GERMANTOWN, GERMAN PEOPLE EMIGRATE TO AMERICA

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Germantown, the area in Northwest Philadelphia, that was founded by immigrant families, in the first major immigration of German people to America, on a day like today in 1683.

Germantown, in Pennsylvania German Deitscheschteddel, is an area in Northwest Philadelphia. Founded by German, Quaker, and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854.

The area, which is about six miles northwest from the city centre, now consists of two neighbourhoods: Germantown and East Germantown.

Germantown has played a significant role in American history; it was the birthplace of the American antislavery movement, the site of a Revolutionary War battle, the temporary residence of George Washington, the location of the first bank of the United States, and the residence of many notable politicians, scholars, artists, and social activists.

Today, the area remains rich in historic sites and buildings from the colonial era, some of which are open to the public.

More information: Visit Philly

Although the arrival by ship of the later founders of Germantown in Philadelphia on October 6, 1683 was later to provide the date for German-American Day, a holiday in the United States, historical research has shown that nearly all the first thirteen Quaker and Mennonite families were in fact Dutch rather than Germans.

These families, which were mainly Dutch but also included some Swiss, had relocated to Krefeld (near the Dutch border) and Kriegsheim (in Rhineland-Palatinate) some years prior to their emigration to America to avoid persecution of their Mennonite beliefs in the Dutch Republic and Swiss Confederacy.

The town was named Germantown by the group's leader Franz Pastorius, a German preacher from Sommerhausen.

The town's population remained largely Dutch-speaking until 1709, after which a number of the Dutch families set out west and a series of major German emigrations reached Germantown and Pennsylvania as a whole. Their initial leader, Pastorius, later aligned himself with newer German arrivals and, as the only university-trained and legal and literary man among the early settlers, chronicled and stressed the town's German origins.

Adding to the assimilating of Dutch culture was the fact that the direct vicinity of the settlement was already inhabited by fifty-four German families who had accompanied Johan Printz to the Swedish settlement on the Delaware several years before 1683 and had resettled themselves.

Francis Daniel Pastorius was the first bailiff. Jacob Telner, Derick Isacks op den Graeff and his brother Abraham Isacks op den Graeff, Reynier Tyson, and Tennis Coender were burgesses, besides six committeemen.

 

They had authority to hold the general court of the corporation of Germantowne, to make laws for the government of the settlement, and to hold a court of record. This court went into operation in 1690, and continued its services for sixteen years.

In 1688, five years after its founding, Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in America. Pastorius, Gerret Hendericks, Derick Updegraeff and Abraham Opdengraef gathered at Thones Kunders's house and wrote a two-page condemnation of slavery and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, the Society of Friends.

The petition was mainly based upon the Bible's Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was a clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process of banning slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and Pennsylvania (1780).

In 1723, Germantown became the site of the first Church of the Brethren congregation in the New World.

When Philadelphia was occupied by the British during the American Revolutionary War, British units were housed in Germantown.

In the Battle of Germantown, on October 4, 1777, the Continental Army attacked the garrison. During the battle, a group of civilians fired on the British troops as they marched up the avenue, mortally wounding British officer James Agnew.

More information: Genealogy Trails

The Americans withdrew after firing on one another in the confusion of the battle, which resulted in the battle becoming a British victory. The American losses amounted to 673 men and the British losses consisted of 575 men, but along with the American victory at Saratoga on October 17 when John Burgoyne surrendered, the battle led to the official recognition of the Americans by France, which formed an alliance with the Americans afterward.

During his presidency, George Washington and his family lodged at the Deshler-Morris House in Germantown to escape the city and the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. The first bank of the United States was also located here during his administration.

Germantown proper, and the adjacent German Township, were incorporated into the City of Philadelphia in 1854 by the Act of Consolidation.

Italians began settling Germantown in 1880, and comprised an active and vibrant part of the community.

The significant changes that occurred in Philadelphia's demographics at the start of the 20th century caused major shifts in Germantown's ethnic makeup as well. 

When the first wave of the Great Migration brought more than 140,000 African Americans to the city from the South, long-established Philadelphians started to move to the outskirts.

During this time, many German, Scots-Irish, and Irish families moved to Germantown.

During the 1940s, a second mass migration of African Americans from the south to Philadelphia occurred. While the majority of middle-class African American newcomers first settled in North Philadelphia, the housing shortages in this area that followed the end of World War II caused later arrivals to move instead to the Northwest. 

This led to a wave of new housing construction. To meet the housing needs of the growing numbers of African American families moving into southern Germantown, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority allocated $10.6 million for the creation of public housing.

Between 1954 and 1956, Germantown experienced an influx of lower-income African Americans, resulting in a decline in property values and triggering a white flight of the majority of white residents to the suburbs.

The demographic shift caused a slow but steady decline in central Germantown's upscale shopping district, with the last department store, a J. C. Penney branch, closing in the early 1980s.

More information: Germantown History

The current demographics of Germantown reflects this shift. As of the 2010 US Census, Germantown proper is 77% black, 15% white, 3% non-white Hispanic, and 2% Asian, and East Germantown is 92% black, 3% white, 2% non-white Hispanic, and 2% Asian.

Eugene Stackhouse, a retired former president of the Germantown Historical Society, says that the demographic transition of Germantown into a predominantly black neighbourhood was the result of the now illegal practice of blockbusting. It was a great disgrace. Cheap houses would be sold to a black family, then the realtors would go around and tell the neighbours that the blacks are invading, said Stackhouse. The practice was used to trigger panic selling.

The first railroad in Philadelphia was the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad, which linked Germantown to a station at 9th and Green Streets in Center City. It opened in 1832, and was initially powered by horses. The inventor Matthias W. Baldwin built his first commissioned steam locomotive for the new railroad. Nicknamed Old Ironsides, it eventually reached a peak speed of 28 mph.

More information: US History

 I grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania,
where my parents raised German shepherds
-we had about 30 dogs at any given time.

Tory Burch

THE BEANS: WITNESSES OF THE AMISH COMMUNITY

Raquel Lapp waiting The Beans arrival

Anton Bean is a great fan of History. He loves reading books and reports about culture, traditions and anthropology. He stores lots and lots of information in his tablet and he likes knowing new things every day and checking them with old ones. 

Anton is excited today because The Beans have decided to visit Rachel Lapp and her family, members of the Amish Community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It’s near Philadelphia and in the way to Washington, DC and it is a good chance to visit them and discover how their life-style closer to 19 century full of old traditions and an ancient religion afect the new Amish generations.

More information: New York Times

The Amish are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to, but distinct from, Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, and reluctance to adopt many conveniences of modern technology. The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish.

Rachel Lapp and John Book in 1985

In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the most traditional descendants of the Amish continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as Pennsylvania Dutch, although a dialect of Swiss German is used by Old Order Amish in the Adams County, Indiana area.

Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 25. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized with the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts average between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons. 

More information: Lancaster, Pennsylvania

The rules of the church, the Ordnung, must be observed by every member and cover most aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. 

Anton Bean travelling in an Amish transport

Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor and humility, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.

Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. 

More information: Discover Lancaster

During an adolescent period of rumspringa or running around in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may meet with a degree of forbearance. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as 'English'. 

The Beans entering in an Amish shop

There is generally a heavy emphasis on church and family relationships. They typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight, at age 13/14. Until the children turn 16, they have vocational training under the tutelage of their parents, community, and the school teacher. Higher education is generally discouraged as it can lead to social segregation and the unraveling of the community.

Amish lifestyle is regulated by the Ordnung  or order, which differs slightly from community to community, and, within a community, from district to district. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. 

More information: Exploring Amish Country

It is agreed upon within the community by the elders prior to the annual Communion. These include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. These elders are generally men.

The Beans arriving to an Amish farm

Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe large families are a blessing from God. Community is central to the Amish way of life.

Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.

Download Colours in Old Amish Quilts

The Beans are very interested in knowing how this community can work together building great structures without any kind of occupational hazards rules.

There can be no assumption that today's majority is 'right' and the Amish and others like them are 'wrong.' A way of life that is odd or even erratic but interferes with no rights or interests of others is not to be condemned because it is different.
 

Warren E. Burger

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA

The Beans & The Boss in a private session

After visiting Atlantic City, The Beans were invited by Bruce Springsteen to have dinner. The Boss surprised them with an unplugged and private concert where he played lots of fantastic songs. 

Bruce Springsteen is one of the most important singers and composers of the history. He and his incredible band have created the soundtrack of millions of people around the world. Springsteen's music has a personal style and his lyrics are full of social critic and hope. He's like Charles Dickens nowadays offering hope for the no-hoppers. It's very difficult to choose only one song of all his compositions but if The Grandma has to choose, she decides Thunder Road, a song that talks about not surrender, not give up and continue in the search of our dreams and happiness.

More information: Bruce Springsteen

 

The Grandma & The Cold Case Team

The Beans have continued their travel to Washington, DC but they have decided to stop in Philadelphia. 

The Grandma wants to talk to Lili Rush and Scotty Valens two detectives of the Philadelphia PD division who are specialized in investigating cold cases. The Grandma has contracted their services in a private way to try to discover what happened with Corto, her lover, who disappeared some decades ago without a trace.

While the Grandma was talking with Rush and Valens, the rest of the family visited this beautiful city, witness of the most important events during the Revolutionary War and nowadays, symbol of tolerance, freedom and open mind thinking.

More information: Philadelphia Government

 

The Beans visiting Liberty Bell

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States, with an estimated population of 1,567,872. 

Philadelphia is the economic and cultural anchor of the Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within both the Mid-Atlantic region and the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape (Delaware) Indians in the village of Shackamaxon. The Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians, and their historical territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, exacerbated by losses from intertribal conflicts. Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. 

More information: Lenape Lifeways

Maps of Philadelphia, 1681

The American Revolutionary War and United States' independence pushed them further west. In the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma and surrounding territory) under the Indian removal policy. 

In the 21st century, most Lenape reside in Oklahoma, with some communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario (Canada) and their traditional homelands.

William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city in 1682 to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 at the Second Continental Congress, and the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. 

Several other key events occurred in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War including the First Continental Congress, the preservation of the Liberty Bell, the Battle of Germantown, and the Siege of Fort Mifflin. 

More information: Civil War

The Grandma with her Liberty Bell souvenir

Philadelphia was one of the nation's capitals during the revolution, and served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C., was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and a railroad hub. 

The city grew from an influx of European immigrants, most of whom came from Ireland, Italy and Germany, the three largest reported ancestry groups in the city as of 2015. 

In the early 20th century, Philadelphia became a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration after the Civil War, as well as Puerto Ricans. The city's population doubled from one million to two million people between 1890 and 1950.

Finally, The Beans have decided to buy a little reproduction of Liberty Bell and travel around the world with her as a symbol of freedom, tolerance and respect.

More information: National Archives

I walked the avenue, 'til my legs felt like stone.
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone

at night I could hear the blood in my veins.
It was just as black and whispering as the rain

on the Streets of Philadelphia.

Bruce Springsteen

THE COLLINS FAMILY IN THE STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA

Seeley Booth

The Collins Family is visiting Pennsylvania invited by The Grandma. They’re spending some days in Lancaster with the Amish Community.

After sharing some unforgettable moments with this community, The Collins Family went to visit Philadelphia, one of the most beautiful cities, in The United States and the cultural and artistic center of the American country. The city has an important harbor in the River Delaware.

Philadelphia was founded in 1662 and its name means fraternal love city because it wanted to be a respectful religious city. The city was the capital of the USA during the Revolution War meanwhile Washington was under construction.

In this city were signed Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787 and stands Liberty Bell an iconic symbol of American independence.

People like Noam Chomsky (linguistic); Will Smith, David Boreanaz and Kevin Bacon (actors); Louisa May Alcott and Isaac Asimov (writers); Solomon Burke and Taylor Swift (singers) or Kobe Bryant (basketball player) were born in this incredible city.

More information: City of Philadelphia

Good books, like good friends,

are few and chosen;

the more select,

the more enjoyable.

Louisa May Alcott