It was noted that some of the 1717 German emigrants wanted to go to Pennsylvania, but were taken by the captain of their ship to Virginia instead. There were sold as servants to Alexander Spotswood, who was wanting people to work for him very badly. If we are to understand why Spotswood was wanting Germans, we have to go back to the 1713 German emigrants, who arrived in the spring of 1714, in Virginia.
When the 1714 Germans arrived, they were settled by Spotswood, beyond the usual course of the Rangers, in a simple fort. He had two intentions when he did this, one was a public one, and one was private to him and a few partners. The public one was to be a barrier between the Indians and the English settlers. The private one was to work the silver mine in which he was an investor with a few other people, including Christoph von Graffenried (or de Graffenried as he liked to be called).
Two years later, nothing had been accomplished at this silver mine except the investors had become discouraged about the prospects. The Germans had hardly been allowed to scratch the surface. By 1716, the prospects for silver had been totally discounted.
From Spotswood's viewpoint there had been one failure and one success. The failure, of course, was the silver mine. The success was that peace had been maintained on the frontier. The Germans had stayed at Fort Germanna in agreement with their understanding with Spotswood. As keepers of the peace, they excelled and Spotswood appreciated this. Probably also they had been hard workers, clearing the land for the farming they had to do, and building the roads for access to Fort Germanna. Even though life there was very hard for the Germans, they had not balked or skipped out.
In 1716 Spotswood was considering how he was going to support himself and live like the Virginia Gentlemen that he wanted to be. Nearly all of the German men were oriented to the land. Land was relatively cheap, but the labor was expensive. In a joint venture with Robert Beverley and others, Spotswood formed a land partnership, and they staked out about 60,000 acres, from Germanna to the far side of the future Culpeper town. The problem was where to get the labor. If at all possible, Germans were desired. It is very likely that he asked the Germans at Fort Germanna whether they could obtain fifty to a hundred more Germans.
Spotswood talked to the ship captains also as to whether they couldn't find some Germans. One of them that he talked to was Andrew Tarbett, who did not forget that Spotswood wanted Germans. In 1717, when a group of Germans fell into his clutches, he promised them what they wanted to hear (he would transport them to Pennsylvania), but proceeded to take them to Virginia instead.
Had there not been the first group at Fort Germanna, Spotswood probably would not have tried for more Germans. He liked them as willing and stable workers. These were the kind of people he wanted. They did not make trouble, especially with the Indians.
The first group would not have been there except for the colonization plans of Michel, Graffenried, and the investors in George Ritter and Company.
(10 Apr 01)
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.