On February 7 of 1716 (NS), almost two years after the Germans had arrived and been settled at Fort Germanna, Gov. Spotswood was called on to answer charges that had been made against him. He response, in part, to one of the charges, went:
"I have frequently mentioned how the Germans came to be settled on this Land, and 'tis well known y't when they arrived in this Country they were so far from being able to undergo the charge of taking up Land for themselves, that they had not wherewithall to subsist. So that, besides the expence of one hundred and fifty pounds for their Transportation, they are still indebted for near two years' Charge of subsisting them. I cannot, therefore, imagine myself guilty of any oppression by placing them as Tenants upon my own Land, when I had pursued the common methods of the Country and taken the advantage of the Law here--instead of being Tenants, they might have been my Servants for five years. Nor are the Germans insensible of the favour I have done them. . . . The terms upon which the Germans are settled will not appear very like oppression, seeing they have lived for two years upon this Land without paying any Rent at all, and that all which is demanded of them for the future is no more than twelve days' work a year for each Household, which is not so much as the Rent of their Houses without any Land would have cost in any other part of the Country. . ."
Spotswood is claiming that the Germans have done nothing for him in the two years that they have been here. On the contrary they have only been an expense. And he says that he had not charged them any rent during that time; however, he is going to start charging them rent. His change of attitude on this subject shows how he could take the same set of facts and interpret it in two entirely different ways.
On the one hand, he said the Germans were tenants, but he said he was charging them no rent. Without rent, they would have been more typically in the status of indentured servants. In saying they were tenants, he was probably angling for a reimbursement from them of his expenses. In other words, he would hope to recover the transportation expense and the subsistence expense from them. One did not recover transportation expenses from indentured servants but if they were free and indebted to him, then he could press his claims for reimbursement. But in order to make them look free, he needed to charge rent. So two years after the fact, he proposes to start charging them rent to make his case look better.
The major blunt of this uncertainty fell upon the Germans. They had been two years in America and, aside from their efforts at providing their own food, they had done nothing that would seem to justify the claims Spotswood had on them. They were indebted to him but they had done nothing for him.
Notice also, that after two years, the emphasis is shifting away from the public service of defending the frontier to being private "tenants" of Spotswood. Much of the original justification had included the public duties of the Germans, but now it appears that they are private citizens who are living on land owned by Spotswood. This is another example of the shift of opinion of which Spotswood was so capable.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.