Becoming German tells the intriguing story of the largest and earliest mass movement of German-speaking immigrants to America. The so-called Palatine migration of 1709 began in the western part of the Holy Roman Empire, where perhaps as many as thirty thousand people left their homes, lured by rumors that Britain's Queen Anne would give them free passage overseas and land in America. They journeyed down the Rhine and eventually made their way to London, where they settled in refugee camps. The rumors of free passage and land proved false, but, in an attempt to clear the camps, the British government finally agreed to send about three thousand of the immigrants to New York in exchange for several years of labor. After their arrival, the Palatines refused to work as indentured servants and eventually settled in autonomous German communities near the Iroquois of central New York.Becoming German tracks the Palatines' travels from Germany to London to New York City and into the frontier areas of New York. Philip Otterness demonstrates that the Palatines cannot be viewed as a cohesive "German" group until after their arrival in America; indeed, they came from dozens of distinct principalities in the Holy Roman Empire. It was only in refusing to assimilate to British colonial culture—instead maintaining separate German-speaking communities and mixing on friendly terms with Native American neighbors—that the Palatines became German in America.
Philip Otterness is Professor of History and Political Science at Warren Wilson College.
Table of Contents
IntroductionChapter 1. "A Particularly Deceptive Spirit"The German Southwest, 1709Chapter 2. "The Poor Palatine Refugees"London, Spring–Summer 1709Chapter 3. "A Parcel of Vagabonds"London, Summer–Winter 1709Chapter 4. "A Deplorable Sickly Condition"New York City, 1710Chapter 5. "They Will Not Listen to Tar Making"The Hudson Valley, 1710–1712Chapter 6. "The Promis'd Land"The Schoharie Valley, 1712–1722Chapter 7. "A Nation Which Is Neither French, Nor English, Nor Indian"The Mohawk Valley, 1723–1757ConclusionAppendix. Database of the 1709 EmigrantsAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex
What People are Saying About This
Michael Zuckerman
This remarkable account of a great ethnic migration to the New World is both a luminous new model of Atlantic history and a tale of rich American resonance. In a swift, convincing narrative as original as it is wise, Otterness gives us a world in which almost nothing turned out as anyone intended. And of all the ironies of the Palatine venture, none was any greater than the discovery by the people who left the Rhineland as individualistic opportunists that, to survive in America, they had to improvise and embrace a collective identity they had never known or even imagined at home.
Alan Tully
Historians have always sensed that the Palatines had a particularly instructive story to tell. Now we know why. Philip Otterness has sensitively explored the creation of a Palatine identity both at the hands of British commentators and through the assertion of particular benchmarks and standards of behavior as the Palatines set about ' becoming German' in New York. Otterness considerably enhances our understanding of the complexities of immigrant experiences and the creation of multiple identities in early America.
Timothy J. Shannon
Through careful reconstruction of demographic and literary sources on both sides of the Atlantic, Philip Otterness explains how a diverse group of German-speaking migrants became the ' poor Palatine refugees' of colonial American lore. This imaginative retelling of a famous episode in early American history will appeal to anyone interested in the cultural dynamics of migration and identity formation in the Atlantic world.
