The Germans in Texas

PD Commons PD Books PD Commons PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA AMERICANA GERMANICA New Series monographs devoted to the comparative study of the Literary, Linguistic and Other Cultural Relations OF Germany and America / EDITOR MARION DEXTER LEARNED University of Pennsylvania NEW YORK D. APPLETON & COMPANY PUBLISHING AGENTS PD Books PD Commons AMERICANA GERMANICA New Series i. Translations of German Poetry in American Magazines 174.1-1810. By Edward Ziegler Davis, Ph. D. 234 pp. Price $ I - 6 5 2. The Harmony Society. A Chapter in German American Culture History. By John Archibald Bole, Ph. D. 179 pp. 30 Illustrations. Price $1-5° 3. Friedrich Schiller in America. A Contribu- tion to the Literature oi the Poet's Centenary, 1905. By Ellwood Comly Parry, Ph. D. 117 pp. Pr>ce $1.25 4. The Influence of Salomon Gessner Upon English Literature. By Bertha Reed. 119 pp. Price $1-25 5. 7 he Getman Settlement Society of Philadel- phia and its Colony, Hermann, Missouri. By William G. Bek. 193 pp. Price . $1.50 6. Philipp Waldeck's Diary of the American Revolution. With Introduction and Pho- tographic Reproductions. By M. D. Learned. 168 pp. Price f 1.50 7. Schwenkfelder Hymnology and the Sources of the First Schwenkfelder Hymn-Book Printed in America. With Photographic Reproductions. By Allen Anders Seipt, Ph.D. 112 pp. Price $2.00 8. The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana and the Creoles of German Descent. By J. Hanno Deiler. With Illustrations. 136 pp. Price $1.25 9. Early Getman Music in Philadelphia. By R. R. Drummond, Ph. D. 112 pp. Price $1.25 10. " Uncle Tom's Cabin " in Germany. By Grace Edith MacLean, Ph. D. 102 pp. Price $1.50 ' 11. " The Germans in Texas. ' A Study in Immigration. By Gilbert Giddings Benja- min, Ph. D. 161 pp. 3 Illustrations. Price $1-50 The Germans in Texas A STUDY IN IMMIGRATION By GILBERT GIDD1NGS BENJAMIN, PH. D., Sometime Fellow and Assistant in History in Yale University; Instructor in History in the College of the City of New York. PHILADELPHIA (Reprinted from (Krrmtut Anwrtran Annals, Vol. VII.) 1909 ft} <<* i(.(;/.i.v] [V,;! PD Books PD Commons /S93 ¥J & COPYRIGHT 1910 BY Gilbert Giddings Benjamin. THIS WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED TO PROFESSOR ANDREW WHEELER PHILLIPS, DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, YALE UNIVERSITY, MENTOR AND FRIEND. PD Books PD Commons TABLE OF CONTENTS. Chapter I. Pages German Immigration From 1815 to 1848 1-9 Chapter II. Early German Settlements With Reasons for Settlement 10-24 Chapter III. The Society of German Princes and Nobles Formed for the Purpose of Aiding Germans to Settle in Texas. Its Aims. Its Influence on German Immigration . 25-54 Chapter IV. Numbers of Germans in Texas. Industries. Cotton Culture. Wages. Character and Method of Life. Comparison and Relations With the Americans. 55-89 Chapter V. Slavery. Number of Negroes in the German Settle- ments. Attitude of Germans Toward Slavery, Secession and Reconstruction 90-110 Chapter VI. Elements of Culture. Schools. Newspapers. Singing Societies and Societies for Intellectual Improve- ment. Literature. Religion. Examples of Cul- tured Germans 11 1-126 Chapter VII. Relations With the Indians. Brief Account of the Smaller German Settlements 127-133 Bibliography J^-5^ Appendices I 39-I 55 Maps 157-161 PD Books PD Commons — GERMANS IN TEXAS. CHAPTER I. German Immigration From 1815 to 1848. 1 In a recent work Gonnard states that "considered in its entirety, during the fifty years from 1840-1890, German immigration is an epoch. From year to year with the regularity of a physical phenomenon, a regularity greater than the majority of physical phenomena, there scattered over the new World and certain parts of the Old, without speaking of the countries adjacent to Europe, some hundred millions of men". Although this is not true for the preceding half century, the immigration was amazingly great in comparison with earlier periods. To quote the same author further : "There was a moment in the history of the 19th century when it could be asked, whether the United States would be Anglo-Saxon or German, at least in certain of its parts. The. Teutonic immigration has indeed fallen upon this country with a force and continuity almost incomparable." 2 A further investigation will show that this statement is not an ex- aggeration during the period under discussion. From 1832 to 1846, from Bremen, a hundred thousand Germans, to put it in round numbers, immigrated to America, or on the average 1 1 ,000 yearly. From 1841 to 1846, the yearly average of German immigrants amounted to 19,000. According to statistics made by Franz Loher in 1847, the following is the exact yearly number of immigrants from 1841 to 1846: 3 1841— 9,501 1842— 13,627 1843— 9.9 10 1844—19,641 1845—31,358 1846—31,607 Total—115,644 'Gonnard, L'Emigration Europeene an XIX Siecle, Paris, 1906, p. no. ' Ibid, p. I45ff. * Loher, Franz, Geschichte und Zilstande der Deutschen in America. Cin- cinnati and Leipzig, 1847, P- 271. PD Books — PD Commons 2 Germans in Texas In fifteen years, a grand total of 216,201 Germans immigrated to this country from Bremen alone. The following is a table for the same years of the number of emigrants departing 4 from Bremen and landing at the ports named: To New York, 33,683 and in the year 1846 alone 10,469 " Baltimore, 30,123 " Germans in Texas 3 by way of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc. At the last named places, and especially Baltimore, very many Germans have arrived." a "We learn that the increasing prospect of internal commotion in the German Empire is the main cause of this immigration. * * * We are further informed by some of the most intelligent that it is calculated not less than 80,000 are now moving and preparing to depart for this country." 7 We may well ask ourselves the question how came this tremendous mass of immigrants and what was its character. The causes which impelled this tide of immigration are many and complex. The Napoleonic wars as a matter of course devastated a great portion of the land, and drove many from employment. The business depression from 181 5 on caused great distress. 8 The reactionary movement of Metternich and his con- freres resulted in almost universal dissatisfaction. The "Deutsche Burschenschaft" was the chief means of arousing a spirit of dis- content in Germany. 9 Its declared objects were the fostering of high moral ideals, of patriotism and a truly scientific spirit. Some of its members had definite political ideas. Some believed in a German republic; others wanted to restore the empire. The Kotzebue incident brought affairs to a crisis. At a conference of the representatives of the two great powers, Austria and Prus- sia, held in Carlsbad, a reactionary movement was agreed upon. A severe censorship of the press was established and a special commission was appointed to investigate "demagogical intri- gues." For ten years, this commission persecuted everyone sus- pected of liberal ideas. The revolution of July, 1830, in Paris was followed by re- volts in the Rhenish Palatinate in May, 1832, and in Frankfurt and in Oberhessen in 1833. The immediate cause of these up- risings was the so-called "Bundestags Ordorinanzen" of the year 1831- •Cf. Niles Weekly Register, Sept., 1832; March, 1833. Vol. XLIII or Vol. VII, Fourth Series, p. 40. 'Cf. The York, [Pa.] Republican quoted in Niles Register, Vol. VII, Fourth Series, p. 68. " Cf. Deutsche Pionier, Vol. I, p. 243ft. "The Three Periods of German Immigration." ' See Bruncken, German Political Refugees from 1815-1860. Ch. 3, 1904. PD Books : PD Commons 4 Germans in Texas The time was ripe for emigration. America had always appeared to the oppressed and discontented as the home of liberty, of freedom of speech and of the press. The use of the word "Europamude" at this time shows the feeling then prevalent, and implies that there was a land free from oppression. Many of the discontented left home. Some settled in nearby countries, but the younger spirits sought the United States as a place where their political ideas might take root and thrive. Those who left sent let- ters home. These were passed from hand to hand. The newspapers were filled with accounts either by immigrants or regarding immigration. At this time many books of travel were published. Those of Arends, Eggerling, Brauns, Bromme, Gerke and Duden were the most important. The work10 of Duden had a far-reach- ing influence. It first appeared in 1829, and went through several editions. 10 Its title reads : Bericht iiber eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nord Amerika's und einen mehrj'dhrigen Aufenthalt am Missouri (in den Jahren, 1824, 1825, 1826 und 1&27) in Bezug auf Auswanderung und Ueber- vblkerung oder Das Leben im Innern der Vereinigten Staaten und dessen Bedeutung fur die hdusliche und politische Lage der Europaer, dargestellt: a, in einer Sammlung von Briefen; b, in einer Abhandlung iiber den politi- schen Zustand der Nord Amerikaner; c, in einem Nachtrage fur auswan- dernde Deutsche Ackerwirthe und diejenigen welche auf Handelsunterneh- mungen denken von Gottfried Duden, St. Gallen, 1832. The preface of the 1832 edition reads as follows "Von Tag zu Tag gewinnt das Land des Colombo, Amerika, an Bedeu- tung, auch fur uns. Die Uebervolkerung Europas wird endlich obwohl spat, auch von unsern Statistikern als dessen Ruin angesehen, dem es, starken Laufes, zueilt. Die Armuth, der Druck jeglicher Art, die volksaus- dorrenden Finanzsysteme, die Beraauthung bilden bei uns, unsichtbar und urn desto gefahrlicher, eine Art Leibeigenschaft fur die gemeinen Volkskkssen der gewerbtreibenden Staaten, welche die eigentliche gesetzliche Sklaverei unlaugbar in Vielen iiberbietet.

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