EMANCIPATION FROM BONDAGE

 

                             Eighteenth Century Germany

 

Have you ever wondered how our European ancestors lived?  What were the political, economic, social, and spiritual conditions that shaped their lives?  Why did they leave their homeland in Germany and with great difficulty make their way to the 'New World'?  Were they wealthy, famous, royalty or none of the above?  In this genealogical history I will attempt to answer these questions.

 

First, let's look at some history of the area now called Germany.  Celtic peoples inhabited it until a series of military campaigns brought it within the Roman Empire in the first century BC.  The Teutons (German speaking peoples) subdued the Roman Empire by 500 a.d. and they culturally absorbed the Celtic peoples.

 

The first Bolender found so far dates back to about 1100, at the large Bolanden Estates, near a small village called Bolanden.  Ferdinand Bolender, who owns the Great Guesthaus Hotel and Restaurant in Linsengericht, Germany, says this is the origination of the Bolender name.  His aunt, supposedly, has the family history dating clear back to this era.  I trust, in the near future, this will be made public so we can share this valuable history of the Bolender family.

 

Records trace my fourth great grandfather, Peter Bolender* and Phillip Carl Schenkel (Shinkle),** back to an area in Europe now called Germany.  Phillip Carl Schenkel and several relatives lived in a small village called Edenkoben.  His youngest daughter Margreta would, in the future, marry Peter Bolender's son Stephen (my third great grandfather).  This would be the beginning of many marriages between the two families for at least one hundred fifty years.

 

Records show that the Bolender and Schenkel families were 'Palatine.'  A 'Palatine' is someone who came from the region of Germany called 'The Palatinate.'  Germany as a country did not exist in the 18th century.  Prior to 1871, the area that is now Germany consisted of separate states, such as Wurttemberg, Prussia, Bavaria, etc., whose boundaries changed frequently as a result of war and other causes.  The 'Palatinate' was one of those states and was located along the Rhine River, roughly where the modern German state of Rhineland-Pfalz is located.***

 

The Palatinate was land owned by a 'feudal lord' who was a secular prince of the Holy Roman Empire.  Along the Rhine valley, he lived in a castle on a hilltop overlooking his large estate with the river in view.  The feudal lord owned the inhabitants farming the land and tending the estate.  They were called 'serfs' or 'peasants' who, owning little, lived in poverty.

 

A description of our ancestor, Phillip Carl Schenckel's homeland is given by Dr. Alfred Hans Kuby, presently a resident and village historian of Edenkoben, Rhineland Pfalz, Germany.  A retired pastor, scholar, and educator, he first came to the United States as a WWII prisoner in the mid nineteen-forties.  He loves America and is a frequent lecturer for the Pennsylvania Chapter of "The Palatines to America."  In his book, Life In a Palatine Town Between 1648 and 1798, he describes:

 

           "...the old towns and villages in the Alsace, Palatinate, Hessen, and Wurtemberg have narrow roads, each house close beside each other.  High arched gateways permitted the wagons hauling the grain harvest and hay to pass through.  Beside each house is a neatly tended garden.  Around the town are harvest fields, meadows, vineyards, and somewhere within sight is a forest.  They grew farm animals to produce milk and meat.  They grew vegetables, millet, oats, apples, pears, sweet grapes, plums, nuts and chestnuts.  Potatoes became an important food in the 18th century." 

 

The emigrants brought this style of living to the 'New Land,' but with one highly important difference.  They now had much more space, making it possible to expand their buildings, gardens, harvest fields and meadows.

 

In Germany, most villages had a church.  In 1648, Edenkoben had only one church, which was a medieval building used by the Reformed congregation.  Edenkoben lay in an area whose people were Reformed, but whose Prince Elector was Catholic.  In terms of political jurisdiction, Edenkoben belonged to the Electorate of Kurpfalz (Pfalz), whose capitol city was Heidelberg.

 

In another lecture to the Pennsylvania Chapter, given in April 24-25, 1998, Dr. Kuby states:

 

"The inhabitants of Edenkoben paid several types of taxes, one being the obligatory per capita assessment to pay the costs for the Prince Elector to build the enormous Castle at Mannheim, which today houses the very large Mannheim University.  After WWII, the US Military used this castle, temporarily, for a prison."

 

In 1981, Dr. Kuby wrote about these emigrants under the title, The People of the Snow Ketty:

 

"During the years 1749 to 1752 almost 70 residents of Edenkoben immigrated to North America.  Their diet was lots of bread made from rye and other grains such as spelt and oats.  They also had pulp of millet and soup of barley.  They added lentils, peas, beans, carrots, onions, cabbage and red and white wines.  Everybody drank wine and most drank milk.  Most meals were without meat.  Occasionally, they had chicken.  In November, a goose might be had.   Eggs were eaten frequently.

 

   "If they wanted something extra and quite special, they could eat chestnuts, almonds, apples, and pears.  A very special food item was the 'Latwerg', a kind of jam made from Damson Plums and spices.  After they immigrated to Pennsylvania, they didn't have the right kind of plums so they used apples.  They began producing 'apple butter'."

 

To gain insight into conditions, leading to the exodus from their homeland to the New World, let's review some 17th and 18th century history.  The principalities of the Palatinate, Baden, and Wurttemberg had suffered greatly from the terrible Thirty Years War (1618-1648).  During the war the Palatine population had been reduced from 1,000,000 to 50,000.  Before recovering from the ravages, the Palatinate was subjected to the plundering of the troops of the French monarch Louis XIV during the War of the Grand Alliance (1689-1697).  These periodic invasions by the French devastated the land, and a large proportion of the population was reduced to poverty.  Next came the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713) which caused much devastation of Wurttemberg.  In 1708-1709, a severely cold winter froze the wildlife in the forests and killed fruit trees and vineyards.  All Europe suffered from the cold, but the Germans in Wurttemberg and the Palatinate suffered more so, due to their impoverished condition.  To make matters worse, their selfish and incompetent rulers, living in rich luxury, shamelessly exploited the people.  Religious conditions were also bad.  In the Palatinate, the Catholic rulers persecuted many of the Protestants groups, hampering the peasants in the exercise of their religious beliefs.

 

To the dissatisfied populace in Germany, America appeared as the land of promise, offering both freedom and economic opportunity.  William Penn, head of the colony of Pennsylvania, promoted colonization by distributing printed advertisements in England.  These soon spread to Germany.  At the same time fellow countrymen, who had already immigrated to America, sent back glowing reports of their life in America.

 

During the period, 1710 to 1776, an estimated 225,000 persons from the Rhine district and nearby regions, especially the Palatinate and Wurttemberg, immigrated to the colonies in America.  So many came from the Rhinesh Palatinate that in England and America all German immigrants were known as Palatines.

 

In 1952, some genealogist, tracing family roots of their Palatine ancestors, visited Edenkoben, Germany and found information regarding 18th century serfs having been emancipated from serfdom and thence having immigrated to the New World.  Because our ancestor Phillip Carl Schenkel, and other Schenkels, are mentioned in their findings, I will give a quote, translated from German, from the book, Ship Passenger Lists.  Pennsylvania and Delaware  (1641-1825).  A chapter titled, "18th Century Emigrants from Edenkoben in the Palatinate",  pp. 187-189: 

 

"... throws some light on the difficulties faced by

the Palatine serfs (peasants) of the 18th Century when it came to emigration.  For their release from bondage as subjects and their manumission (emancipation) from serfdom a special duty had to be paid, besides the so-called "Tenth Penny," a sum to the extent of 10% of the emigrant's property.  Yet emigrants with no means were "manumitted" anyway.  But for secret emigration (leaving without permission), the penalty was mostly the confiscation of the property. 

 

"From Edenkoben, then under the rule of the Electoral Palatinate, there emigrated in the 18th Century, according to the Protocols of the Bailiwick of Neustadt, a comparatively large number of persons. Actually the number may have been still higher, due to the secret emigration.  Many of these emigrants' names can be located in the Pennsylvania Ship Lists.

 

"For instance, in 1750 Jacob Komer of Edenkoben, who is going to Pennsylvania with his wife, was released from serfdom, likewise in 1751 George Krass, with wife and two children.  In 1752 Nicolas Leonhard, who had secretly emigrated around 1749, requested manumission so that his inheritance could be handed over to him.  His request was granted, yet he had to pay 35 florins (guldens) for his manumission, for the "Tenth Penny" 31 florins, and for the Military Treasury, in the lieu of military service unrendered 7 florins.  His brother Wilhelm Leonhard, who later also wanted to emigrate, was described as an "ill-behaved and dissolute petitioner" (ohnartiger and liederlicher Supplican), so that his request for emigration could be granted with no difficulties at all.

 

"In 1752 Martin Grun, Heinrich Schenkel, and Christian Muller went to 'Pennsylvanien.'  They had to pay all the aforementioned duties, except Martin Grun who, because of his having no property, was manumitted without charge.  But the request for emigration met with great difficulties in the case of the three stepdaughters of Martin Grun--Anna Barbara, Marie Elisabetha, and Maria Catharina Frank--who were such good workers, at the best age for working, and so plainly valued by the Electoral Government that they received manumission reluctantly and only after long struggles.

 

"For the same year, 1752, a great emigration year, Philip Carl Schenkel and Jacob Welde of Edenkoben also went as emigrants to North America, all manumitted gratis (without charge) on account of their poverty.  Likewise in 1752 came the departure from Edenkoben of Jacob Schuster and Johann Phillip Schenkel with his wife, both serfs of the Zweibrucken Government.  The departure of other persons, Abraham Sonntag and Jacob Schenkel, occasioned serious apprehensions on the part of the Electoral Government, on account of the competition with Pfalz-Zweibrucken, which also possessed serfs in Edenkoben.

 

"But when the Mayor of Edenkoben reported that the Electoral Palatinate possessed 315 men and 377 women as serfs in Edenkoben, while Zweibrucken could muster only 36 men and 40 women, the right of departure was granted the petitioners for the payment of a small duty, or even gratis, because they have so little property and cannot make a good living in Edenkoben."

 

According to other records, in 1752 Phillip Carl Schenkel, along with Johann, Phillip, Jacob and Heinrich (doubtless his brothers or cousins), emigrated to America, taking passage at Rotterdam in the ship 'Snow Ketty' commanded by Theophilus Barnes, touching at Portsmouth, England and landing at Philadelphia on October 16, 1752.

 

 

 

*Take note of the spelling of Bolender in different records.  Variations may include Poland, Polander, Pollender, Bolend, Bollender, Bollinder, Bohlander, Bohlender, Boland, Bolander, and Bollander.

 

**Take note of the spelling of Schenkel in different accounts and records.  Variations may include Schenkel, Schenckel, Shankle, and Shinkle.

 

**Phillip Carl Schenkel was born June 8, 1717, in Edenkoben, Germany.  His father was Nicholas Schenkel and his grandfather was Bartholomew Schenkel.  As of March, 1998, exciting new information concerning Phillip Carl's ancestors is being gleaned from old church records dating back to the 1550's in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. 

 

***Geographically, the Palatinate was divided between two small territorial clusters: the Rhinish, or the Lower Palatinate, and the Upper Palatinate.  The Rhinish Palatinate included the lands on both sides of the Middle Rhine River between its Main and Neckar tributaries.  Its capitol until the 18th century was Heidelberg.  The Upper Palatinate was located in northern Bavaria, on both sides of the Naab River as it flows south toward the Danube, and extended eastward to the Bohemian Forest.  The boundaries of the Palatinate varied with the political and dynastic fortunes of the feudal lords.