Souls for Sale: Two German Redemptioners Come to Revolutionary America

Max Kade Research Institute: Germans Beyond Europe

by Susan E. Klepp (Co-editor), Farley Grubb (Co-editor)

In 1773, John Frederick Whitehead and Johann Carl Büttner, two adolescent Germans, were placed on board the same ship headed to colonial America. With few options in Germany, each had been recruited by the labor contractors known popularly as soulsellers―men who traded in human cargo. On arrival in America they were sold to different masters, and, years later, each wrote a memoir of his experiences. These two autobiographies are valuable historical records of immigrant attitudes, perceptions, and goals. Despite their shared voyage to America and similar condition as servants, their backgrounds and personalities differed. Their divergent interpretations of their experiences provide rich firsthand insights into the transatlantic migration process, work and opportunity in colonial America, and the fates of former bound servants. Souls for Sale presents these parallel accounts―Whitehead's published for the first time―to illustrate the condition of German redemptioners and to examine the religious, economic, familial, and literary contexts that shaped their memoirs. The editors provide helpful introductions to the works as well as notes to guide the reader.

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2006

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are two fascinating tales of German redemptioners who came over (coincidentally) on the same boat in 1773. Klepp, Grubb and de Ortiz do a good job of putting the tales into context, and the tales touch on many themes in early American history, not the least of which is the decision among Germans to support the Revolutionaries or the British. But the book also points to the demise of social history in examining indentured servants. Half of all migrants to America were indentured in some form, yet historians overlook many of the still unanswered questions to look at individual cases.