35. Cruelly Deceived by the Newlanders.--Toward the middle of the
eighteenth century there were some 80,000 Germans in Pennsylvania,
almost one-half of the entire inhabitants. In 1749 about 12,000 arrived.
Benjamin Franklin and others expressed the fear: "They come in such
numbers that they will soon be able to enforce their laws and language
upon us, and, uniting with the French, drive all Englishmen out." Many
of the Germans were so-called Redemptioners, who, in payment of their
freight, were sold and treated as slaves for a stipulated number of
years. Most of them had been shamefully deceived and decoyed into the
horrors of this "white slavery" by Dutch and English merchants and
conscienceless agents whom Muhlenberg called Newlanders (Neulaender).
In Holland they were called "soul-traders." By means of stories of the
fabulous wealth acquired in America they enticed Germans and other
emigrants into the signing of papers in the English language which not
only committed them and their children to slavery, but sometimes
separated husband and wife, parents and children. The following is an
instance of the revolting horrors connected with this trade: In 1793,
when the yellow fever prevailed in Chester, a cargo of Redemptioners
was sent thither, and a market for nurses opened. (Jacobs, 236.) In
Pennsylvania this kind of slavery continued from about 1740 to the
second decade of the nineteenth century. Quakers and other "friends of
liberty and humanity" exploited the system. Foremost among those who
exposed and condemned it were Germans, notably Muhlenberg, who described
the abominable business of the Newlanders as follows: "These Newlanders
first make themselves acquainted with the merchants in the Netherlands.
From them they receive, in addition to free freight, a certain
gratification (_douceur_) for each family or each unmarried person which
they enlist in Germany and bring to the traders in Holland. In order to
attain their object, they resort to all manner of tricks. As long as the
comedy requires it, they make a great show in dress, frequently look at
their watches, and make a pretense of great wealth, in order to excite a
desire within the hearts of people to emigrate to so happy and rich a
country. They give such descriptions of America as make one believe it
to contain nothing but Elysian fields, bearing seed of themselves,
without toil and labor, mountains full of solid gold and silver, and
wells pouring forth nothing but milk and honey, etc. Who goes as a
servant, becomes a lord; who goes as a maid, becomes a milady; a peasant
becomes a nobleman; a citizen and artisan, a baron!" Deceived and
allured by such stories, Muhlenberg continues, "The families break up,
sell what little they have, pay their debts, turn over what may be left
to the Newlanders for safe-keeping, and finally start on their journey.
Already the trip on the Rhine is put to their account. In Holland they
are not always able to depart immediately, and frequently they get a
small amount of money, advanced by the traders, on their account. The
expensive freight from Holland to America is added, also the head-money.
Before they leave Holland, they must sign a contract in the English
language. The Newlanders persuade and reassure the people [who, not
understanding the English, knew not what they were signing] that they,
as impartial friends, would see to it that, in the contract, no wrong
was done their countrymen. The more freight in persons a merchant and
captain can bring in a ship, the more profitable it is, provided that
they do not die _en route_, for then it may be disadvantageous. For this
reason the ships are kept clean, and every means is employed to deliver
healthy ware to the market. For a year or so they may not have been as
careful, suffering to die what could not live. When parents die on the
ships and leave children, the captains and the most intelligent of the
Newlanders, acting as guardians and orphan-fathers, take the chests and
inheritance in their safe-keeping, and the orphans, arriving on the
land, are sold for their own freight and the freight of their deceased
parents; the real little ones are given away, and the inheritance of
their parents just about pays for the manifold troubles caused to the
guardians. This crying deceit moved some well-disposed German
inhabitants of Pennsylvania, especially in and about Philadelphia, to
organize a society, which, as much as possible, would see to it that, at
the arrival of the poor emigrants, they were dealt with according to
justice and equity." When a ship of emigrants has arrived in the harbor
of Philadelphia, Muhlenberg proceeds, "the newcomers are led in
procession to the court-house, in order to take the oath of allegiance
to the King of Great Britain; then they are led back to the ship.
Hereupon the papers announce that so and so many German people are to be
sold for their freight. Whoever is able to pay his own freight receives
his freedom. Those having wealthy friends endeavor to obtain a loan from
them to pay the freight; but these are few. The ship is the market. The
buyers pick out some and bargain with them as to the years and days of
service, whereupon they make them bind themselves before the magistrate
by a written instrument for a certain period as their property. The
young, unmarried people of both sexes sell first, their lot being a good
or a bad one, for better or worse, according to the character of the
buyer and God's providence or permission. We have frequently noted that
children who were disobedient to their parents, and left them stubbornly
and against their will, here found masters from whom they received their
reward. Old and married people, widows and the frail, nobody wants to
buy, because there is here already an abundance of poor and useless
people who become a burden to the state. But if they have healthy
children, then the freight of the old people is added to that of the
children, and the children must serve so much longer, are sold so much
dearer, and scattered far and wide from each other, among all manner of
nations, languages, and tongues, so that they rarely see their old
parents or brothers and sisters again in this life; many also forget
their mother-tongue. In this way the old people leave the ship free, but
poor, naked, and weak, looking as though they were coming from the
graves, and go begging in the city at the doors of the German
inhabitants; for, as a rule, the English, afraid of infection, close the
doors on them. Such being the conditions, one's heart might bleed seeing
and hearing how these poor human beings, who came from Christian lands
into the New World, partly moan, cry, lament, and throw up their arms
because of the misery and separation which they had never imagined would
befall them, partly call upon and adjure all elements and sacraments,
yea, all thunderbolts and the terrible inhabitants of hell to smash into
numberless fragments and torment the Newlanders and the Dutch merchants,
who deceived them! Those who are far away hear nothing of it, and the
properly so-called Newlanders only laugh about it, and give them no
other consolation beyond that given to Judas Iscariot by the Pharisees,
Matt. 27, 4: 'What is that to us? See thou to that!' Even the children,
when they are cruelly kept and learn that they must remain in bondage
all the longer on account of their parents, conceive a hatred and
bitterness toward them." (G., 474 ff.)
36. Mittelberger on Redemptioners.--Mittelberger, who, in 1750,
brought to America the organ built at Heilbronn for the Lutheran church
in Philadelphia, and served Muhlenberg also as schoolteacher in
Providence, describes, in substance, the sad lot of the Redemptioners as
follows: "Healthy and strong young people were bound to serve from three
to six years, young people from their tenth to their twenty-first year.
Many parents, in order to obtain their freedom, must themselves bargain
about and sell their own children like cattle. A wife must bear the
freight of her husband if he arrives sick; in like manner the husband is
held for his sick wife; thus he must serve not only for himself, but, in
addition, five or six years for his sick spouse. When both are sick,
they are brought into the hospital, but only when no buyer is found. As
soon as they are well, they must serve in payment of their freight, or
pay, if they have property. It frequently happens that a whole family,
husband, wife, and children, being sold to different buyers, are
separated, especially if they are unable to pay anything on their
freight themselves. When a spouse dies on the ocean after one-half of
the voyage is completed, the remaining spouse must not only pay or serve
for himself, but also for the freight of the deceased one. When both
parents die on the ocean, their children must serve for their own and
their parents' freight till their twenty-first year. If anybody escapes
a cruel master, he cannot get very far, since good provisions are made
for the certain and speedy recapture of escaped Redemptioners. A liberal
reward is paid to him who holds or returns a deserter. If a deserter was
absent for a day, he must serve a week for it; for a week, a month; and
for a month, half a year. Men of rank, skill, or learning, unable to pay
their freight, or to give any surety, must serve their masters by doing
manual labor like ordinary servants. While learning to perform the
unaccustomed hard labor, they are treated with lashes like cattle. Many
a suicide was the consequence of the abominable deceit of the
Newlanders. Others sank into utter despair, or deserted, only to suffer
more afterwards than before. Sometimes the merchants in Holland make a
secret agreement to deliver their cargo of human beings not in
Philadelphia, where they wanted to go, but at some other place, where
they expect a better market, thus robbing many of the assistance of
their friends and relatives in Pennsylvania. Many entrust their money to
the Newlanders, who remain in Holland, and on their arrival in this
country they must either serve themselves, or sell their children to
serve for them." (477 ff.) Like the negroes, the Redemptioners could be
resold. The newspapers carried advertisements like the following from
the _Staatsbote_ of Philadelphia: "The time of service of a bond-maid is
for sale. She is tall and strong enough to do any kind of work, and is
able to perform work in the city as well as in the country. She is not
sold on account of a physical defect, but only because her master has
many women folks about. She has yet to serve for four and a half years.
The name of her owner may be learned from the publisher of this paper."
(481.) As with the negro slaves the lot of a Redemptioner was not in
every case physically a sad and cruel one. In Maryland the laws
protected them by limiting the days of work in summer to five and a half
a week, and demanding for them three hours of rest in the middle of the
day during the months of greatest heat. In 1773 Pastor Kunze wrote: "If
I should ever obtain 20 pounds, I would buy the first German student
landing at our coast and owing freight, put him in my upper room, begin
a small Latin school, teach during the morning hours myself, and then
let my servant teach and make my investment pay by charging a small
fee." (481.) Some of the honored names in American history are those of
Redemptioners, among them Charles Thomson, the Secretary of Congress
during the Revolution, Matthew Thornton, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, and the parents of Major-General Sullivan. (Jacobs, 235.)