A Tale of Two Germans - Review By Carrie Fancett Pagels

Souls for Sale, Nonfiction book

Souls for Sale: Two German Redemptioners Come to Revolutionary America—The Life Stories of John Frederick Whitehead and Johann Carl Büttner, Edited by Susan E. Klepp, Farley Grubb, and Anne Pfaelzer de Ortiz, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006.

Book Description (from Amazon): 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.

Comments and Review by Carrie Fancett Pagels

In the coming months, I will be contributing several posts on Palatinaters—German immigrants from the Palatinate duchies during the 18^th century. I’d been investigating some genealogical links to the Palatinate and found this book. My ancestor John Adam Rousch (Johannes Rausch), hailed from the Palatinate, as did a great many immigrants who crossed the ocean to Pennsylvania in the mid 18^th century. From all appearances, Johannes’ family purchased their fares and I’ve found nothing showing he was forced into servitude to pay for his transport. His experiences inspired me to write a fiction (totally fiction other than a few similarities!) I initially entitled Souls' Journey: Escape from Versailles. I found that ironic when I located this nonfiction book, afterwards, with similar way of looking at the whole business of indentured servitude.

In the nonfiction book Souls for Sale, one of the men is from a wealthier background. Each account of Büttner and Whitehead is a separate narrative about experience as a redemptioner, or an indentured servant whose passage was paid to America in return for years spent paying off the debt.  The Penn State book is the first to combine both accounts, which makes for fascinating comparative reading.  While there are some commonalities, it is the differences in their experiences that I found especially intriguing and which would be helpful to those either writing about 18^th century German immigrants or male indentured servants in general during that time. These two men came to America several decades after the hero in my upcoming novel but much of the information appeared relevant.

One of the things I enjoyed about reading the men's accounts was their lyrical language. Whitehead in particular has a poetic voice. Sadly, today, we don't write with the same level of vocabulary as in previous centuries or even at the same level as we did in the United State even one century ago. The word choices, although some arcane, are not difficult to decipher, also.

Highly recommend!

Available on Barnes and Noble’s and Amazon’s websites (note although over $30 in paperback it is well worth it if you are researching and writing about this era and topic)

Question: Do you have an 18^th century immigrant ancestor from the German duchies? What do you know about him or her?

Carrie Fancett Pagels is the founder of Colonial American Christian Writers Group and blog administrator of Colonial Quills. Her European and colonial novel,  Saving the Marquise’s Granddaughter, will be published by the White Rose imprint of Pelican Book Group in 2015. The hero is from the Palatinate duchy and departs to Pennsylvania in the mid 1740’s, as a redemptioner. 

Bloody Mohawk

"The Oneidas at the Battle of Oriskany"- Don Troiani

Author: Richard Berleth

Publisher: Black Dome Press

Pgs.: 370

       

            “Loss—not just loss of life, but loss of the common stuff that holds humanity together—scarred the survivors and shaded the recollections they left to posterity. Loss is what gives the wind in the Mohawk Valley its special remorsefulness, the fog and lake-effect snow its isolating loneliness.  Something happened here that was more intense, more shattering, than the ordinarily sorrowful consequence of war.” – (Back Cover)- Richard Berleth, Professor of Communication Arts- St. Francis College, N.Y. 

As a writer of early American historical fiction, I enjoy the process of researching the settings and events that will give my stories authenticity. It’s an adventure to discover little-known facts about people from the past, and enrich my writing in the process. But I don’t like it when I have to collect bits and pieces of information from a lot of obscure sites, and wonder if they are accurate.

            In one particular instance I needed information about New York State; from its earliest eighteenth century settlements through the American Revolution and its aftermath. So I made a call to the Herkimer County Historical Society and they referred me to a great list of non-fiction books they had available.

That’s where I found “Bloody Mohawk”.

Despite its colorful name, this is a comprehensive book on the history of upstate New York, its settlements, and battles from the French and Indian War through the last efforts of the British and Native American peoples to reclaim their lands in raids after the American Revolution.

I approached the book with the preconceived notion that there would be a lot of old, indistinct maps to decipher, dates and details concerning battle campaigns, and I’d end up bored to tears. I’d rue even the modest sum I’d paid for it, just to locate a few pages of the information I needed. By the second chapter though, I’d found out it was so much more.

Because it was mostly about people.

About very real flesh and blood people with strengths and weaknesses, who had actually lived through one of the most difficult periods in this country’s history to play their parts in its beginnings. And I couldn’t put it down.

            “Bloody Mohawk” is steeped in little-known and interesting biographical material that brought me deeper into the lives of people who’d gone before me, and who’d ensured my liberties in this country. Like General Nicholas Herkimer who’d met with one-time friend, Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant in a field to have secret talks. Both men tried against formidable odds to turn the tide of oncoming war and save both their peoples.

But on a hot day in August 1777, Herkimer, a brilliant tactician and veteran of the French and Indian War, led a contingent of militia to relieve the besieged Fort Stanwix near Rome, N.Y. The old General sensed that many of the overgrown ravines ahead at Oriskany Creek might provide the perfect cover for a deadly trap, and halted his men to wait for word from his Oneida scouts. When confronted by the young and inexperienced Colonel Ebenezer Cox who didn’t trust their Indian allies and accused the general of cowardice, most of the men sided with Cox and demanded they continue their mission. The phlegmatic  Herkimer was heard to say, "You want war? I give you war..." and grudgingly advanced. It cost the lives of the General and eight hundred of his men. 

"Queen Esther and Her Son"-John Buxton

Many have heard of early New Yorkers Mohawk Princess Molly Brant, wife of Sir William Johnson, or white captive Mary Jemison. But few remember Queen Esther Montour, Seneca leader and mother whose broken heart over the loss of her son Gencho, caused her to exact a terrible revenge by leading warriors up the Susquehanna from Pennsylvania to wipe out settlements in New York. Or Loyalist Sarah Kast McGinnis, widowed mother of eight and daring frontierswoman from German Flatts imprisoned in a patriot fort.

This book is also a collection of richly detailed facts about every day colonial and Native American life. Packed with marvelous stories of people and events from the early history of New York, it is an exhaustive and well-researched treasure. My rating: Five out of Five Stars. Review: Pat Iacuzzi

Tools of the Trade: Nonfiction Books - Washington's Spies

by Roseanna White

I'll confess it from the start--I don't read much non-fiction. Why? Because I read so much of it during college that I just got burned out on it. But apparently it's now been long enough since then (where did that time go, anyway?) that I can read it again without feeling at all put out about it. Handy, since in looking up info about the subject of my newest idea, I came across a very interesting-sounding book that I knew would be helpful: Washington's Spies by Alexander Rose.

My library didn't have this one, but thanks to the wonders of ILL, they had it for me in three days, and I cracked it open with genuine enthusiasm. I haven't read any non-fiction on the Revolutionary War since college (and then it was more political treatises of the era, not history of the war), so I found this to be a wonderful refresher on the history in general. Better still, it focused entirely on the use of espionage in the war, by both sides. And really, what could be more fun than that? ;-)

Rose doesn't follow a strict chronology in this--he follows stories, usually about the particular people, and uses those to take him from point to point. Which means you know exactly where to flip back to if you need to remind yourself about where someone was born, or who his father was, but locating a date for a particular action of his requires the help of the index.

The writing of this book was never dry and at times downright witty. I actually chuckled at several places. And at several others I found it necessary to interrupt my reading to share a particularly interesting factoid with my hubby. Mr. Rose found many ways to integrate little-known facts from the day that only had the smallest thing to do with the main subject; and he integrated them in such a way that you knew without doubt he had submersed himself fully in this era as he wrote the book. Something I, as I writer, certainly appreciate.

I did find a few typos in the dates given, like saying something happened in 1778 that happened in 1780. Typos, which I understand, but which confused me endlessly, LOL.

Overall, if you're a history buff who loves reading about lesser-known portions of well-loved times, this is a fabulous book. It presents a fair, honest picture of what life was like from 1776-1784, not embellished by glamorous ideas or romance.

But no worries--I plan to embellish with plenty of romance when I write a novel set in the time. ;-)