Every German state contributed to their number, but the bulk of
this migration came from the Palatinate, Wuerttemberg, Baden, and
Alsace, and the German cantons of Switzerland. The majority were of
the peasant and artisan class who usually came over as redemptioners.
Yet there were not wanting among them many persons of means and of
learning.
Pennsylvania was the favorite distributing point for these German
hosts. Thence they pushed southward through the beautiful Shenandoah
Valley into Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, and northward into
New Jersey. Large numbers entered at Charleston and thence went to the
frontiers of South Carolina. The Mohawk Valley in New York and the
Berkshires of Massachusetts harbored many. But not all of them moved
inland. They were to be found scattered on the coast from Maine to
Georgia. Boston, New York City, Baltimore, New Bern, Wilmington,
Charleston, and Savannah, all counted Germans in their populations.
However strictly these German neighborhoods may have maintained the
customs of their native land, the people thoroughly identified
themselves with the patriot cause and supplied soldiers, leaders,
money, and enthusiasm to the cause of the Revolutionary War.
Benjamin Rush, the distinguished Philadelphia physician and publicist,
one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, wrote in 1789 a
description of the Germans of Pennsylvania which would apply generally
to all German settlements at that time and to many of subsequent date.
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