A SURVEY OF RECENT SCHOLARSHIP ON THE

SALZBURGERS

Edward James WeintrautMercer University

SOURCESGerhard Florey, Geschichte der Salzburger Emigranten und ihrer Emigration 1731-1732 (1977)

Jonathan Strom, ed., Pietism in Germany and North America 1680-1820 (2007)

Charlotte Haver, Von Salzburg nach Amerika. Mobilität und Kultur einer Gruppe religiöser Emigranten im 18. Jahrhundert (2011)

Ben Marsh, Georgia’s Frontier Women: Female Fortunes in a Southern Colony (2012)

James Van Horn Melton, Religion, Community, and Slavery on the Colonial Southern Frontier (2015)

SAMUEL URLSPERGER

1707-1709: begins pastoral career in Halle

1709-1711: served as vicar in a Lutheran chapel in London

witnessed immigration and emigration of “poor Palatines”

began association with SPCK; became correspondent in 1712

1714-1722: pastor in Württemberg

1722-1772 : senior Lutheran pastor in Augsburg

URLSPERGER’S “PROPAGANDA”

(1733)

The foremost difference between Germany and Georgia is that in Germany one can work very hard and yet still end up with nothing. In Georgia one can work less strenuously and less burdened with care and still profit handsomely. Georgia is the most beautiful land that can produce wonders

VERIFIED LUTHERANS IN THE SALZBURG DISTRICT (1732)

724 Bischofshofen 500 Gastein 500 Grossarl6600 Radstadt2500 St Johann3100 St Veit1436 Wagrain3100 Werfen

Chancellor Rall maintained a personal catalog of

20,678 “heretics” in the entire district (1731)

CHANCELLOR RALL’S POLICY (NOVEMBER 1731)

The Edict of Expulsion must be executed no matter what happens, no matter who suffers. No one should expect any mercy or leniency. It doesn’t matter what the cost is: life, blood, money, whatever. This way we will make an example of these rebels in order to discourage others. Anyone who resists will be put down violently. The Patents must therefore be executed rigorously, conscientiously, and without any objections

AUTHENTIC REPORT FROM A WELL-READ FATHER TO HIS INQUISITIVE SON, WHO

WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SALZBURG EMIGRANTS (1732)

Externally they gave the impression that they belonged to the Roman Catholic church. However, at night they came to Jesus … They read secretly, in the darkness, out of sight the most edifying Lutheran books, especially the Holy Bible … They did not want to have their books discovered or violently taken away from them, or be victim of a severe financial or physical punishment. For this reason they hid the books under floor boards or tiles in their rooms

THOMAS GESCHWANDEL

persuaded his brother to smuggle devotional literature from Regensburg

1726: imprisoned for possession of a Lutheran Bible

1731: imprisoned for purchasing Lutheran literature

October 1732: joins 85 neighbors in the Pongau Valley to openly confess their Protestant beliefs during Jesuit persecution

August 1733: joins 190 others to emigrate from Gastein

THOMAS GESCHWANDEL

We were told by several people, after our Arrival, that it proves quiteimpossible and dangerous for White People to plant and manufactureany rice, being a Work only for Negroes, not for European People, buthaving Experience of the contrary we laugh at such a Talking, seeing that several People of us have had in the last Harvest, a greater Crop of Rice than they wanted for their own Consumption. (13 March 1739, as reported by Boltzius)

THOMAS GESCHWANDEL

1734: only Salzburger invited by Oglethorpe to seek out land for the settlement

1735: two fellow-miners and Gastein neighbors die

April 1735: Margaretha (wife) dies after giving birth to an infant who did not survive. One week later her sister passed away. Two more miners from Gastein die

1737: acquires 50-acres of farmland

1738: Boltzius approves his marriage to Sibylle Resch

MORTALITY STATISTICS

by April 1735 eight Salzburger women died in pregnancy along with their infant

in 1735, a pastor in Savannah had conducted 38 marriages, 34 christenings, and 156 burials

Of the 42 Salzburgers who died by January 1739, 31 were women

Of the 56 Salzburger children born in Georgia or under the age of three upon emigration, 30 were dead by January 1739

THOMAS GESCHWANDEL

1736 1739 1741 1742

corn 19 111 70 48

beans 2 29 12 18

potatoes 6 9 9 18

households

39 50 49 67

percentile 90 92 73 82

THOMAS GESCHWANDEL

1742: builds his own house; distinguishes himself as a master farmer

1740s: outspoken opponent of slavery

1752: daughter Margaretha dies shortly after giving birth; infant dies as well; son-in-law remarries

1758: wife Sibylle dies

1762: Thomas dies from malaria and financial hardship (unable to maintain farms; soil was exhausted

1748-1752: A TURNING POINT

• Trustees abandon their project and entrust the colony to the crown

• Slavery legalized

• Manufacture of bricks made possible

• Land holdings increased from 50 to 100 acres

• Silk production booms

• Salzburger are no longer a privileged and select group in Georgia

ABHANDLUNG VON DEN MAULBEERBÄUMEN SEIDENWÜRMERN

SEIDENSPINNEN (1753)

SALZBURGER WOMEN

• earned their own cash from activities ranging from sewing to through

picking and preserving fruit to producing silk, raising livestock, and

butchering hogs

• Elizabeth Anderson taught Salzburger women how to run the new winding

machine;

• by 1750, 14 Salzburg women had become expert silk-winders

• one Salzburg woman earned enough money to purchase her own slave

PRICES AND INCOMES

a simple house with a kitchen 30 poundsa horse 5 poundsa cow and calf 2 poundsa male slave 35 pounds

pound of woven silk 30 pounds Boltzius’ annual salary 50 poundsMarie Camuse’s annual salary 100 poundsElizabeth Anderson’s salary 20 pounds + house Stipend for silk teachers 20-65 poundsStipend for sil apprentices 1-5 poundsMidwife in Savannah 5 pounds

BOOKS

BOOKS

• contrast with New England Puritans

• compare Bolzius’ censorship with Firman’s censorship

• Schaitberg’s popular Sendbrief is rarely mentioned in Bolzius’ journals

• books were likely the only objects that could awaken memories of

life in Austria

• 1740: “Care Package” containing 36 New Testaments; 12 hymnals,

12 copies of Arndt (Bolzius’ prefered author)

• 1802: final subsidies expended on medications and religious books

WITNESSES

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1740)

All other places of the colony seem to be like Egypt, where was darkness, but Ebenezer, like the land of Goshen, wherein was great light. For near four miles did I walk in almost one continued field, with a most plentiful crop of corn, peas, potatoes, growing upon it—all the products of a few months labor … In a few years the Salzburghers, I believe, will be a flourishing people

WILLIAM STEPHENS (1740)

Ebenezer thrives very much; there are good Houses built for each of the Ministers, and an Orphan House; and they have partly framed Houses, and partly Huts, neatly built, and formed into regular Streets; they have a great deal of Cattle and Corn-Ground, so that they sell Provisions at Savannah; for they raise much more than they can consume

JOHANNES SLESING (1753)

Thanks be to God that I am healthy and doing quite well. This is why I will never return to Germany. In Georgia, if you have a little bit of money to start up something on a parcel of land, you can livelike a nobleman in this free and healthy country

JOHANN GOTTFRIED PROBST (1786)

I find Ebenezer to be in the most miserable condition, everything is torn down, scorched, burned … Ebenezer is no more

JOHN HURSTHARPER’S NEW MONTHLY

(1892)The land of the Salzburgers is now most easily reached by taking the railroad from Savannah for the little station of Guyton. This rural village is in Effingham County … It is difficult to imagine a more weird and suggestive scene that is presented by a ride in early spring through the county made memorable by the exiles. The silence is almost painful. After leaving Guyton, I had not ridden a mile in our primitive wagon before the wilderness began. Now and then we passed a house which bore the unmistakable traces of early period, or was modeled after the original house.

JOHN HURSTHARPER’S NEW MONTHLY

(1892)I was now on the site of Old Ebenezer, the first resting place of the Salzburgers, whence they removed to the resent settlement, or New Ebenezer. A careful examination resulted in finding no trace whatever of a building, or even of a place where it could be seen that one had stood … We now returned to the main road, and proceeded on our way through the forest in a general course toward the permanent settlement on the Savannah River. The forest becomes less dense. Now and then a cottage comes into view, where a Salzburger family lives …

JOHN HURSTHARPER’S NEW MONTHLY

(1892)On reaching the Savannah, I was for the first time in the presence of the memorials of the first generation of the exiles. The most important of all is in the church. It is a large structure, and bears evidence of long and faithful service. The present seats, although not over-comfortable, are newer than the building proper.

Along the river near the church one can easily see the fragments of rude masonry, now covered with luxuriant growths of underwood and creepers, which the British erected for the protection during the Revolutionary war.

R C HOLLINGSWORTH THE MERCERIAN (1907)

Where once the smiling village stood and busy toilers plied their trade, desolation now spreads its wings. No sign of life greets the visitor except the warbling of the birds in the hedge, the chatter of the squirrels in the trees, or the call of the wildfowl overhead, except when on the Sabbath the descendants of the Salzburgers go up to worship in the temple of their forefathers. It is truly a “deserted village.”

R C HOLLINGSWORTH THE MERCERIAN (1907)

It is said that one of these “Dutch” housewives can take a large sweet potato and serve it to the family in a half dozen different forms, and feed “Fido,” old Brindle and the pigs on the residue. Aside from this unusual accomplishment, she is possessed of the magic art of turning into clearest jelly the wild fruits of the plains and of preserving everything preservable …

R C HOLLINGSWORTH THE MERCERIAN (1907)

[The husband] is engaged in truck farming principally, and finds a ready market for his vegetables in Savannah, while he ships his potatoes, beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes more often to Northern markets. There are some few farmers among them that still have their mulberry orchards, raise silkworms and manufacture a grade of silk fishing-lines surpassed by none in the state of Georgia …

R C HOLLINGSWORTH THE MERCERIAN (1907)

At the kraut-cutting old jokes are told in the round. They invariably tell of how the old Salzburgers at Ebenezer, in order to save their cannon when the British were advancing to take the town, took it in a ‘flat,’ carried it to the middle of Ebenezer creek, hoisted it overboard, seized a hatchet and cut a notch in the side of the boat to mark the place where it sunk, and rowed back to the bank

LUCIEN LAMAR KNIGHT GEORGIA LANDMARKS

(1913)

As a rule these are happy people. At night they discuss, about the fireside, with great gravity, the happenings of the neighborhood; and in the role of neighbor and friend the average “Dutchman” is always at his best. He is also honest in his dealings. The Superior Court of Effingham County seldom lasts more than three days now, and it rarely happens that one of these men is haled into court for breach of contract or for any offense where honor is involved …

LUCIEN LAMAR KNIGHT GEORGIA LANDMARKS

(1913)… There are two or three annual festivals that everybody attends, The Farmer’s Dinner,” the Fourth of July picnic, and the festival of the Effingham Hussars. These are the big events of the season; but of all the social occasions none are so thoroughly enjoyed as the “kraut cuttings” … When the kraut is cut and neatly packed in a vat a feast is then spread, in the preparation of which the old Dutch oven has been busy for more than a week. The twang of the banjo and the swelling note of the fiddle then call them to a room made vacant for the dance; and thus they go, oftentimes until grey streaks in the east announce the coming morn …

R L BRANTLEY “THE SALZBURGERS IN GEORGIA”

(1930)

A visitor at Old Ebenezer today cannot help feeling the sacredness of the entire surroundings, dominated by the old-hand-made brick church … Ebenezer church today has about one hundred and sixty members with a Sunday school of one hundred and seventy … There are only between thirteen and fourteen hundred people living at Ebenezer. Today the nearest house is the church and old site is two miles. The church is as a revered memorial, isolated with the quietness of nature. The members seems to refrain from breaking in on the enduring life of Old Ebenezer, except when in reverent moods

MIRIAM GNANNGROWING UP ON THE FARM IN THE EARLY 1900S (1991)

JOHANN ERNST BERGMANN (1800)

As Bergmann observed the decay of what had remained of Ebenezer, he questioned whether its much vaunted past had ever been as glorious as Boltzius had led his European readers to believe. As a case in point he cited the living descendants of the original Salzburgers, whom he deemed exceptional only in their addiction to drink and capacity for avarice. Boltzius’ exceptionalist vision of the Salzburgers, he argued, had furthered their moral decay by fostering the illusion that they were better and more deserving than their neighbors [Melton (2015), 298]

JOHANN ERNST BERGMANN (1800)

Viewed from a different perspective, however, what Bergmann saw as decline could just as readily be taken as a mark of success. Ebenezer’s descendants, whether Salzburg or Swabian, were living evidence of men and women who had survived the challenge of living on the frontier of a frontier province. They had adapted biologically to a disease-ridden landscape. They had survived what was by any account a vicious and brutal war of extermination. Many had managed to adopt a foreign tongue in a community where only a generation earlier, a mere handful of inhabitants had done [Melton (2015), 298]