The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-01-28

vessel carrying fifty or more passengers.
The custom house officer on visiting the
vessel after its arrival, was required to take
with him reputable German inhabitant of
Philadelphia to act as interpreter, who was
required to read the act under which he
was acting in the German language and to
hear any complaints the passengers might
make. This act prohibited the selling of
living passengers for the dead and separa-
tion Of husband and wife except with their
own consent
The Mayor of Philadelphia was empow-
cred to acknowledge every indenture of
service and required to keep an exact re-
cord showing the name of the master or
mistress and the province, county, city,
borough or township in which the said
masster or mistress resided. In case the
servant was assfgred or sold to another
master the Mayor or Justic6,o ,of the Peace
was required to keep record of the e'19II
fer, so that the whereabouts of every re-
demptioner could be known. This act
seems to have rectifed the worst abuses of
the system. The next legislation on the
subject is the act of April 8, 1875, creating
the Office of Registrar of German Passen-
gers. This was necessitated by the change
of government incident to the Revolution
Many of the duties of the Mayor had been
delegated to the Justices of the Peace, but
the registration of the redemptioners was
either neglected or imperfectly performed.
Where attempts were made at keeping the
records the names in many instances were
unintelligible, anything will do for the name
of Dutohman" having become one of the
common sayings of the period. The first
Registrar appointed under this act was
Louis Farmer The registry was carefully
kept from this time forward until the bust
ness of transporting redemptioners died out.
When vessel arrived loaded with re-
demptioners advertisements were inserted
in the newspapers, mostly in the German
papers The following translation of an
advertisement appearing in the Pennsylra
MA SfdatJote of Jan. IS, 1774, is fairly
typical of its class
There are still fifty to sixty German peo-
pie who lately arrived here on hand. They
are lodged with Widow Kreider at the
Golden Swan. Among them are two
schoolmasters, mechanics and farm hands.
Also some nice children, both boys and
girls. They want to serve for their freight.
The advertisements generally laid special
stress upon those in healthy condition,
showing that it was not unusual for cargo
to arrive in quite the opposite condition.
After the breaking up of the practice of
selling the living for the freight of the
dead, the usual term of service for adults
varied from three to five years, while chill
dren were compelled to serve until they
were of age, and in some instances until
they were "a years old, which was the ex-
treme limit allowed by law, The servant
was entitled at the end of his term TO two
suits of clothes, called freedom suits. The
children were to be taught to read and
write.
Sometimes these immigrants were bought
in lots of fifty or more by spectators, who
were known at the time as "soul drivers"
and peddled out through the country. The
late Joseph j. Lewis, of West Chester, in
one of a series of articles written in 1928,
relates an amusing story of one Of these
redemptioners, smart young Irishman,
the last of the drove with which his puT-
chaser started out on his pedEug trip, They
lodged at a tavern at night and the young
redemptioner got up in the morning before
his master, sold the latter to his landlord,
pocketed the money and got safely away
before his master arose to find he had
changed places with his keen-witted chattel.
The two schoolmasters offered for sale
in the advertisement quoted from the
Pennsylvania iStaatsbote seem not to have
been the only schoolmasters disposed of in |
this way. In Christopher Sewers paper,
published at Germantown of the date of
August 16, 1753, the following advertise
ment appears:
Whoever needs schoolmaster and his
wife to do housework, for 81 years and will
pay 26 pounds may apply, etO,
Pastor KunZer, of Zion Lutheran Church,
desired to establish theological school
and appealed for contribution of twenty
pounds with which to buy German stu
dent who could teach Latin, proposing to
give the early part of the day to the work
himself and leaving his linguistic servant
to take up the recitations in the afternoon.
These instances show that many of the re-
demptioners were people Of intelligence
who had been reduced to poverty by the
wars that were devastating Europe.
Naturally redemptioners sometimes took
it into their heads to shorten their term of
service by taking to their heels. The pa
pers of the day were full of advertisements
for these runaways. Frederick Stein, of
Lancaster, adyertises in Sewers paper, in
1874, runaway saddler named Philip
Andrew Pitzler, who speaks well English,
French and Latin, and offers reward of
f4 for his return. The Pennsylvania Ga
zette-Franklin's paper-of the date of
Dec, II, 1881, contains an advertisement
of the absence of two Scotch servants, one
a Robert Crockett, servant of John Jack
son shoemaker of Philadelnhia and the