ship to their aid, which brought them to land." in 1738, and wrote in his diary, that of the 312 passengers (a child was counted as one half), 250 died, not including those that died after landing. Sauer reports the loss of 160 people on one ship, 150 on another, and only 13 survivors on a third; in 1745 a ship was destined for Philadelphia with 400 German passengers, of whom only 50 survived. Mittelberger says: "Children from one to seven years rarely survived the voyage; and many a time parents are compelled to see their children die of hunger, thirst, or sickness, and then see them cast into the water. Few women in confinement escape with their lives; many a mother is cast into the water with her child." The main cause for the enormous mortality was the packing together of immigrants much as negro slaves were later huddled together by African slave-traders. 1 The conditions were probably no worse for the German immigrants than for those of other nationalities. The Germans of Philadelphia, however, after repeated agitation, succeeded in improving somewhat existing conditions for German immigrants. They formed in December, 1764, the "Deutsche Gesellschaft von Pennsylvanien," the first of those charitable German organizations in the seacoast cities of America, that were founded to extend a helping hand to the immigrants of their own nationality. A law was drafted and put through the Pennsylvania legislature by the influential Germans of this society, rendering impossible the tyrannies and extortions before practiced by sea-captains and immigration agents, particularly in regard to the abuses already mentioned, 1 Packed like herring and sold as slaves, says Pastor Kunze, Hallesche Nachrichten, p. 1377. Reprint, vol. ii, p. 709. Under date of May 16, 1773, he says: "Last week I heard of a ship bearing 1500 Germans, of whom 1100 died at sea." the separation of immigrants from their baggage, overcrowding, and holding a shipload responsible for the profits of the captain. The society likewise established the immigrant's right of appeal to American courts of justice, in case of unjust treatment. A more effective law, "an act for regulating the importation of German and other passengers," was passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1818. The sale of redemptioners was not abolished until 1820. With its many evils the system had also had good effects. Undoubtedly the rapid increase of the population of Pennsylvania was due to the redemptionist system, which allowed tens of thousands of immigrants to come to America, who would not have been able to do so for lack of means. The period of service frequently became a training school. The Swedish traveler Kalm said: "Many of the Germans who come hither bring money enough with them to pay their passage, but rather suffer themselves to be sold, with a view that during their servitude they may get some knowledge of the language and qualities of the country and the like, that they may be better able to consider what they shall do, when they have got their liberty." Stories are found in German-American literature, of redemptioners, who concealed within a bundle of old rags their precious coins, for which, as soon as their period of service had closed, they bought land near the possessions of their masters, and during the course of years, advancing in means through their industry and thrift, became ultimately the owners of the estates of their former masters. 1 Peter Kalm, Travels in North America, vol. i, p. 304, 2d edition, London, 1772. 2 2 Cf. Sealsfield, Morton oder die grosse Tour, I Teil, Kap. i, pp. 64 f.; Kürnberger, Der Amerikamüde; Möllhausen, Der Pedlar, Roman aus dem Amerikanischen Leben, and Das Vermächtnis des Pedlars. CHAPTER IV THE FIRST EXODUS, THE PALATINE IMMIGRATION TO NEW YORK Kocherthal and his followers - Founding of Newburgh-on-the-Hudson, 1709 goes with Governor Hunter to New York-Hunter's plan and its failure – The fortunes and migrations of the Palatines in New York; East and West Camp, Schoharie, the Mohawk, Tulpehocken, etc. - John Peter Zenger's independent newspaper, and his stand for the liberty of the press. THROUGHOUT the seventeenth century there had been constant intercourse between England and the Palatinate, sanctioned and stimulated by the royal marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of James I, with the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, already referred to as the Winter King. Their son, the wise ruler Karl Ludwig, Elector Palatine, was the cousin of Charles II and James II, kings of England. There was also between the two countries the common bond of the Protestant faith. England was instrumental in effecting the Religious Declaration of 1705, that granted the Reformed Church toleration in the Palatinate. The war of the Spanish Succession in 1707 devastated a portion of the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine, whereby hundreds of Palatines were rendered homeless. Among these was Joshua von Kocherthal, who, in January, 1708, applied to an English agency in Frankfort-onthe-Main, for passes and money to go to England. He included in his request several other families, in all sixty one persons, who, when no help could be obtained, together left their home without the consent of the Elector Palatine, and on their own resources traveled by way of Holland to London. Arriving there, they were too poor to live without aid, wherefore the generous Queen Anne allowed each Palatine a shilling a day for his support. The charitable deed of the crown was imitated by several Londoners, and when Kocherthal applied for the means of transportation to the American colonies, the Lords of Trade decided to send the immigrants to the colony of New York. There it was thought they might be used to settle on the frontier, as a buffer against the Indians, or else be employed in the manufacture of naval stores. Before sailing they were naturalized as British subjects,' and then placed upon a royal transport under Lord Lovelace, the newly-appointed governor of New York. The colonists sailed about the middle of October, 1708, and arrived at New York during the last days of that year. Lord Lovelace gave them land on the Hudson to the north of the Highlands, beginning at the mouth of the Quassaick. The colonists called the settlement "Neuburg," after the city of the same name in the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz). This is the beginning of the busy and prosperous city of Newburgh, the county-seat of Orange County, New York, rivaling in beauty of landscape more venerable cities on the Rhine and Danube. Tracts of land of one hundred to three hundred acres were portioned out 1 The names of the Palatines naturalized August 25, 1708, were, besides Kocherthal Lorenz, Schwisser, Rennau, Volk, Weigandt Weber, Plettel, Fischer, Gülch, Türk, Rose, Weimar, Faber, Fiere, and Schünemann. Most of these were men between twenty-five and forty years of age; only one man was fifty-two. They were vine-growers, weavers, smiths, carpenters, or representatives of other trades. Among those given lauds, not mentioned in the naturalization list, were Lockstädt and Hennicke. Kapp, Geschichte der Deutschen im Staate New York, p. 80. |