A SECTARIAN PARADISE ON THE ATLANTIC
(PENNSYLVANIA, CAROLINA, GEORGIA)
The American colonies, above all Pennsylvania, would provide excellent opportunities for several German sects that had experienced persecution in the old world. Some found refuge from the Catholic Church and its worldly support structure, others from fellow Protestants of more established or orthodox belief. In the colonies, some would become a separate culture within a culture. Franklin complained, "why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion?" Since Franklin then noted that "they import many books," the suspicion is strong that he may have envied the professional success of competitors who distributed books and published successful German newspapers, when his own early attempt failed. Despite Franklin's fears, the immigrants and their descendants became good citizens, and those separatists that still speak German at home and in their religious meetings, are regarded as tourist attractions.
William Penn, 1644-1718. Beschreibung der in America neu-erfundenen Provinz Pensylvanien. Derer Jnwohner, Gesetz, Arth, Sitten und Gebrauch: auch sämtlicher Reviren des Landes, sonderlich der Haupt-Stadt Phila-Delphia. [Hamburg]: Heinrich Heuss, 1684.
This work came to Germany by way of a Dutch translation of Penn’s original letter to the Committee of the Free Society of Traders in 1683, together with “An abstract of a letter from Thomsas Paskell.” The city plan shown is a mind-easing addition to an attractive portrait of what the Pennsylvania colony has to offer a prospective immigrant. Just the list of available edible wildlife reads like an enticing menu: “Of the shellfish there are oysters, crabs, cockles, ocean-eel, [and] mussels; some oysters are well 6 thumbs long, and some of the cockles or shellfish are as large as the oysters one is accustomed to in England, and yield a very good soup.” And Penn notes that there are plants that are good for healing swellings, burns, and wounds, and available in good numbers. Above all, Penn emphasized the religious freedom to be enjoyed there.
Josua Kocherthal, 1669-1719. Aussführlich, und umständlicher Bericht von der berühmten Landschaft Carolina. Frankfurt am Main: G. H. Oehrling, 1709.
As soon as he has placed South Carolina geographically, Kocherthal cites the colony’s privileges and rights, noting that Protestant religions like the Reformed and Lutherans, as well as Mennonites, hold all freedom of religion and conscience. Not till the third chapter does he address the fertility of the land and the plants that flourish there. The fourth addresses weather and health, and the fifth the colony’s peace and security. Further chapters address such concerns as trade, the passage from England, and the nationalities of other settlers, like the French and Hollanders. Kocherthal even offers three pages citing persons and documents that will affirm the truth of what he has written--always a concern with colonization tracts. This third edition adds passages by Richard Blome on English America.
Biblia, das ist: die Heilige Schrift Altes und Neues Testaments, nach der deutschen Uebersetzung D. Martin Luthers. Germantown: Christoph Saur, 1743.
The earliest Bible in a European language printed in America was this 1743 edition of Martin Luther’s German translation. A publication of this size was a remarkable feat for a colonial press, and could only be achieved by a prosperous and well-managed shop. It was a reprint of the Halle Bible (34th edition), with the books 3 and 4 Esdras and 3 Maccabees supplied from the Berlenburg Bible. Saur (also rendered as “Sower”) and his son would produce three more editions in the eighteenth century.
Displayed separately is the detached and fragmentary first title page, elegantly printed in red and black. It was bound in calf over wooden boards and fitted with brass corners and clasps, in a middle European tradition going back to medieval times. In the online version, the single-color title page to the New Testament is shown.
Anabaptisticum et enthusiasticum Pantheon und geistliches Rüst-Hauss wider die alten Quacker, und neuen Frey-Geiste : welche die Kirche Gottes zeithero verunruhiget, und bestürmet. [Germany:] 1702.
How did ordinary state-oriented German Christians regard the plethora of sects and belief systems launched by further explorations of the Reformation? A clue may lie in this often rather sensationalistic collection of writings compiled by a Lutheran churchman. Among the subjects of ridicule are Quakers without clothing, concupiscent priests, a false Jewish messiah, and a startling array of Protestants, among whom the New England Congregationalists are perhaps the most mildly framed.
The Anabaptists, whose larger ideals were forceful in the eventual formation of denominations like the Mennonites, the Baptists, and the Baptist Brethren, are overshadowed here by their most radical relatives, millennialist Anabaptists who founded a short-lived theocracy in Münster, Germany, undoing traditional mores in the interest of free love, plural marriage, elimination of private property, and a thorough social restructuring. The resultant anarchy, insecurity, and loss of life came to an end when the troops of the banished Bishop of Münster laid siege and recaptured the town. The book presents one of two plates depicting events from the Münster Commune and its aftermath. Other Anabaptists, who regarded themselves as peaceful, defenseless Christians, were as horrified as others but were dogged by these memories throughout Europe. Some of them traveled to the Netherlands, where they came under the tutelage of the preacher Menno Simons. From this association they came to be known as Menists, or Mennonites. No Anabaptist group thereafter sought direct worldly power.
Thieleman Janszoon van Braght, 1625-1664. Der blutige Schau-Platz oder Martyrer Spiegel der Tauffs Gesin[n]ten oder Wehrlosen-Christen, …, von Christi Zeit an bis auf das Jahr 1660. Ephrata: Press of the Community, [1748-1749].
This book of Christian martyrs, stretching from the early centuries of the Christian era to the mid-seventeenth century, was a prized volume in every prosperous Mennonite or Brethren household. It was translated from the original Dutch, compiled in 1660. Oswald Seidensticker, a bibliographer of the Pennsylvania press, described it as “the largest and, in some respects, most remarkable book of the colonial period.” The frontispiece was engraved in Frankfurt, Germany, and made available to purchasers, though absent from many copies. The book, a stupendous achievement for a colonial press, was printed by the monastic religious community at Ephrata and supervised by a team of Mennonite editors. The work is a departure from some other accounts of martyrs, in that it is a treasury of accounts of those regarded by many orthodox believers as heretics. Here, for example, are the Waldensians, in France long before the Reformation, and many of the names are of Dutch or German heritage from the era of the Reformation. Some of those names are from families later well-established in Pennsylvania.
Ausbund, das ist, Etliche schöne christliche Lieder, wie sie in dem Gefängnüs zu Bassau in dem Schloss von den Schweitzer-Brüdern, und von andern rechtgläubigen Christen hin und her gedichtet worden :allen und jeden Christen, welcher Religion sie seyen, unpartheyisch fast nutzlich. Germantown: Gedruckt bey Christoph Saur,1742.
This is the first American edition of a collection of 140 hymns, the preferred hymnal of the Mennonites for generations. It was originally published in 1583 in Germany, having been written while a group of sixty Anabaptists were imprisoned for five years in the dungeon at Passau on the Danube in Lower Bavaria. Many died, including the song writers Hans Petz and Bernhard Schneider. The prisoners wrote fifty-one of the hymns.
Though the Mennonites found their way to a English-language hymns, the Ausbund remains in print for use by the Amish. In addition to the hymns, there is a statement of belief, and a standard set of short biographies relating the persecution of Anabaptists by Calvinsts in the area of Zurich, Switzerland. This heavily-used copy offers clues as to the original old-world style binding of leather over wooden boards, with copper bosses and strap-work.
Güldene Aepffel in silbern Schalen, oder: Schöne und nützliche Worte und Warhheiten zur Gottseligkeit. Efrata, im Jahr des Heils, 1745. :Verlegt durch etliche Mitglieder der Mennonisten-Gemeine, [1745].
This small volume, an early product of the Ephrata community’s press, is an excellent example of the old world art of bookbinding, down to the bosses and clasps as used in the Saur Bible and other books published in Southeastern Pennsylvania. “Golden apples with silver peels” was printed for the Mennonites, several of whom served as editors. It was originally published in Basel in 1702.
Included among various inspirational texts by Michael Sattler and others, stories or persecution and martyrdom, prayers, singing instruction, and the Dordrecht confession of faith of 1632, drafted in Dutch by the Flemish bishop Adriaan Cornelisz and translated into German by Tieleman Tielen van Sittert.
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Conrad Weiser,1696-1760. Translation of a German letter, wrote by Conrad Weiser, Esq; interpreter, on Indian affairs, for the province of Pennsylvania. [Philadelphia : Franklin and D. Hall, 1757].
The original German letter was written in 1746, when Weiser had traveled to meet with the Onondaga Indians in order to secure permission for the colony to build a trading house on the waters of the Ohio or on Lake Erie. He took his son in order to give him experience with the Indians.
Weiser was born in Württemberg in 1696; in 1709 his family became part of a large migration down the Rhine, owing to French depredations, losses to an epidemic, and an unusually harsh winter. England resettled 3,000 of the German Protestants in the colony of New York. Weiser was 16, living in the Schoharie Valley, when a Mohawk chief suggested that his father send him to live for a year with them to learn their language and ways. Weiser returned to his family knowing much of Iroquois customs. After marrying at 24, Weiser’s family followed the Susquehannah River and settled at Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. While engaged as a farmer, he became valuable to the colony as an interpreter and diplomat, enjoying the trust of the indigenous partners.
Conrad Beissel, 1690-1768. Deliciæ Ephratenses. Pars I [-II]. : Oder des ehrwürdigen Vatters Friedsam Gottrecht, weyland Stiffters und Führers des christlichen Ordens der Einsamen in Ephrata in Pennsylvania, geistliche Reden. Ephratæ : Typis Societatis, [1773].
A radically different view of Protestant religion was taken up by the monastic community at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, led by Conrad Beissel. Many of the men and women took vows of chastity and lived in separate dormitories, though celibacy was not mandatory and families also lived there together. The community spread its messages and contributed to its own support through a printing press. This volume contains some of Beissel’s mystical writings, focused on the sufferings of Jesus and the anticipated End Times of worldly life.
Vollständiges Marburger Gesang-Buch,zur Uebung der Gottseligkeit, in 649 christlichen und trostreichen Psalmen und Gesängen Hrn. D. Martin Luthers, und andrer Gottseliger Lehrer. Germantown: C. Saur, 1770.
This was the standard hymnal of the Lutherans, issued in numerous editions, characteristically with a relief portrait of Martin Luther, and containing also his catechism, Der kleine Catechismus. This is fourth printing of Saur's first edition, Germantown, 1757
Neu-vermehrt- und vollständiges Gesang-Buch : worinnen sowohl die Psalmen Davids, nach D. Ambrosii Lobwassers, Uebersetzung hin und wieder verbessert, als auch 730. auserlesener alter und neuer geistreichen Liedern begriffen sind. Germantown: Christoph Saur, 1772.
Christoph Saur also published the standard German Reformed hymnal, based on the Psalms as translated by Ambrosius Lobwasser, with other religious songs, and originally issued in 1753. It characteristically included, as here, the Heidelberg Catechism.
Das Kleine Davidische Psalterspiel der Kinder Zions, : von alten und neuen auserlesenen Geistes Gesänge. Ephrata: Salomon Mäyer, 1795.
Early editions of this hymnal intended for wider appeal were printed by Saur in Germantown. An early owner of this copy has added a hand-painted picture of peacock, vase, and flowers on the front pastedown in the style of Pennsylvania German folk art.
Samuel Urlsperger, 1685-1772. Der ausführlichen Nachrichten von der Königlich-Gross-Britannischen Colonie saltzburgischer Emigranten in America erster [- dritter] Theil. ... bis auf das Ende des Jahres 1738. ... Von der ersten ausführlichen Nachricht an bis zu der fünften [-XVIII.] Continuation derselben. Halle: Orphanage Press, [1741-1752].
Ebenezer was the principal colony of the Salzburg Protestants. Lutheran ideas for reforming the Catholic Church arrived in 1528 in the Archbishopric of Salzburg, then a private enclave of the Roman church’s extensive worldly holdings. Severe persecutions quickly ensued, but the appeal of Martin Luther’s teachings took hold to a degree that was scarcely diminished by the torture and expulsion of the Protestant leaders. Some nobles of the region had embraced Lutheranism and appealed to the Holy Roman Emperor for protection. This act was viewed as an outright insurrection, and the Archbishop in the summer of 1731 ordered the mass expulsion of Protestants unless they recanted.
The plan of the utopian settlement of Ebenezer in Georgia was published by Matthaeus Seutter, Imperial Geographer, at Augsburg. The Savannah River may be seen at the foot of the engraving, below the street grid, pasture land and orchards. Despite adverse conditions, the colony prospered. British organization and government support had made the Protestant colony possible. When the British departed after the Revolution, it seemed to lose its will to prevail over nature, and was disbanded.
Samuel Urlsperger, 1685-1772. [Ausführliche Nachrichten]. Halle: Orphanage Press, [1741-1752].
Johann Martin Bolzius (shown here) and the Israel Christian Gronau were ministers who went to Georgia with the first company of Salzburgers in March, 1734. Bolzius had been Superintendent of the Latin Orphan House at Halle, on the Saale, and Gronau was a tutor there, when the Salzburgers arrived in that city on their way to Georgia, in November, 1733. Both gave up their positions at Halle in order to accompany the Salzburgers to their new life in the British colony. Gronau died in 1745, and Bolzius in1765. Though this began as a utopian settlement, slavery also became part of its economic program. Bolzius issued a statement on the proper treatment of slaves, including free time for the cultivation of their personal gardens.
Samuel Urlsperger, 1685-1772. [Ausführliche Nachrichten]. Halle: Orphanage Press, [1741-1752].
“Tomo Chachi Mico oder Konig von Yamacran und Tooanahowi seines Bruders … Sohn.” In Samuel Urlsperger, Erste Continuation der ausführlichen Nachricht, Halle, 1738
Tomochachi is shown here in the German version of the engraving from the painting by Willem Verelst. Tomochachi was valuable to General James Oglethorpe in establishing the British colony in Georgia. He traveled to London with Oglethorpe in 1734.
Justus Henry Christian Helmuth, 1745-1825. Kurze Nachricht von dem sogenannten gelben Fieber in Philadelphia für den nachdenkenden Christen. Philadelphia: Steiner und Kämmerer, 1793.
The devastating yellow fever outbreak of 1793 was reported on by this Lutheran minister, for the benefit of “the contemplative Christian.” The appendix, Todten Liste von den Monaten August, September u. October in Philadelphia, 1793, provides insight into the role of religious life in the city, as the number of the dead are listed by each of the cemeteries in which they were buried. In this reckoning, most of the dead were buried in the cemeteries of individual churches and the Jewish burial ground. Only those placed in the potter’s field or the Kensington neighborhood cemetery fell outside the confines of religious identity. Data were also compiled on temperature and barometric pressure for the three devastating months of the epidemic, in an effort to reach some sort of understanding.
Exhibition prepared by dennis landis.
on view in the reading room from may to September 15,2013.
Images: Das Kleine Davidische Psalterspiel der Kinder Zions, Ephrata, 1795 & Hernán Cortés, Ferdinandi Cortesii. Von dem Newen Hispanien, Augsburg, 1550