William Penn came into possession of Pennsylvania about 1680 as a repayment for the debt of the Crown to the Penn family. This was a lot of land, and the only way that Penn could achieve any economic gain was to sell pieces of the land. He was very realistic about prices and believed it was better to sell a lot of land at a low price rather than sell a small amount at a high price. In his personal outlook, he was a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), but very tolerant toward other religions.
About the time that Penn acquired Pennsylvania, he personally traveled up the Rhine River (toward the south) with a message that there was lots of cheap land in Pennsylvania and one could exercise his own religion if he did not disturb the rights of others. There should have been an audience to whom this was appealing. The French were invading every few years into the region along the Rhine. The Mennonites (Anabaptists in general) lived under pressure of the rulers. And after Penn left Germany, agents of his were active in recruiting.
There was a very limited response initially, resulting only in the formation of Germantown just outside of Philadelphia. Thirty years later, say around 1708, the number of Germans who had gone to America could be enumerated on one sheet of paper (with small writing). Through this period there was no shortage of good reasons for emigration. In Nassau-Siegen the actions of the Catholic Prince had caused a severe slow down in the economic life of the region and jobs were scarce. (See the article by Heinz Prinz in Beyond Germanna , page 855.)
The tentative mystery to present day observers is why so few Germans had accepted the call of William Penn to take advantage of his proposals. On analysis, it appears that the Germans were emigrating to new lands, but they were choosing to go east, not west. Why east and not west? A trip to the east was by land (perhaps with some river travel) while a trip to the west involved an ocean voyage. It is not clear why there was such a negative opinion of the ocean. There was some reason to be afraid of ocean travel because of the uncertainties and danger to life, but how did the Germans learn these facts if so few were going across the ocean?
There were also questions about how to finance the trip. Those going east had often been recruited by a ruler who assisted them. No one was helping those going west, and the expenses seemed to be high, besides being unknown. So, most of the potential emigrants were moving east and not west.
(17 Jun 04)
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.