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The Georgia Dutch: From the Rhine and Danube to the Savannah, 1733-1783
This is the first comprehensive history of the German-speaking settlers who emigrated to the Georgia colony from Germany, Alsace, Switzerland, Austria, and adjacent regions. Known collectively as the Georgia Dutch, they were the colony's most enterprising early settlers, and they played a vital role in gaining Britain's toehold in a territory also coveted by Spain and France.
The main body of the book is a chronological account of the Georgia Dutch from their earliest arrival in 1733 to their dispersal and absorption into what was, by 1783, an Anglo-American populace. Underscoring the harsh daily life of the common settler, George Fenwick Jones also highlights noteworthy individuals and events. He traces recurrent themes, including tensions between the realities of the settlers' lives and the aspirations and motivations of the colony's trustees and supporters; the web of relations between German- and English-speaking whites, African Americans, and Native Americans; and early signs of the genesis of a distinctly new and American sensibility.
Three summary chapters conclude The Georgia Dutch. Merging new material with information from previous chapters, Jones offers the most complete depiction to date of Georgia Dutch culture and society. Included are discussions of religion; health and medicine; education; welfare and charity; industry, agriculture, trade, and commerce; Native-American affairs; slavery; domestic life and customs; the arts; and military and legal concerns.
Based on twenty-five years of research with primary documents in Europe and the United States, The Georgia Dutch is a welcome reappraisal of an ethnic group whose role in colonial history has, over time, been unfairly minimized.
The main body of the book is a chronological account of the Georgia Dutch from their earliest arrival in 1733 to their dispersal and absorption into what was, by 1783, an Anglo-American populace. Underscoring the harsh daily life of the common settler, George Fenwick Jones also highlights noteworthy individuals and events. He traces recurrent themes, including tensions between the realities of the settlers' lives and the aspirations and motivations of the colony's trustees and supporters; the web of relations between German- and English-speaking whites, African Americans, and Native Americans; and early signs of the genesis of a distinctly new and American sensibility.
Three summary chapters conclude The Georgia Dutch. Merging new material with information from previous chapters, Jones offers the most complete depiction to date of Georgia Dutch culture and society. Included are discussions of religion; health and medicine; education; welfare and charity; industry, agriculture, trade, and commerce; Native-American affairs; slavery; domestic life and customs; the arts; and military and legal concerns.
Based on twenty-five years of research with primary documents in Europe and the United States, The Georgia Dutch is a welcome reappraisal of an ethnic group whose role in colonial history has, over time, been unfairly minimized.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1992
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May 26, 2009
The outgrowth of Jones' original Salzburger Saga (ix), which I've already reviewed, this doesn't really correct all of the deficits and manages to lose a lot of the liveliness of the original. He acknowledges its likelihood of greater interest for those seeking an ancestor.
This is nonetheless a superior compilation of microhistorical approach (viii) set skillfully against a formerly vague backdrop. Its need is well-expressed in the accurate assessment, "Most Americans, even well-educated ones, are unaware that for a while the percentage of Germans in colonial Georgia was even greater than that in Pennsylvania" (vii; see 197). (I was gratified to hear a recording where Marion G. Romney identified the Salzburgers on a list of historical groups, alongside Puritans and Huguenots, who sought religious freedom in America, during a Bicentennial Year speech.) In a curious twist, as he reviewed all the different groups that made for the Georgian colonial experience and ethnic melding, I note that I'm also descended from Palatine Germans who settled New Bern, North Carolina (10). (This was an unrelated note--pun intended--until my parents married.)
I chafe a bit at his admission that the title's usage of "Dutch" perpetuates a misappellation. I also found his remarks about religious beliefs as a subconscious continuation of ancestral cultic practices a bit of a stretch (201-202). Other than that, his method and explication are fairly impeccable. Readers beware, though: this larger sequel will largely only satisfy historical tastes. His well-timed and clever analyses are too few and far between to redeem the text from informational oversaturation.
Again, I'm impressed by his training in Germanic mores to detect even the finest of distinctions (34). As also his ability to read between the lines and sum up: "Boltzius . . . overlooked or Urlsperger . . . suppressed. It should be noted that, in the reports, few people left Ebenezer, yet a large number returned" (228). I can share his lament that Georgia produced no one ambitious enough to record the local Germans' customs and folklore (246). All things considered, he did a genuinely laudable job of condensing the narrative. We sense the problems of Britain's mercantilist policies without feeling that the point is belabored, and continue to benefit from his attention to detail as he ties things back to the Continent (such as, 206, the generous benefactor whose fund provided donations to the Salzburgers for almost a century and a half), including his vivid description of the colorful Alpine wardrobe (248). He also provides the fascinating account of a formerly worthless little island in the Savannah River that fetched $3 million from a power company in 1975, with the lion's share of $365,000 going to a descendant of Salomo Schad (193).
He alludes to the "apparent" conversion of my ancestor, Mrs. Hans Flerl, from Catholicism in Ebenezer (202), which in his translation of the Ausfuhrliche Nachrichten (9:x) he actually attributed to the time of the expulsion. Boltzius' account of but one visit with the couple, 9:145, would explain the timing of their marriage in Frankfurt: "She also concluded with confession, and both tearfully thanked God for saving them from darkness, from glib put-on Christianity, and from so many horrors of the world; and also for bringing them to the opportunity properly to know themselves and Christ. She was raised a Papist and turned first to the Lutheran doctrine under our guidance, which grace she extols very highly. What others are accustomed to regard as minor are now for them damnable sins, and they full intend to offer the remainder of their lives to God." My intention in sharing this is how Jones takes thousands of such accounts and understandingly interprets them into Georgia's history. Obviously I'm rather pleased to see Flerl's name crop up prominently in Ebenezer history, as justice of the peace (171) and schoolteacher (243). I've also held Boltzius' 1765 will at the University of Georgia Archives, to behold Flerl's signature as a witness.
I derive some pleasure from Jones' painstaking account of the moral and political battle, and gradual loss of ground, regarding slavery in the colony. He certainly makes a good case for Boltzius' extremely conscientious objection to the practice, and it's pleasing to see my ancestor Matthias Brandner among those who petitioned saying they would never have settled in Georgia if they'd known slavery would be permitted (268), as well as the fact that when questioned privately, the Salzburgers were still unanimous in this determination (267).
All the same, I'd imagine the only audience likely to take much out of this book is one that already had a compelling reason to read it, without my recommendation.
This is nonetheless a superior compilation of microhistorical approach (viii) set skillfully against a formerly vague backdrop. Its need is well-expressed in the accurate assessment, "Most Americans, even well-educated ones, are unaware that for a while the percentage of Germans in colonial Georgia was even greater than that in Pennsylvania" (vii; see 197). (I was gratified to hear a recording where Marion G. Romney identified the Salzburgers on a list of historical groups, alongside Puritans and Huguenots, who sought religious freedom in America, during a Bicentennial Year speech.) In a curious twist, as he reviewed all the different groups that made for the Georgian colonial experience and ethnic melding, I note that I'm also descended from Palatine Germans who settled New Bern, North Carolina (10). (This was an unrelated note--pun intended--until my parents married.)
I chafe a bit at his admission that the title's usage of "Dutch" perpetuates a misappellation. I also found his remarks about religious beliefs as a subconscious continuation of ancestral cultic practices a bit of a stretch (201-202). Other than that, his method and explication are fairly impeccable. Readers beware, though: this larger sequel will largely only satisfy historical tastes. His well-timed and clever analyses are too few and far between to redeem the text from informational oversaturation.
Again, I'm impressed by his training in Germanic mores to detect even the finest of distinctions (34). As also his ability to read between the lines and sum up: "Boltzius . . . overlooked or Urlsperger . . . suppressed. It should be noted that, in the reports, few people left Ebenezer, yet a large number returned" (228). I can share his lament that Georgia produced no one ambitious enough to record the local Germans' customs and folklore (246). All things considered, he did a genuinely laudable job of condensing the narrative. We sense the problems of Britain's mercantilist policies without feeling that the point is belabored, and continue to benefit from his attention to detail as he ties things back to the Continent (such as, 206, the generous benefactor whose fund provided donations to the Salzburgers for almost a century and a half), including his vivid description of the colorful Alpine wardrobe (248). He also provides the fascinating account of a formerly worthless little island in the Savannah River that fetched $3 million from a power company in 1975, with the lion's share of $365,000 going to a descendant of Salomo Schad (193).
He alludes to the "apparent" conversion of my ancestor, Mrs. Hans Flerl, from Catholicism in Ebenezer (202), which in his translation of the Ausfuhrliche Nachrichten (9:x) he actually attributed to the time of the expulsion. Boltzius' account of but one visit with the couple, 9:145, would explain the timing of their marriage in Frankfurt: "She also concluded with confession, and both tearfully thanked God for saving them from darkness, from glib put-on Christianity, and from so many horrors of the world; and also for bringing them to the opportunity properly to know themselves and Christ. She was raised a Papist and turned first to the Lutheran doctrine under our guidance, which grace she extols very highly. What others are accustomed to regard as minor are now for them damnable sins, and they full intend to offer the remainder of their lives to God." My intention in sharing this is how Jones takes thousands of such accounts and understandingly interprets them into Georgia's history. Obviously I'm rather pleased to see Flerl's name crop up prominently in Ebenezer history, as justice of the peace (171) and schoolteacher (243). I've also held Boltzius' 1765 will at the University of Georgia Archives, to behold Flerl's signature as a witness.
I derive some pleasure from Jones' painstaking account of the moral and political battle, and gradual loss of ground, regarding slavery in the colony. He certainly makes a good case for Boltzius' extremely conscientious objection to the practice, and it's pleasing to see my ancestor Matthias Brandner among those who petitioned saying they would never have settled in Georgia if they'd known slavery would be permitted (268), as well as the fact that when questioned privately, the Salzburgers were still unanimous in this determination (267).
All the same, I'd imagine the only audience likely to take much out of this book is one that already had a compelling reason to read it, without my recommendation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review