Last month we
introduced the Charming Nancy, the ship that brought a group of eleven Amish
families to America. Hans Jacob Kaufman,
who historians believe was an Amish Bishop, kept a small calendar journal that
was discovered in the 1970s. In a few
short paragraphs, he records when they left German soil and when they arrived
in America. But what is even more
powerful he records the deaths, including the deaths of his children, which
occurred on the voyage.Of the eleven
Amish families, he records twenty-six deaths, twenty-four of which were
children!
Think about the
memories those who were on this voyage would have as they finally landed in
America. First, the trauma of leaving
their extended families, an important part of their world and culture, behind
as they left.Most knew that they would
never see their families and the world that was safe and settled, ever
again. Think about the voyage itself.In the nearly three-month journey, there
would have been an average of two funerals per week from this group. Bishop Kaufman would have officiated as their
bodies were rolled into a canvas and weighted with lead or rocks and dropped
overboard into the grave of the Atlantic.
What is it that
led these people to leave the safe and comfortable and move out into a world
that they did not know, and where death and fear prevailed? Why were they even willing to uproot their
families and forever change their lives? There are two major reasons for this as we look back at this time.
First, were these
people’s long memories of martyrdom and persecution. While there was no overt persecution in the
1730s when the first Amish came to America, they were still a disadvantaged
minority. They could not own their
land, and so many were tenant farmers with the constant fear of being forced to
leave their homes and farms at the whim of the feudal system. For the Anabaptist, this was even more of an
issue since there had been periodic efforts by the established churches of
Europe to deal with their presence by forcing them to join or move from the
areas. The memory and stories of their
parents and grandparents about persecution and even martyrdom made the decision
to move to what they perceived to be a free new world an appealing one.
The second factor
for their move was the news from the new world that freedom from this level of
persecution and fear was possible. Here
they heard, people could worship how they desired with no pressures from the
government.It was, after all, the
Quakers, who were persecuted in Europe, that owned and offered these
Anabaptists a place to live in Pennsylvania. Along with the freedom of religion and equally exciting possibility was
that they could also own land with no fear that after developing it, they would
be driven from their farms and homes at the whim of a rich landlord. They could have a place of freedom for
themselves and their children.
These two factors,
one a push out and the other a pull into, led about five hundred Amish to
emigrate from Europe to Pennsylvania. The flow into Pennsylvania ended when the American colonies rebelled in
the 1770s, and while a few families would come throughout the next 30-40 years,
the Amish world in America was essentially built in those early years when
Pennsylvania was still a British colony.
It is challenging
to consider that many of the people that moved here, did so for a better life
for their family. A place where they
could build a future that was more secure than the uncertain world from which
they came. The inherent danger of the
ocean voyage, the uncertainty of the new world, the fear of Indians on the
frontier, was not enough to keep these people at home. So the story of the Amish shifts continents
from Europe to America and like their forefathers they would have to create new
homes, farms, and a new life as they settled a strange and foreign land. Forced by what they considered to be a pushout and drawn by the pull of freedom and land, they settled here.What hard times would they face here? Would their world ever be the same
again?