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Archiver > Melungeon > 2002-04 > 1017778092


From: "JECrain" <>
Subject: Re: [Melungeon] Re: Pa Dutch vs Pa German
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 14:12:13 -0600
References: <008401c1da37$27d34c20$14eee33f@laptop>


>The Germans didn't hide, they were just
> misunderstood, "Deutsch" sounding like "Dutch" to American ears. I don't
> think they had reason to hide,in the early days, and seemed to be well
> respected,

Maybe. But this quote from Ben Franklin makes me think otherwise.

http://www.cswnet.com/~brenfroe/right.htm

"Why should the Palatine boors be suffered to swarm into our settlement,
and, by herding together, establish their language and manners, to the
exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a
colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us,
instead of our Anglicifying them, and will never adopt our language or
customs any more than they can acquire our complexion?"

~Benjamin Franklin 1751~

Germany was not a country, but a loose confederation of principalities and
duchies, etc. The people emmigrating from there came from many ethnic
backgrounds, even Gypsies. Some were quite dark. Those coming to PA in the
1700's mainly got here by indenturing themselves as servants for a number of
years to pay off their passage debt. Here in Texas, things were different.
The main wave of immigrants came around 1850, or later. They were able to
pay their own way for the most part. Some were quite well educated and
cultured. Both groups succeeded in eventually acquiring land and material
success in their chosen new home by working very hard and enduring many
hardships. But I think the German immigrants in Texas were less
discriminated against. Until WWI of course.

Janet Lewis Crain
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~craingen/
<http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~craingen/>;
CRAIN*LEWIS*JACKSON*HOLLOWAY*GAMBILL*BRANTLEY*HILL*VICKERS*WAGGONER*
DAVENPORT*ROSE*BRESSIE/BRACEY*STINNETT*RUCKER*WHITE*ANDREWS*MCDONALD*
WILKES*HOPPER*FENDER*HAYES*ELLIOTT*BRADLEY*STAMPER*BALDWIN*CAUDILL*
SIZEMORE * and many more!


----- Original Message -----
From: "karolyn hoover" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 5:11 AM
Subject: Re: [Melungeon] Re: Pa Dutch vs Pa German


> > > referred to themselves as PA German (which in their tongue German
would
> > > translate to Deutch), and then people who being ignorant of the term
> thought
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi Everyone,
> >
> > First off, HAPPY EASTER to you all !!! While looking at
some
> > research by Kerchner, I found this. By the way, it seems our German
> ancesters
> > also hid under cover of the term Pa Dutch.
> >
> > <A HREF="http://www.kerchner.com/padutch.htm">Click here: Pennsylvania
> Dutch Are Of German Heritage, Not Dutch</A>
> > http://www.kerchner.com/padutch.htm
> >
> >
> > Bright Star
> >
> >
> > ______________________________
>
> I think Nancy was right about this. The Germans didn't hide, they were
just
> misunderstood, "Deutsch" sounding like "Dutch" to American ears. I don't
> think they had reason to hide,in the early days, and seemed to be well
> respected, unlike the Irish and Norwegians, up until WW I. Then things
> changed. I remember being told that my grandpa spent a night in an Idaho
> jail because he was gathered with a bunch of his cronies on the street
> talking in German, and the fear was that they might send radio messages to
> the Nazis somehow! But, knowing my grandpa, I wonder if that wasn't just
the
> story he made up for his family to explain his brief incarceration :-)
> The anti-German paranoia became so bad during WW I I, that some people
shot
> German shepherds and dachshunds in MN just because they were German dogs!
> But my father still had no fear of walking up to the fence of a German POW
> camp and talking, in German, to the prisoners. But then, he had no fear of
> anything. Anger, yes; fear, no.
>
> Konnie
>
> ______________________________


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