The process of immigration from Germany to America was not trivial. In the eighteenth century, a serf or peasant usually required permission from his ruler to emigrate or leave. Using the report of Prof. Robert Rabe, who, in turn, used the laws of the German Duchy of the Palatinate as his guide, I submit a few thoughts.
In theory, it was necessary to obtain a "Permission to Emigrate" by both serfs and free men. To obtain the Permission to Emigrate, the person had to pay an emigration tax which amounted to 10% of his wealth.
By the imposition of the tax, the ruler was not trying to make a profit. He was hoping to discourage emigration, because the departure of a person subtracted from the total value of the duchy, by removal of the goods a person took with him, and by removal of a labor source. Also, in the future, the ruler would be deprived of a tax source from departing persons. So, the aim was to discourage emigration, which was done by placing an economic penalty on the person who proposed to leave.
The serf had to submit a petition to be released from bondage, and this probably involved a fee. After this, there was the 10% tax mentioned above. If the serf had sons of an age to serve in the military, then there were additional fees if the sons left before their military service was completed.
Though this tax schedule sounds as if it would be difficult for a serf to emigrate, because of his limited resources, it was often easier for a serf to emigrate than for a richer person. The serfs added very little wealth to the state, whereas the richer were desirable to have in the duchy. Beginning in 1741, only propertyless serfs were allowed to emigrate. Emigration was viewed as a method of "upgrading" the population by letting the least productive members leave, while trying to retain the most productive members.
Eleven years later, stronger measures were taken to discourage "the deeply seated emigration mania that was prevalent among the foolish and the careless."
It would seem logical for someone who wanted to emigrate to leave without obtaining permission. And, many people did just exactly that. The danger was that one might be caught, with heavy penalties set in judgment against the person. In 1764 in the Palatinate, those who attempted to leave without permission, but were caught, were deprived of all of their wealth and property.
Even though stringent laws were enacted in the Palatinate against emigration, especially unauthorized emigration, the state became less and less effective in deterring emigrants. Increased fees and more stringent regulations had only a short-lived, temporary effect.
(13 Feb 02)
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.