Within the general background of demographic recovery, aristocratic encroachments, the rebuilding of village structures (requiring labor and taxes), and developing community cohesiveness, the crucial factors that led to so many people from the Northern Kraichgau to emigrate were the same as for all of southwestern Germany.
There was an increasing scarcity of land, overpopulation, and extreme land splitting resulting from the division of a man’s estate among all of his descendants. It just simply became hard to make a living, and especially to have something left over for the improvement of living conditions.
The burdens imposed by the rulers were very heavy. Even as late as 1776 in Virginia, when the members of the German Lutheran church petitioned to be exempt from supporting the Anglican church, they wrote,
“To the Honorable, the President and Delegates of the Convention of the Common Wealth of Virginia The Petition of the German Congregation of the County of Culpeper Showeth 22 October, 1776 That our Fathers who lived under an Arbitray Prince in Germany, and ....”
The only point that we fault them in this statement is the use of the word “prince” instead of “princes”. And few of the rulers in Germany ranked as high as “prince”.
Some farmers in Germany were well off. Hans Horch owned 71 separate pieces of land which amounted to about 26 acres in total. Christof Neu was more typical; he owned less than 15 acres of land, which he divided among his six children. Again, this land was scattered throughout the parish.
Even though there were good reasons to emigrate, few were going to America even as William Penn advertised his Colony along the Rhine River. He personally visited there, and he had agents who were trying to sell land in Pennsylvania under terms which seemed impossible to the Germans. It was not until a few brave souls did go and wrote home to Germany what conditions were like in America (especially in Pennsylvania) that potential emigrants believed it might be true and possible to do.
One of these first groups who came from the Northern Kraichgau were the Mennonites, a group of which Hans Herr was a member. Many others were going to New York, but their experiences were not so favorable.
(21 Jun 06)
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.