Pennsylvania German Enslavers: A Re-examination

Learn about Pennsylvania Germans' history of enslavement. With a bevy of emerging digitized materials now available to do the granular research needed, researchers and family historians can better assess the role of Pennsylvania Germans in human bondage practices. The presentation will offer starting points to looking at the documents, and it will start the discussion of why German immigrants escaping serfdom in Europe participated in African slavery.

[@writtwoodson6879]

The 1780 Pennsylvania Emancipation Act was not an act for immediate emancipation, but it was very effective. In 1800 there were about 1,700 enslaved people in the commonwealth and about 14,500 free black Pennsylvanians. That is nearly nine free black residents for every enslaved person. --- I am able to trace three black Pennsylvanian ancestral lines to a time before the U S Constitution was adopted. I was able to certify one of those ancestral lines with the First Families of Pennsylvania program as a Colony and Commonwealth member. --- I was able to identify one German American ancestor, but I don't have her maiden surname. So, I have a brick wall. I can't go to the ship manifests without a surname.
I find that historians and the popular culture place little value on the Pennsylvania Emancipation. I value it for the same reason that George Washington is valued more than Millard Fillmore. It paved the way. It preceded British colonial emancipations. Pennsylvania was the first democracy in human history to adopt emancipation. Tip O'Neal said that all politics is local. Maybe all history is personal.

[@cherylcobern4483]

Thank you for sharing this.

[@Bluetail36]

Stumbled on this-I, too, am a Hiester, descended from Jost, so you and I are also distantly related! Very interesting presentation.

[@karstent.66]

I am at 14:31, and I haven`t heard the speaker saying, that Mr. William Penn heavily advertised in Germany, back than, to come into HIS stated to settle. William Penn was the founder and owner of Pennsylvania. And he was british. Or English. Pls do not forget important details .

[@pittsyltucky]

Slaveholders... the "enslavers" were those back in Africa.

[@thomasphillips8539]

I think you are a bit overly dramatic. I've done family research for 5 decades and studied PA records, and I can conclude that the PA Dutch were NOT slave owners. They mostly had small farms and a lot of kids.
My Holland Dutch ancestors who settled in NY, however, were slave owners and had slaves in both New York and New Jersey.

[@jefffeeser7230]

York, PA

[@julin2rs548]

Reading, PA. Berks County.

[@AndyHoke]

Maybe you don't follow history, but Germany wasn't even a country until 1866. Not your area.

[@rosiefogus7570]

1741 Lorentz Crone st mark ship

[@Tincan21ify]

Academics like to refer to this group as Pennsylvania Germans because of the contemporary linguistic derivation. Sadly this diminishes not only the cultural legacy of the people but the language itself. The people themselves refer to their ethnicity as Pennsylvania Dutch as did the English of the time. Germany wasn't even a country until 1866.

[@DougFrantz]

Suggesting only anabaptist had religious reasons for leaving is a bit simple minded and caused for a short view from myself. Re-examination of history should not be based on oversimplification for the purpose of shaping a modern view.

[@user-hg9sl5yz4e]

Benjamin Franklin made a interesting observation about Pennsylvania Germans.

[@JA51711]

My German ancestor settled in Northampton County 1749s from palatinate and public records show that he did not own any indentured servants in fact he was an Evangelical Lutheran who were abolitionists.

[@laurabushby4696]

Thunder Bay Ontario

[@Tincan21ify]

For the earliest settlers during the British era there were originally only three counties: Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester.
Early claims on land in - for example - Berks or Montgomery, might have originally been recorded in Philadelphia Co.
William Penn forbade "unfair dealing" with the Indians and on that basis denied some land claims. Do any of those early court records exist?

[@PorchHonkey]

Oh.

[@lesjones5684]

😂😂😂

[@yoda5565]

Joseph Hiester's name was used for a female dormitory hall at Penn State. One day each Spring the young ladies would grace us with "shows" from their lit, back-lit or dimly lit windows. Not sure what this has to do with German Americans, but I hope it's still tradition.

[@Tincan21ify]

For some context on the origins and conditions of slavery in the early colonies consider the *recruitment* of sailors by the Dutch East India company (and later the British Navy). Also interesting is the trade in sugar and molasses. Very early colonists were extracting sugar and molasses from beet and pumpkin. Refined sugarcane was a product of Caribbean colonial plantations and like the origin of the early enslaved Africans.

[@Impulse_Photography]

Schuylkill County Pa

[@johndersham1]

Fort Payne Alabama by way of Mifflinburg Pennsylvania.

[@markhuber6231]

Chambersburg pa.

[@skrame01]

Pretty lady.

[@TseliosDimotikos]

Dutch. Not German. DUTCH. It's easy. :-(

[@Owl350]

One thing is for sure Africans aren't the only ones hear.

[@PorchHonkey]

O