"
Their first desire was "to become freeholders," and they almost
invariably succeeded. German merchants and bankers also prospered in
Philadelphia, Germantown, Lancaster, and other Pennsylvania towns.
One-third of the population of Pennsylvania, Rush says, was of German
origin, and for their convenience a German edition of the laws of the
State was printed.
After the Revolution, a number of the Hessian hirelings who had been
brought over by the British settled in America. They usually became
farmers, although some of the officers taught school. They joined the
German settlements, avoiding the English-speaking communities in the
United States because of the resentment shown towards them. Their
number is unknown. Frederick Kapp, a German writer, estimates that, of
the 29,875 sent over, 12,562 never returned--but he fails to tell us
how many of these remained because of Yankee bullets or bayonets.
The second period of German migration began about 1820 and lasted
through the Civil War. Before 1830 the number of immigrants fluctuated
between 200 and 2000 a year; in 1832 it exceeded 10,000; in 1834 it
was over 17,000; three years later it reached nearly 24,000; between
1845 and 1860 there arrived 1,250,000, and 200,000 came during the
Civil War.
There were several causes, working in close conjunction, that impelled
these thousands to leave Germany.
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