Colin Ross, "Unser Amerika", Chapter 8

 8.

The First Germans in America

A popular saying is that the French sent only officers to the New World, the Germans only soldiers, but the British sent both. This is not quite true. The French, with the Norman and Breton peasants who settled the St. Lawrence Basin, even sent over a particularly capable tribe of common soldiers who held out when the "officers" left the soil of the New World after the war was lost against England. On the other hand, we Germans also had officers over there, admittedly far too few. The misfortune, however, was that usually our crew was without a leader. If an "officer" appeared, he certainly lacked soldiers. In general, the German effort was everywhere too late, not united enough, and moreover deprived itself of its effect by leaderlessness and fragmentation.

Admittedly, some Germans were already present at the first British advance, the expedition of the "London Company" to Virginia. There were not many, but among a force of one hundred and five men, everyone counts. In the surviving reports, however, only "Dutchmen" are mentioned, even "damned Dutchmen". The word "dutch" is still used today in the USA for German, the "Pennsylvania Dutch" are the Pennsylvanian Germans. At that time, no distinction was made, especially since the Netherlands officially still belonged to the German Empire. Anything that had embarked in a Dutch port over there counted as German. That there were pure Germans among these "Dutchmen" of the first Virginian expedition is proven by names like Unger and Keffer.

As the affectionate term "damned Dutch" indicates, the relationship between the various nationalities was not particularly good. However, it was probably more the class difference than the nationality difference that gave rise to friction. This class difference is another reason why the Germans, despite all their achievements, did not come into their own in the New World from the very beginning. They crossed over "third class" and the English "first class," the one as servants, the other as masters.

This is to be understood literally. America has by no means been from the beginning the democracy that it later wanted to be regarded as. Washington was still an aristocrat and feudal lord who was served by an army of slaves. The first immigrants took the feudal era from Europe with them to America, at least those who emigrated to the southern states. This has basically remained so to the present day. The master and the servant who went to Virginia on the "Susan Constant" and her two companion ships have survived there to this day, as they have throughout the Southern states, except that at that time the servant was originally white, while later he became more and more black.

The so-called "colonists" who crossed over at that time were actually great gentlemen who had no thought of working over there. They had paid their passage to the "London Company" in full, at ten pounds, which was a tremendous amount of money in those days, and so they thought they could claim to live well over there, at the expense of the "servants" who came along to do the work.

The servants had just not paid for their passage, but were expected to work it off over there. This was the general custom at that time and for a long time afterwards. One considered five, seven, even more years not too much for it.

However, the crossing took much longer than today. The "Susan Constant" sailed to Virginia via the West Indies and took a full four months. The conditions on the tiny, overloaded ships without the slightest conveniences, which today are a matter of course for the worst steerage, with moldy rations teeming with worms and foul water, must have been horrible. That mortality was high on the voyage is self-evident. However, the "Susan Constant" had a particularly good crossing. One praised oneself lucky to have gotten away so well. Only sixteen passengers had died on the way and had to be sunk into the sea. That was unusually few; later, on some voyages, a full half of the emigrants died before reaching their destination.

The colonists had sailed on December 19; as their ships rocked in the balmy waters of the Chesapeake Bay, the flowers bloomed and the birds sang. Virginia is a beautiful, warm country; if anything, it is just too warm. It had become advanced in the year, and before Captain Newport had sailed up and down the river that flowed into the bay and found a suitable site for the new colony, it was too late for spring tilling. This was evil; for they had not too many supplies with them. Captain Newport therefore declared his intention to sail back, and return as soon as possible with fresh provisions and new settlers.

The first Americans stayed behind on a place on the riverbank, which actually only had the one advantage of lying on the water. For the rest, swamps stretched all around, and the fever soon set in. It did not take long before it began to claim its first victims. The people were not at all prepared for it, and at first there was a lack of shelter. Nor could it be procured so quickly; for the good half of the colonists were "gentlemen" and "cavaliers". They had not come over to work, but to get rich at the expense of others.

These "others" had to work for two each, which is why they had been taken along. Among them were the "damned dutchmen", the Dutch, the Germans, the Swiss. They were the carpenters, the bricklayers and the farmers. Of course, there were also Englishmen among the workers, they even formed the majority - but in the other camp, in that of the gentlemen, there was not a single German, and that made the difference from the beginning.

A particular cause of constant friction between the British masters and the German workers was the cruel and vile way in which the former treated the natives. It was not only mean, but also foolish, for it deprived them of the opportunity of exchanging food from the Indians, and uselessly made them a mortal enemy, of whose raids they had to be in constant fear. Under these circumstances, it was only natural that the German artisans, tyrannized by the British cavaliers, should not echo the same pride in Jamestown, the first British settlement on American soil, as the English, indeed that they should sympathize with the Indians, who were equally ill-treated.

Of the one hundred and five colonists who founded Jamestown in the spring of 1607, thirty-eight were still alive after three quarters of a year when Captain Newport returned. The report does not say whether there were any Germans among the survivors. It is said that some of them, no longer willing to endure the bad treatment, ran away to the Indians in the woods.

Quite a number of Germans subsequently arrived in Virginia and the other southern states, but they arrived sporadically, in too small groups, at too great intervals. Above all, they lacked a big idea, a strong faith, a unified purpose. Thus they became good citizens of the United States, doing their duty in both the War of Independence and the War of Secession, but not of themselves helping to shape the face of America.