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This letter
was written by our immigrant ancestor, and made a large affect on the
number of immigrants that came from Germany to America. During the 1750’s till the Revolution War,
very few people came, and after the American Rev. War of 1776. There was
very little immigration until the 1830’s, and this must of hurt “William
Penn’s” Colonies a lot.
The letter
must have been saved and passed all over Germany, and over the years – somehow
got back to America, and in turn found a way to some Genealogy library.
A distant
Kunkle cousin found it, and sent a copy to James long ago. It had been copied –
and recopied so many times that it needed to be retyped, and so he did retype
it for his KUNKEL history book.
Johannes and Anna Magdalena KUNKEL
(B 1704, Flörsbach, Germany)
Our German
Immigrant Ancestors who crossed the Great Atlantic Ocean in the Ship “Patience”
on –16 September 1748 for their
New Home in
America.
In the month of May, 1748, I departed from Flörsbach, (
I have carefully inquired into the conditions
of what I describe here, that I have experienced myself, and partly heard from
trustworthy people who were familiar with the circumstances. The fatalities
which I suffered on my journey, and the evil tricks of the newlanders,
which they intended to pay me and my family, as I shall relate hereafter, have
awakened the first impulse in me not to keep concealed what I knew of the
wretched and grievous condition of those who traveled from Germany to this new
land. The outrageous and merciless proceedings of the Dutch man-dealers and
their man-stealing emissaries; I mean the so-called newlanders,
for they steal, as it were, German people under all manner of false pretenses,
and deliver them unto the hands of the great Dutch traffickers in human souls.
Many Wurtembergers,
Durlachers and Palatines, of whom there are a great
number there who repent and regret it while they live that they left their
native country, to make this misery and sorrow known in Germany, so that not
only the common people, but even princes and lords, might learn how they had
fared, to prevent other innocent souls from leaving their fatherland, persuaded
thereto by the newlanders, and from being sold into a
like slavery. To the best of my
knowledge and ability, I hope, therefore, that my beloved countrymen and all
Germany will obtain accurate information as to how far it is to Pennsylvania,
and how long it takes to get there; what the journey costs, and besides, what
hardships and dangers one has to pass through; what takes place when the people
arrive well or ill in the country; how they are sold and dispersed; and finally
the nature and condition of the whole land.
When all this will have been read, I do
not doubt that those who may still desire to go there, will remain in their
fatherland, and carefully avoid this long and tedious journey and the
fatalities connected with it; as such a journey involves with most a loss of
their property, liberty and peace; with not a few even loss of life, and I may
well say, of the salvation of their souls.
From Flörsbach to Holland and the open sea
we count about 200 hours; from there across the sea to Old England as far as Kaupp (Cowes), where the ships
generally cast anchor before they start on the great sea voyage, 150 hours; and
from there, till England is entirely lost sight of, about 100 hours; and then
across the great ocean, that is from land-to-land, 1200 hours, according to the
statements of mariners; at length from the first land in Pennsylvania to
Philadelphia over 40 hours. Which makes
together a journey of 1,700 hours or 1,700 French miles.
This journey lasts from the beginning of
May to the middle of September, nearly five months, amid such hardships, as no
one is able to describe adequately with their misery. The cause is because the
Rhine boats from Heilbronn to Holland to pass by 36
custom-houses, at all of which the ships are examined, which is done when it
suits the convenience of the custom-house officials. In the meantime the ships
with the people are detained long, so that the passengers have to spend much
money. The trip down the Rhine River alone lasts therefore, 4, 5 and even 6
weeks. When the ships with the people come to Holland, they are detained there
likewise 5 or 6 weeks, because things are very dear there, the poor people have
to spend nearly all they have during that time. Not to mention many sad
accidents which occur here; having seen with my own eyes how a man, as he was
about to board the ship near Rotterdam, lost two children at once by drowning.
Both in Rotterdam and in Amsterdam the
people are packed densely, like herrings so to say, in the large sea-vessels.
One person received a place of scarcely 2 feet width and 6 feet length in the
bedstead, while many a ship carries four to six-hundred souls; not to mention
the innumerable implements, tools, provisions, water-barrels and other things
which likewise occupy much space.
On account of contrary winds, it takes the
ships sometimes 2, 3, and 4 weeks to make the trip from Holland to Kaupp (Cowes) in England. But
when the wind is good, they get there in 8 days or even sooner. Everything is
examined there and the custom-duties paid, whence it comes that the ships ride
there 8, 10 to 14 days and even longer at anchor, till they have taken in their
full cargoes. During that time everyone is compelled to spend his last
remaining money and to consume his little stock of provisions which had been
reserved for the sea; so that most passengers, finding themselves on the ocean
where they would be in greater need of them, must greatly suffer from hunger
and want. Many suffer want already on the water between Holland and Old
England.
When the ships have for the last time
weighed their anchors near the city of Cowes in Old
England, the real misery begins with the long voyage. From there the ships,
unless they have good wind, must often sail 8, 9, 10 to 12 weeks before they
reach Philadelphia. But even with the best wind the voyage lasts 7 weeks. But
during the voyage there is on board these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes,
horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat,
constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot, and the like, all of which come
from old and sharply salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water,
so that many die miserably.
Add to this want of provisions, hunger,
thirst, frost, heat, dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions and lamentations,
together with other trouble, as c.v the lice abound
so frightfully, especially on sick people, that they can be scraped off the
body. The misery reaches the climax when
a gale rages for 2 or 3 nights and days, so that everyone believes that the
ship will go to the bottom with all human beings on board. In such a visitation the people cry and pray
most piteously.
When in such a gale the sea rages and
surges, so that the waves rise often like high mountains one above the other,
and often tumble over the ship so that fears to go down with the ship; when the
ship is constantly tossed from side to side by the storm and waves, so that no
one can either walk, or sit, or lie, and the closely packed people in the
berths are thereby tumbled over each other, both in sick and the well. It will
be readily understood that many of these people, none of whom had been prepared
for hardships, suffer so terribly from them they do not survive it.
I myself had to pass through a severe
illness at sea, and I best know how I felt at the time. These poor people often
long for consolation, and I often entertained and comforted them with singing,
praying and exhorting; and whenever it was possible and the winds and waves
permitted it, I kept daily prayer-meetings with them on deck. Besides, I
baptized five children in distress, because we had no ordained minister on
board. I also held divine service every Sunday by reading sermons to the
people; and when the dead were sunk in the water, I commended them and our
souls to the mercy of God.
Among the healthy, impatience sometimes
grows so great and cruel that one curses the other, or himself and the day of
his birth, and sometimes comes near killing each other. Misery and malice join
each other, so that they cheat and rob one another. One always reproaches the
other with having persuaded him to undertake the journey. Frequently children
cry out against their parents, husbands against their wives and wives against
their husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and acquaintances against each
other. But most against the soul-traffickers.
Many sigh and cry: “Oh, that I were at
home again, and if I had to lie in my pig-sty!” Or they say: “O God, if I only
had a piece of good bread, or a good fresh drop of water”. Many people whimper,
sigh and cry piteously for their homes; most of them get homesick. Many hundred
people necessarily die and perish in such misery, and must be cast into the
sea, which drives their relatives, or those who persuaded them to undertake the
journey, to such despair that it is almost impossible to pacify and console
them. In a word, the sighing and crying and lamenting on board the ship
continues night and day, so as to cause the hearts even of the most hardened to
bleed when they hear it.
No one can have any idea of the sufferings
which women in confinement have to bear, to bear with their innocent children
on board these ships. Few of this class
escape with their lives; many a mother is cast into the water with her child as
soon as she is dead. One day, just as we
had a heavy gale, a woman in our ship, who was to give birth and could not give
birth under the circumstances, was pushed through a loop-hole (port-hole) in
the ship and dropped into the sea, because she was far in the rear of the ship
and could not be brought forward.
Children from 1 to 7 years rarely survived
the voyage; and many a time parents are compelled to see their children
miserably suffer and die from hunger, thirst, and sickness, and then to see
them cast into the water. I witnessed
such misery in no less than 32 children in our ship, all of whom were thrown
into the sea. The parents grieve all the
more since their children find no resting-place in the earth, but are devoured
by the monsters of the sea. It is a
notable fact that children, who have not had the measles or smallpox, generally
get them on board the ship, and mostly die of them.
Often a father is separated by death from
his wife and children, or mothers from their little children, or even both
parents from their children; and sometimes whole families die in quick
succession; so that often many dead persons lie in the berths beside the living
ones, especially when contagious diseases have broken out on board the ship.
Many other accidents happen on board these ships, especially by falling,
whereby people are often cripples and can never be set right again. Some have
also fallen into the ocean.
That most of the people get sick is not
surprising, because, in addition to all other trials and hardships, warm food
is served only three times a week, and rations being very poor and very little.
Such meals can hardly be eaten, on account of being so unclean. The water which
is served out on the ships is often very black, thick and full of worms so that
one cannot drink it without loathing, even with the greatest thirst. O surely,
one would often give much money at sea for a piece of good bread, or a drink of
water, not to say a drink of good wine, if it were only to be had. I myself
experienced that sufficiently, I was sorry to say. Toward the end we were
compelled to eat the ship’s biscuit which had been spoiled long ago; though in
a whole biscuit there was scarcely a piece the size of a dollar that had not
been full of red worms and spider’s nests. Great hunger and thirst force us to
eat and drink everything; but many a one does so at the risk of his life. The
seawater cannot be drunk because it is salt and bitter as gall. If this were
not so, such a voyage could be made with less expense and without so many
hardships.
At length, when, after a long and tedious
voyage, the ships come in sight of land, so that the promontories can be seen,
which the people were so eager and anxious to see, all creep from below on deck
to see the land from afar, and they weep for joy, and pray and sing, thanking
and praising God. The sight of the land makes the people on board the ship
especially the sick and the half dead, alive again, so that their hearts leap
within them; they shout and rejoice, and are content to bear their misery in
patience, in the hope that they may soon reach the land in safety. But alas!
When the ships have landed at Philadelphia
after their long voyage, no one is permitted to leave them except those who pay
for their passage or can give good security; the others who cannot pay, must
remain on board the ships till they are purchased, and are released from the
ships by their purchasers. The sick always fare the worst, for the healthy are
naturally preferred and purchased first; and so the sick and wretched must
often remain on board in front of the city for 2 or 3 weeks, and frequently
die, whereas many a one, if he could pay his debt and were permitted to leave
the ship immediately, might recover and remain alive.
Before I describe how this traffic in
human flesh is conducted, I must mention how much the journey to Philadelphia
or Pennsylvania costs: A person over 10 years pays for the passage from
Rotterdam to Philadelphia 10 Pounds, or 60 florins. Children from 5 to 10 years
pay half price, 5 pounds or 30 florins. All children under 5 years are free.
For these prices the passengers are conveyed to Philadelphia, and, as long as
they are at sea, provided with food, though with very poor, as has been shown
above.
But this is only the
sea-passage; in other costs on land, from home to Rotterdam, including the
passage on the Rhine, are at least 40 florins, no matter how economically one
may live. No account is here taken of extraordinary contingencies. I may safely
assert that, with the greatest economy, many passengers have spent 200 florins
from home to Philadelphia.
The sale of human beings in the market on
board the ship is carried on thus: Every day Englishmen, Dutchmen and
High-German people come from the city of Philadelphia and other places, in part
from a great distance, say 20, 30 or 40 hours away, and go on board the newly
arrived ship that has brought and offers for sale passengers from Europe, and
select among the healthy persons such as they deem suitable for their business,
and bargain with them how long they will serve for their passage-money, which
most of them are still in debt for. When they have come to an agreement, it
happens that adult person bind themselves in writing to serve 3, 4, 5 or 6
years for the amount due by them, according to their age and strength. But very
young people, from 10 to 15 years must serve till they are 21 years old.
Many parents must sell and trade away
their children like so many head of cattle; for if their children take the debt
upon themselves, the parents can leave the ship free and unrestrained; but as
the parents often do not know where and to what people their children are
going, it often happens that such parents and children, after leaving the ship,
do not see each other again for many years, perhaps no more in all their lives.
When people arrive who cannot make
themselves free, but have children under 5 years, the parents cannot free
themselves by them; for such children must be given to somebody without
compensation to be brought up, and they must serve for their bringing up till
they are 21 years old. Children from 5 to 10 years, who pay half price for
their passage, viz. 30 florins, must likewise serve for it till they are 21
years of age; they cannot, therefore, redeem their parents by taking the debt
of the latter upon themselves. But children above 10 years can take part of
their parents’ debt upon themselves.
A woman must stand for her husband if he
arrives sick, and in like manner a man for his sick wife, and take the debt
upon herself or himself, and thus serve 5 to 6 years not alone for his or her
own debt, but also for that of the sick husband or wife. But if both are sick,
such persons are sent from the ship to the sick-house (Hospital), but not until
it appears probable that they will find no purchasers. As soon as they are well
again they must serve for their passage, or pay if they have means.
It often happens that whole families,
husband, wife and children, are separated by being sold to different
purchasers, especially when they have not paid any part of their passage money.
When a husband or wife has died at sea,
when the ship has made more than half of her trip, the survivor must pay or
sever not only for himself or herself, but also for the deceased.
When both parents have died over halfway
at sea, their children, especially when they are young and have nothing to pawn
or to pay, must stand for their own and their parents’ passage, and serve till
they are 21 years old. When one has served his or her term, he or she is
entitled to a new suit of clothes at parting; and if it has been so stipulated,
a man gets in addition a horse, a woman and a cow.
When a serf has an opportunity to marry in
this country, he or she must pay for each year, which he or she would have yet to
serve for 5 to 6 Pounds. But many who has thus purchased and paid for his
bride, has subsequently repented his bargain, so that he would gladly have
returned his exorbitantly dear ware, and lost the money besides.
If someone in this country runs away from
his master, who has treated him harshly, he cannot get far. Good provision has
been made for such cases, so that a runaway is soon recovered. He who detains
or returns a deserted receives a good reward.
If such a runaway has been away from his
master one day, he must serve for it as a punishment a week, for a week a
month, and for a month a half a year. But if the master will not keep the
runaway after he has got him back, he may sell him for so many years, as he
would have to serve him yet.
Work and labor in this new and wild land
are very hard and manifold, and many a one who came there in his old age must
work very hard to his end for his bread. I will not speak of young people. Work
mostly consists in cutting wood, felling oak trees, rooting out, or as they say
here, clearing large tracts of forest. Such forests, being cleared, are then
laid out for fields and meadows. From the best hewn wood, fences are made
around the new fields; for there are meadows, orchards and fruit-fields, are
surrounded and fenced in with planks made of thickly-split wood, laid one above
the other, as in zigzag lines, and within such enclosures, horses, cattle and
sheep are permitted to graze. Our Europeans, who are purchased, must always
work hard, for new fields are constantly laid out; and so they learn that
stumps of oak trees are in America certainly as hard as in Germany. In this lot
land they fully experience in their own persons that God has imposed on man for
his sin and disobedience; for in Genesis we read words: “In the sweat of thy
brow shalt thou eat bread.” Who therefore wishes to
earn his bread in a Christian and honest way, and cannot earn it in his
fatherland otherwise then by the work of his hands, let him do so in his own
country, and not in America; for he will not fare better in America. However
hard he may be compelled to work in his fatherland, he will surely find it
quite as hard, if not harder in the new country. Besides, there is not only a
long and arduous journey lasting nearly half-a-year, during which he has to
suffer, more than with the hardest work; he has also spent about 200 florins
which no one will refund to him. If he has so much money, it will slip out of
his hands; if he has it not, he must work his debt off as a slave and poor
serf. Therefore, let everyone stay in his own country and support himself and
his family honestly. Besides, I say, that those who suffer themselves to be
persuaded and enticed away by the man-thieves are very foolish if they believe
that roasted pigeons will fly into their mouths in America or Pennsylvania
without their working for them.
How miserably and wretchedly so many
thousand German families have fared. 1) Since they lost all their cash means in
consequence of the long and tedious journey, 2) Because many of them died
miserably and were thrown into the water, 3) Because, on account of their great
poverty, most of these families after reaching the land are separated from each
other and sold far away from each other, the young and the old. And the saddest
of all this is that parents must generally give away their minor children
without receiving a compensation for them; inasmuch as such children never see
or meet their fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters again; and as many of them
are not raised in any Christian faith by the people whom they are given.
For there are many doctrines of faith and
sects in Pennsylvania which cannot all be enumerated, because many a one will
not confess to what faith he belongs.
Besides, there are many hundreds of adult
persons who have not been and do not even wish to be baptized. There are many
who think nothing of the sacraments and the Holy Bible, nor even of God and His
Word. Many do not believe that there is a true God and devil, a heaven and a hell,
salvation and damnation, a resurrection of the dead, a judgment and an eternal
life; they believe that all one can see is natural. For in Pennsylvania
everyone may not only believe in what he will, but he may even say it freely
and openly. Consequently, when young persons, not yet grounded in religion,
come to serve for many years with such free-thinkers and infidels, and are not
sent to any church or school by such people, especially when they live far from
any school or church. Thus it happens that such innocent souls come to no true
divine recognition, and grow up like heathens and Indians.
A voyage is sometimes dangerous to people,
who bring money or goods away with them from home, because much is spoiled at
sea by entering sea-water; sometimes they are even robbed on board the ship by
dishonest people; so that such formerly opulent persons find themselves in a
most deplorable condition.
I avail myself of this opportunity to
relate to a few remarkable and most disastrous cases of shipwrecks. In the year
1754, on St. James’ Day, a ship with some 360 souls on board, mostly Wurtembergers, Durlachers and
Palatines, was hurled by a gale in the night upon a rock between Holland and
Old England. It received three shocks, each accompanied by a tremendous crash,
and finally it split lengthwise asunder at the bottom, so that the water
entered, which rose so fast that the ship began to sink early in the morning.
At the last extremity, when the people endeavored to save themselves, 63
persons sprang into a boat. But as this boat was too overburdened, and another
person reached it by swimming, holding persistently on to it, it was not
possible to drive him away till they chopped his hands off, when he went down.
Another person, in order to save himself, jumped on a barrel which had fallen
out of the large ship, but which immediately capsized and sank with him. But
the passengers in the large ship held on partly to the rigging, partly to the
masts; many of them stood deep in the water; beat their hands together above
their heads and raised an indescribably piteous hue and cry. As the boat
steered away, its occupants saw the large ship with 300 souls on board sink to
the bottom before their eyes. But the merciful God sent those who had saved
themselves in the boat, an English ship that had been sailing near, and which
took the poor shipwrecks on board and brought them back to the land. This great
disaster would never been known in Germany if the ship had gone down during the
night with all its human freight on board.
The following fatal voyage, where all the
passengers were Germans, has probably not become known in Germany at all. In
the year 1752 a ship arrived at Philadelphia which was fully six months at sea
from Holland to Philadelphia. This ship had weathered many storms throughout
the winter and could not reach the land; finally another ship came to the
assistance of the half-wrecked and starved vessel. Of about 340 souls, this
ship brought 21 persons to Philadelphia, who stated that they had not only
spent fully six months at sea, and had been driven by the storm to the coast of
Ireland, but that most of the passengers had died by starvation, that they had
lost their masts and sails, captain and mates, and that the rest would never
have reached the land if God had not sent another ship to their aid which
brought them to land.
There is another case of a lost ship that
has probably never been made known in Germany. That ship sailed a few years ago
with almost exclusively German passengers, from Holland to Philadelphia, but
nothing was ever heard of it except that a notice was afterward sent from
Holland to the merchants of Philadelphia. Such cases of entirely lost and
shipwrecked vessels are not reported to Germany, for fear that it might deter
the people from migrating and induce them to stay at home.
I cannot possibly pass over in silence
what was reported to me by a reliable person in Pennsylvania, in a package of
letters which left Philadelphia December 10, 1754, and came to my hands September
1, 1755. These letters lament the fact that last autumn, AD. 1754, to the very
great burden of the country, more than 22,000 souls (there was a great
emigration from Wurtemberg at that time) had arrived
in Philadelphia alone, mostly Wurtembergers, Palatines,
Durlachers and Swiss, who had been so wretchedly sick
and poor that most of these people had been obliged to sell their children on
account of their great poverty. The country, so the letter stated, had been
seriously molested by this great mass of people, especially by the many sick
people, many of whom were still daily filling the graves.
From 20 to 24 ships with passengers
arrived at Philadelphia alone every autumn, which amounted in 4 years to more
than 25,000 souls, exclusive of those who died at sea or since they left home,
and without counting those ships which sailed with their passengers to other
English colonies, as New York, Boston, Maryland, Nova Scotia, and Carolina,
whereby very unwelcome, especially in the city of Philadelphia. But that so
many people emigrated to America, and particularly to Pennsylvania, is due to
the deceptions and persuasions practiced by the so-called newlanders.
These men-thieves inveigle people of every
rank and profession, among them many soldiers, scholars, artists, and
mechanics. They rob the princes and lords of their subjects and take them to
Rotterdam or Amsterdam to be sold there. They receive there from their
merchants for every person of 10 years and over 3 florins or a ducat; whereas
the merchants get in Philadelphia, 60, 70, or 80 florins for such a person, in
proportion as said person has incurred more or less debts during the voyage.
When such a newlander has collected a “transport,”
and if it does not suit him to accompany them to America, he stays behind,
passes the winter in Holland or elsewhere; in the spring he obtains again money
in advance for emigrants to his merchants, goes to Germany again, pretending
that he had come from Pennsylvania with the intention of purchasing all sorts
of merchandise which he was going to take there.
Frequently these newlanders
say that they had received power-of-attorney from some countrymen or from the
authorities of Pennsylvania to obtain legacies or inheritances for these countrymen;
and that they would avail themselves of this good and sure opportunity to take
their friends, brothers or sisters, or even their parents with them; and it was
often happened that such old people followed them, trusting to the persuasion
of these newlanders that they would be better
provided for.
Such old people they seek to get away with
them in order to entice other people to follow them. Thus they have seduced
many away who said that if such and such relatives of theirs went to America, they
would risk it too. These men-thieves resort to various tricks, never forgetting
to display their money before the poor people, but which is nothing else, but a
bait from Holland and accursed blood money.
Many people who go to Philadelphia entrust
their money, which they have brought with them from home, to these new-landers. But these thieves often remain in Holland with the
money, or sail from there with another ship to another English colony, so that
the poor defrauded people, when they reach the country, have no other choice
but to serve or to sell their children, if they have any, only to get away from
the ship.
It is impossible, however, to discuss all
these circumstances; besides I am sure that the newlanders
and men-thieves, on coming to Germany, never reveal the truth about these
wretched voyages full of dangers and hardships. Frequently many letters are
entrusted in Pennsylvania and other English colonies to newlanders
who return to the Old Country. When they get to Holland, they have these
letters opened, or they open them themselves, and if any one has written the
truth, his letter is either rewritten so as to suit the purpose of these
harpies, or simply destroyed.
From the city of London to the point where
we lost Old England of sight we count 325 English miles; then, from land to
land, that is from the last land in Old England to the first land in
Pennsylvania is 3,600 such miles, from there to Philadelphia is 125 miles,
which makes together 4,050 English miles, or 1,350 German or rather Swabian hours. Three English miles make Swabian
hours, but 25 such hours make a degree, just as the French land miles. When the
ships come near this land, they sail from the ocean into the great river. This
is a large bay formed by the Delaware River, or rather; it is the Delaware
River itself, which is very broad here. On the way to Philadelphia one sees on
both sides a large flat land with woods here and there. The passage from the
sea, and the entrance into the great river is in the northwesterly direction.
The Delaware River separates below at the entrance, the two colonies,
Pennsylvania and Maryland, from each other; Maryland to the left, Pennsylvania
to the right.
While on the River, we can see much high
mountain land, especially the Blue Mountains, and on the left hand the tall and
exceedingly beautiful cedar trees. At the entrance from the sea the river is so
broad that we can scarcely see the land on either side. It grows gradually
narrower, and at Philadelphia the Delaware is about half an hour wide. Here the
river has twice every 24 hours ebb and flow from the sea. This city lies, as
above stated, 125 English miles or 40 hours journey from the open sea, higher
up in the land, hard by said river into which most of the rivers of this colony
empty; the other waters flow into the other great main river of Pennsylvania,
which is called Susquehanna, and empties into the Chesapeake Bay. In
Philadelphia we can see the open sea through a field glass.
As soon as the ships that bring passengers
from Europe have cast their anchors in the port of Philadelphia, all male
persons of 15 years and upward are placed on the following morning into a boat
and led two-by-two, to the courthouse or town hall of the city. There they must
take the oath of allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain. This being done,
they are taken in the same manner back to the ships. Then the traffic in human
souls begins, as related above. I only add that in purchasing these people no
one asks for references as to good character or an honorable discharge. If
anyone has escaped the gallows, and had the rope still dangling around his
neck, or if he had left both his ears in Europe, nothing would be put in his
way in Pennsylvania. But if he is again caught in wrongdoing, he is hopelessly
lost for Gallows’ birds and wheel candidates. Pennsylvania, is therefore, a
desirable land.
The land of Pennsylvania is a healthy
land; it has for the most part good soil, good air and water, many high
mountains, and also much flat land; it is very rich in wood; where it is not
inhabited a pure forest in which many small waters flow. The land is also very
fertile, and all sorts of grain grow well. It is quite populous, too, inhabited
far and wide, and several new towns have been founded here and there, as
Philadelphia, Germantown, Lancaster, Rittengstaun
(Reading), Bethlehem, and new Frankfurt (Frankford). There are also many
churches built in the country; but many people have to go a journey of 2, 3, 4,
5 or 10 hours to get to church.
When
someone has died, especially in the country, where on account of the
intervening plantations and forests people live far from one another, the time
appointed for the funeral is always indicated only to the 4 nearest neighbors;
each of these in his turn notifies his own nearest neighbor. In this manner
such an invitation to a funeral is made known more than fifty English miles
around in 24 hours. If it is possible, one or more persons from each house
appear on horseback at the appointed time to attend the funeral. While the
people are coming in, good cake cut into pieces is handed around on a large tin
platter to those present; each person receives then in a goblet, a hot West
India Rum Punch, into which lemon, sugar and Juniper berries are put, which
gives it a delicious taste. After this, hot and sweetened cider is served.
This custom at the funeral assemblies in
America is just the same as that at the wedding gatherings in Europe. When the people have nearly all assembled,
and the time for the burial has come, the dead body is carried to the general
burial place (cemetery), or where that is too far away, the deceased is buried
in his field. The assembled people ride
all in silence behind the coffin, and sometimes one can count from 100 to 500
persons on horseback. The coffins are
all made of fine walnut wood and stained brown with a shining varnish.
Well-to-do people have four finely wrought brass handles attached to the
coffin, by which the latter is held and carried to the grave. If the deceased person was a young man, the
body is carried to the grave by four maidens, while that of the deceased maiden
is carried by four unmarried men.
Thus, now in America, we all give thanks
to God from the bottom of our hearts; and I kissed the ground with joy, and
took well to heart the 107th Psalm, which describes the anguish of
the seafarers so faithfully: “To the Triune God, for His mercy and preservation
to praise and thanksgiving rendered now and evermore.”
Johannes
Kunckel
Westmoreland County,
Greencastle, Pennsylvania
