*[Lachen ist die beste Medizin.]
There was a difference between how the Germans in Pennsylvania and Virginia were treated. In part, the numbers of Germans made the difference.
By 1717, a significant number of Germans had arrived in Pennsylvania. Klaus Wust estimated that in 1717 that the better part of a thousand Germans came to Philadelphia. This alarmed the English who began to feel that they could be swamped by the Germans. The colony could become German not English. Then the inhabitants might vote to associate with Germany, not England. The language of the colony might become German, not English. This struck fear into the government and they voted to have a registration of all the foreigners (i.e., all from outside Great Britain) and to require all of these foreigners to take an oath of allegiance to the English Crown. Though they voted this in 1717, it was not enforced until 1727. The lists of German immigrants that we have today date from 1727.
William Penn welcomed everyone. He was a real estate promoter and he had millions of acres of land to sell. He needed immigrants to buy the land. He was of a liberal turn of mind and his own religion was outside the walls of conventional English religion. He knew what it was like to be different. He welcomed the Germans to whom he had pitched his colony.
The number of Germans who came was remarkably large. Of all the colonies in American, they regarded Pennsylvania as the most favorable.
In Virginia, the number of Germans was small. The English did not feel threatened by them. In fact, in the time of Lt. Governor Spotswood, he welcomed them as being good workers who would strengthen the colony. Again, the crown had a lot of land to sell. Selling it was more important than getting hung up about the nationality of the buyer.
A large number of Germans did come to America through Philadelphia. There were such large numbers that the shippers automatically specified the destination of their ships as Philadelphia. At the time of the Revolution, some of the German-speaking British auxiliaries kept diaries in which they recorded their experiences. One wrote with respect to Philadelphia, “If you closed your eyes, you would think you were home.” The numbers of Germans were so large that they overflowed to the adjoining Colonies, especially to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. This did not particularly alarm the government in Virginia which was Tidewater oriented. The Valley was too far away for them to become excited about the Germans living there.
*[Laughter is the best medicine.]
(22 Mar 07)
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.