A People of Equality and Integrity- The Pennsylvania Dutch

Recently, a friend and I were driving home from celebrating Erntfescht, the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch "Thanksgiving," with our Urglaawe family, and we decided to take a detour through Germantown. Germantown was settled in 1683 by the first group of Palatinate immigrants to settle Pennsylvania: 13 Mennonite and Quaker families aboard the ship "Concord." Situated approximately six miles Northwest of center city Philadelphia, Germantown was first an independent borough, but became part of Philadelphia in 1854. The first settlement of the Pennsylvania Dutch played significant roles in American History, such as hosting a Revolutionary War battle and serving as the temporary residence of George Washington, both noteworthy events; however, the most colossal footprint our ancestors in Germantown left on History was birthing the American antislavery movement.

The 1688 the Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was authored by Francis Daniel Pastorius, a lawyer and founder of Germantown. The petition, signed by Pastorius and three other Quakers living in Germantown on behalf of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, was based upon the Bible's Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and states that every human, regardless of belief, color, or ethnicity, has rights that should not be violated. Though the collaborative effort of the Mennonites and Quakers in the 1688 petition was not acted upon at the time, it was set aside and forgotten until 1844, when it was re-discovered and became a focus of the burgeoning abolitionist movement; it was the first American document that made a plea for equal human rights for everyone.

During the Revolutionary War, Pennsylvania passed the Gradual Abolition Act in 1780, which freed the children of enslaved mothers born after that date. It was the first law of this kind in America. The freed children were required to serve a lengthy indentured servitude until age 28 before being freed. By 1810 there were fewer than 1,000 captives in Pennsylvania. None were on record after 1847.

The "Great Awakening" of the late 18th century led preachers to urge slaveholders to free their slaves, as colonial Baptists and Methodists joined the Quaker and Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants in their plea of equality for all people.

High British tariffs in the 18th century greatly discouraged slave importation, and white indentured servitude was encouraged instead.

According to Wikipedia, "Indentured Servitude in Pennsylvania- a majority of those (indentured servants) in the mid-to-late 18th century consisted of Irish and German/Palatinate immigrants." The cost of passage to the new world was not cheap, and our war-torn, peasant forebears often traded their freedom in order to gain freedom, and became the property and "free labor" of someone else to escape the reality of their homeland.

Approximately one-third of Colonial Pennsylvania was Palatinate immigrants of German ethnicity. Nearly 60,000 Palatinate immigrants came to Pennsylvania between 1727 and 1775. With an average of more than 5,000 Palatinate immigrants to Pennsylvania per year, our ethnicity and culture became a dominating threat to English "rule," even with a large number of our people locked into indentured servitude and even more being "encouraged" that direction.

The growing numbers of Palatinate immigrants in the colony, and their show of strength in establishing connection and culture, caught the attention of statesman, and future "Founding Father," Benjamin Franklin, who noted his disgust with the rapidly increasing German population to North America, particularly Pennsylvania, in a 1755 essay titled, "Observations Concerning the Increasing of Mankind, Peopling of Countries." Franklin reflected the following personal observations and wishes as to the kind of people he wanted to see settle in the colonies:

"And since the Detachments of English from Britain sent to America, will have their Places at Home so soon supply'd and increased so largely here; why should the Palatine Boors [Germans] 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...

Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionally very small. All Africa is black or tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians, and Swedes, are generally are generally of what we call swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect the brighter Light of the Eyes of Inhabitants in mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? Why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps I am partial to the complexion of my Country, for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind."

Clearly, the oppression of people considered inferior to the establishment of English rule was rampant in the colony, and with growing numbers, the threat of Pennsylvania Dutch majority overtaking the establishment in Pennsylvania was considered an imminent threat. Our people were no strangers to persecution as they fled their home soil to the land of equality offered by William Penn who believed that people were born with natural rights and privileges of freedom. In 1682, his First Frame of Government provided for secure private property, free enterprise, free press, trial by jury, and religious toleration. In 1701, Penn signed the Fourth Frame, or Charter of Privileges, which granted citizens of Pennsylvania a number of basic freedoms: freedom of worship and the right of individuals to speak their mind. The Charter of Privileges formed the basis of Pennsylvania’s state constitution in 1776. Our Deitsch ancestors simply wished to settle in Pennsylvania, express themselves freely, and be left alone to their own culture. Knowing the feelings that come along with being on the less privileged end of the spectrum, suffering the fallout of the Thirty Years War, famine, and Religious persecution, our forebears lifted their voices and took action whenever and wherever they could in the Abolitionist Movement.

The Underground Railroad was also active in Germantown, and served as a way the community contributed actively toward Abolition. The Johnson House was built in 1768 at the intersection of Main Street and Abington Road (present day Germantown Avenue and Washington Lane). The house was home to three generations of the family, all who were active against slavery, and worked diligently to improve living conditions for freed slaves via the Underground Railroad. Johnson House hosted prominent abolitionists William Still and Harriet Tubman; they provided safety, food, clothing, and transportation to unknown numbers of slaves seeking freedom.

From my own perspective, as a person of Pennsylvania Dutch descent, as well as an apprentice within the Urglaawe Guild of Braucherei and Hexerei Practitioners, I can't help but view this complex, deep history through the lens of "help and healing." The beliefs of our forebears, and their relentless action to follow their words, exemplify the same integrity I have come to know through my time studying Braucherei and Hexerei in the Urglaawe Guild. The integrity that flowed through our earliest settlements, continues to flow through our communities and through our veins. The values of equality and "brotherly love" that defined us through the the most tumultuous of times, persists today.

When someone comes to a Braucher(in)/Hex for help, the person is not turned away for any reason. The person is accepted, without judgment, as they are. Perhaps the practitioner knows someone else who can better help with the ailment or condition presented, and a referral is made, but the person is not sent away or discriminated against because of color of skin, religious beliefs, or their physical or mental condition. Perhaps amendments or accommodations need to be made, but the person is always held in a loving, respectful space. This attitude and energy extends to the manner in which the practitioner presents oneself to the community, as well. A Healer is a person sought out, and trusted, by their peers to restore mental, physical, and spiritual health, bring about balance in non-conventional ways, and to restore "wholeness" where there is loss in various ways. A Healer who presents prejudice or judgment toward other human beings because of the way they choose to believe or practice life creates a prejudice and a barrier to carrying out healing work to others. A Healer must be trusted to welcome all with an open heart and an open mind. Discrimination against groups of people is never acceptable. Note: If a person does something toward a practitioner to make the practitioner feel personally uncomfortable, or physically unsafe in their presence, the practitioner should take action and follow through on setting necessary boundaries.

This time of the year is a great time to reflect upon our ancestors, and all they went through to come to Pennsylvania, and all they went through once they got here. The history they lived alongside the culture they created, for the future for us to carry forward. Our forebears fought wars against injustice, and held hands of slaves running away for their freedom. They risked so much so many because it was the right thing to do. Because they themselves were once persecuted, and continued to be persecuted even here in this land that promised them freedom. We can do better. Especially those of us who call ourselves Healers/Braucher(in)/Hex. We have an even bigger shoes to fill with the likes of Mountain Mary and others who came before us, with doors and hearts wide open. I am so proud to know the Urglaawe Guild of Braucherei and Hexerei Practitioners is committed to the values our forebears carried with them to this continent and laid down as the cornerstones of our culture. One cannot be a devoted Christian, non-Christian, pagan, or otherwise, if one is not equally devoted to the wellbeing of one's fellow man. The devotion of our ancestors continues to stand today in Philadelphia, on Germantown Avenue, where they continued to build upon those cornerstones they laid.

By Gretchen Swank