| Early 18th Century Immigration (1729-1763) |
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Sections:- Gottlieb Mittelberger: “Packed Densely, Like Herrings”: A Warning His Countryman of the Perils of Emigration (1750)
- Gottlieb Mittelberger: “Work and labor in this new and wild land are very hard.” (1750)
- William Moraley: The Infortunate (1729)
- Benjamin Franklin: America as a Land of Opportunity (1751)
- King George III: A Royal Proclamation (October 7, 1763)
- John Barbot: A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea (1732)
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| Historical Context
In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, many colonists arrived as indentured servants or bondsmen who served a term of service before receiving their freedom. This practice meant that impoverished Germans and other Europeans financed their passage across the Atlantic. Between 1749 and 1754 more than 30,000 Germans came to Pennsylvania, and by mid-century they constituted about one third of the colony’s population.
Attached Documents
Gottlieb Mittelberger arrived in Philadelphia in late 1750 aboard the Osgood, along with 500 of his fellow countrymen. With fortunes better than most, he settled as an organist and schoolmaster in New Providence, a German farming community outside Philadelphia. He found much distasteful about his new home and returned in 1754 to write an expose warning Germans about fraudulent accounts of ideal conditions in America.
Questions to Consider
1) How does Mittelberger describe the sea voyage?
2) What was the condition of the food supplies aboard ship?
3) Do you think that this description discouraged people from emigrating to the colonies? Why or why not?
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| Historical Context
William Penn’s colony of Pennsylvania, founded in 1681, attracted many poor European migrants. Many colonists financed their migration by arriving as indentured servants. Indentured servants were an important source of labor in the colonies; those arriving in the 17th century usually signed contracts (known as indentures) for a fixed term and upon completion received their freedom and a suit of clothes, a similar practice to apprenticeship.
Attached Documents
The Germans whom Gottlieb Mittelberger observed in the mid-18th century, however, had no formal contracts; instead they were auctioned off to he highest bidder upon arrival, a practice that Mittelberger labeled as barbaric, and “a sale in human beings.” Mittelberger, an organist and schoolmaster, found much in North America not to his taste, and returned to Germany in a few years where he wrote a book warning Germans of the dangers of emigration to the New World.
Questions to Consider
1) How did those who could not pay for their voyage finally get off the ship? What about those who were ill?
2) Why would parents sell their children into indentured servitude? What was the length of service for a child?
3) What were the indenture contracts like for someone whose spouse was will?
4) At on point in the excerpt below, Mittelberger uses the medieval term “serf” to describe the indentured servants. What kind of connotations does the term “serf” carry with it? Is this an appropriate description of the life these indentured servants faced? Why or why not?
5) How does Mittelberger describe working conditions in the colonies?
6) What advice does Mittelberger have for those who are considering emigration to America?
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| Historical Context
Many travelers made their way to Philadelphia and the Mid-Atlantic colonies in the eighteenth century in search of economic opportunity, but not all experienced the fabulous success of Benjamin Franklin. William Moraley, born in 1699 into a modest artisanal family, was more typical. Economic cycles were often critical in determining migration patterns; approximately 73,000 people left for the British colonies in the1730s, twice the average of earlier in the century (17,000 arrived in Philadelphia). Like half of all European emigrants to North America in the eighteenth-century, Moraley faced grim conditions at home. After the death of his father, a journeyman clockmaker, Moraley possessed scarce resources and was imprisoned for debt.
Attached Documents
The thirty-year-old Moraley bound himself for five years as a servant in the British North American colonies. He titled his picaresque account of life in Britain and America The Infortunate: The Voyage and Adventures of William Moraley, an Indentured Servant.
Questions to Consider
1) Upon what does Moraley blame his misfortune?
2) What kind of trouble did he run into in London? How did he attempt to resolve this? Who acted on his behalf?
3) Having failed in London, what does Moraley decide to do? Why does he decide this? By whom was he encouraged / recruited?
4) What was Moraley’s trade skill? Would this skill be of use where he was going? What kinds of terms did he have to agree to in order to grant him passage?
5) What do you think of the man who recruited him?
6) How does Moraley describe his fellow indentured servants on the voyage?
7) To whom was he indentured?
8) Was he happy with his master and service in Burlington? Where did he wish to go? How did his master react? What did Moraley attempt to do? How was this situation finally resolved?
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| Historical Context
Perhaps the most important essay written by an American during the eighteenth century, Franklin's "Observations Concerning the Increase of mankind" was one of the first serious studies of demography. In the early nineteenth century it would serve as an inspiration for Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), who based his grim law of population (that population would inevitably outstrip the food supply) on Franklin's calculations. But Franklin's argument was, in fact, quite different from Malthus's bleak prophesy. Franklin, like other Americans as late as Lincoln, held to a belief that no man in America needed to long remain a laborer for others. Despite the doubling of the population in every twenty years or so, America remained a land of opportunity, where wages remained high and even slaves were expensive.
Attached Documents
What is perhaps most striking about Franklin's essay today is his sophisticated use of "social science" data to convince the British ministry to alter its colonial policies. Particularly jarring, however, is Franklin's plea that America be maintained as an entirely Anglo-Saxon society.
The image is a portrait of Benjamin Franklin.
Questions to Consider
1) How does Franklin compare the populations of Europe and America?
2) What does he say about the cost of land in America?
3) How does he describe the custom of marriage and the rate of childbirth in America?
4) From the perspective of a plantation owner, how does Franklin describe the cost of labor? What are his reasons for this assessment?
5) What advice does he have for Britain?
6) What does Franklin say about slavery? What about the slaves themselves? Do you think his reasoning is sound? Why or why not?
7) What does he say about the population of Englishmen in America? About the rate of population increase?
8) How does Franklin feel about the ethnic makeup of the colonies? Does this change your view of Benjamin Franklin at all? Why or why not?
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| Historical Context
The issues of immigration and westward expansion became increasingly important to colonial leaders. England attempted to prevent further westward expansion in order to settle areas under British influence rather than the wilderness regions where settlers could follow their own colonial rules and laws. As a result, King George III issued a proclamation in 1763 which limited the areas in which immigrants could settle in the English colonies.
Attached Documents
The first file is The Royal Proclamation of 1763.
The image is a portrait of King George III.
Questions to Consider
1) Why does the king claim that immigrants should settle in these specified areas? Do you feel that was his true motivation? Why or why not?
2) Whose land does he claim he is concerned about protecting?
3) What is to be done with lands outside the specified area that had already been purchased?
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| Historical Context
English slave trade began in 16th century. A London slave-trade monopoly was given to the Royal African Company in 1672. In 1698, slave trading was opened to all merchants. This competition skyrocketed the number of slaves entering North America.
Attached Documents
John Barbot, an agent for the French Royal African Company, made at least two voyages to the West Coast of Africa, in 1678 and 1682. The following excerpt discusses the mean by which many Africans were captured and sold as slaves.
Questions to Consider
1) How do the European slave traders get their slaves? Do you find this surprising? Why or why not?
2) What does Barbot say about how the slaves within Africa are treated by their African masters? Do you think they were treated any better by American-European masters?
3) How does Barbot compare the treatment of slaves by American-Europeans to that by African masters? What do you think of this argument?
4) How does Barbot explain the lack of nutrition for the slaves upon the ships?
5) How did the different national slave trading companies distinguish their slaves from one and other?
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