The party from Siegen, accompanied by Albrecht and Haeger, arrived in Virginia on 28 Apr 1714. [This date comes from Klaus Wust.] Spotswood had received the letter from Col. Blakiston in London and he knew that he was to pay the 150 pounds on their transportation costs. Thus, they became his personal indentured servants for four years, the term that had been negotiated in London. He placed them on the frontier to serve two or three purposes. First, he had a potential silver mine not far from the location where he put them. Second, they were a general barrier to the Indians. Thirdly, they would make the land in that region more valuable. He told the Board of Trade about the second of these reasons but he certainly omitted the first reason which was probably the main reason for choosing that location. That was a personal reason, not a public reason. He told the Board about the public reason because he used public monies to build them a fort. Thus, began the first of several shady deals involving German immigrants [Klaus' words].
Life was very hard for the Germans. Fontaine, in 1715, said they lived very miserably. It was not until March of 1716 (NS) that the Germans started to do any work for Spotswood. At that time, Albrecht specified that Spotswood did put eleven laboring men to work in mines or quarries at or near Germanna; the work continued until December of 1718.
The Siegeners, well aware of their four-year contract, began to grow restless in 1718. Spotswood had acquired the Germanna tract in 1716 and he would have been happy to let them lease land from him after their service was over. The Germans, though, chose to buy more than 1,800 acres of land in the Northern Neck. Tobacco farming became the means by which they prospered.
[Spotswood had liked the Germans while they were at Germanna and he saw profitable opportunities if he could obtain more Germans.] For the fact that a ship landed in Virginia (instead of Pennsylvania, which was the original destination of the ship) with about 80 Germans, we have the word of the Captain that storms were responsible, as opposed to the impression of the Germans that the captain had a prior understanding with Spotswood. The survivors of the trip became Spotswood's indentured servants for seven years.
Later court documents reveal that Spotswood refused to give them copies of their indentures. [The purpose that Spotswood had for these Germans was to acquire land on which to base his economic future.] This second group of Germans would have been welcome to live on Spotswood's land as tenants, but, as with the first group, they moved away to land of their own.
Spotswood seems to have been irritated by the Germans who insisted upon their rights and who left him. He turned to slaves as the solution to his labor problems.
(15 May 03)
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.