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NOTE 11. The Pennsylvania Germans

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Volume 2, Chapter 11, The Pennsylvania Germans

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The other great group of immigrants who concentrated in Pennsylvania were the Germans. In contrast

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to the earlier German migration of Quakers and other pietist sects, the mid-18th century

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German influx was either Lutheran or Reformed, Calvinist. These people came to America to

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to escape feudalism, exorbitant taxes and the pillaging endemic in wartime.

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The German migration began around 1720, started in earnest in the late 1730s and reached its

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peak in the early 1750s, ending rather abruptly with the French and Indian War of the late

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50s. By the end of the colonial era, one-third of the Pennsylvanians were Germans or Dutch

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The Germans followed the same route as the Ulster Scots westward down the Susquehanna and Cumberland valleys.

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They too were valley farmers and German and Scotch-Irish settlements alternated down the valley route.

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The two groups had very little contact with each other.

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Their differences were too great in language, religion and character.

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The Germans followed the Great Valley route, down the Shenandoah and into the Carolina Piedmont, where they founded such settlements as Orangeburg, South Carolina, but to a much lesser degree than did the Ulster Scots.

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The Germans were largely content to remain in Pennsylvania, especially in Lancaster County, where they could work their farms productively and profitably.

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In addition to being superb farmers, the Germans proved highly adept at establishing glass factories and ironworks.

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The Germans produced the first iron stoves and long rifles in America, as well as the first Conestoga wagons.

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While the great bulk of Pennsylvania Germans were Lutherans or Reformed, a small but influential group of Moravians or United Brethren, a pacifist, pietist sect, came to Pennsylvania in the 1740s.

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Found in such towns as Bethlehem and Nazareth, the Moravians furnished many missionaries to the Indians,

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as well as virtually introducing chorale music and establishing numerous schools and ladies' seminaries in Pennsylvania.

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The mid-18th century indeed saw a considerable expansion of higher education in America.

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The Southern gentleman had Wim and Mary College, the liberal Puritans had Harvard, and the rigidly orthodox Yale.

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Now, several influential new colleges were founded in the colonies. The Presbyterians

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founded the College of New Jersey, now Princeton, in 1746. Although Princeton was founded by

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English and mainland Scots rather than by Ulstermen, the college provided the indispensable

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source for training new ministers for the Scotch-Irish and for educating their leading

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In Philadelphia, the Rev. William Smith and Benjamin Franklin organized in 1755 a new

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liberal, non-sectarian college, the Academy, which later became the University of Pennsylvania.

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And in New York City, King's College, later Columbia, was founded in 1754.

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Organized by Anglicans, it nonetheless included on its board men of various religious persuasions,

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and hence soon emerged as a liberal and secular institution.