Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1901-08-28
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS

house, with a stop of several days
! Headed finally for the sea, the passen
gers must spend from six weeks tc
| iouI months more, packed like her
rings in box on miserable, unclean
sailing ships before they came TO the
,, promised land.
J In port at last, but without money
}, and often in debt to the shipmaster
}, they had TO sell themselves as ser
wants. There was a good demand for
I able-bodied young Germans of both
D, sexes; and the business attained such
proportions, indeed that agents APP
! peared on the scene and undertook to
secure immigrants for the shipowners
These agents, we'll dressed, and pre-
tending to be rich merchants from
Philadelphia, went about through the
Rhineland, advancing specious argl-
ments to induce the people to emil
CRATE. For each immigrant furnished
to the ship the agent received a com
mission from the owner. The Ger
mans called these men soul sellers. -
i or 'newlanders; and their calling
brought them into much disrepute
among the Germans, who were often
so cruelty deceived by their stories.
Readers of Janice Meredith" will re
member how these German servants or
redemptioners were sold and inden-
tured to their masters. Mr.. Diffen-
derffer gives the following account of
the process, which is from an eyewit-
ness.
THE sale of human beings in the
market ON board the ship is carried
on thus Every day Englishmen.
Dutchmen and high German people
come from the city of Philadelphia
and other places-some from a great
distance, say 60, 80 and 100 miles
away-and go on board the newly ar
rived ship that has brought and offers
for sale passengers from Europe, and
select among the healthy persons such
as they deem suitable for their bust
ness, and bargain with them how long
they will serve for their passage
money for which most of them are
still in debt. When they have come
to an agreement it happens that adult
persons bind themselves in writing to
serve three, four five or. six years for
the amount due by them, according to
their age and strength. But very
young people, from 10 to Is years,
must serve until they are 21
years old. Many persons must sell
and trade away their children like so
many head of cattle"
This is not very pleasant picture;
and yet. redemptioners were not al
ways such great sufferers, after all
There is a brighter side. The immi-
grants were nearly all peasants-but
another name for serfs in Germany in
the eighteenth century They left lit
tie that was joyful behind them. Like
the slave, the lot of the indentured
servant was better or worse accord
ingly as he found a good or bad mas
ter.
Mr.. Diffenderffer's study, especially
as it relates to the redemptioners, is a
valuable one. 1t will tell many Penn
sylvanians a great deal about their
ancestors. and lead them to feel better
satisfied with their own lot in the
world after they have considered what
their immigrant forebears had to
pass through, when each packed up
his chest of goods and came across the
sea to establish himself in William
PENIS wilderness among the Indians
as a buffer for the Quakers in Phila-
delphia. Mr.. Diffenderffer mentions
the Quakers' boast that they never
had any quawels or unpleasantness
with the Indians. He sees good rea-
son for this in the fact that the Ger
mans surrounded them on all sides,
and their bodies became the shields
to protect the English colOnists, who
were more happily situated. Moreover
and this was for long ground for bitter
difference between the Quakers and
the Dutch-the Quaker Assembly, op-
posed to warlike measures, steadfastly
refused to vote money for the defense
of the frontiersman against the In
dians. But this old score may have
evened up by this time, for Mr.. Diffen-
derffer says that the Quakers have
now lost control of everything, while
the Pennsylvania Germans are tri-
umphant in all departments of life. If
this be true, time has brought them
their justification, and they should be
happy to have come into their rights
at last