CHAPTER 7
THE DECISION TO EMIGRATE

By the early 1700s the people of the Palatinate were ready for a change. There was no stability in the economy, in the rulers, in the religion, or even in the weather. The winter of 1708/9 was so severe it was reported that when birds landed, their feet froze to the ground. Many people suffered. Wars continued to rage. The Rhine valley was a major thoroughfare for armies moving to and from battle. The people began to leave the Palatinate at an overwhelming rate to escape from war, poverty, and religious persecution.

The Palatinate was near enough to France to be easily overrun and yet too far from Vienna, the capital of Germany, to receive aid quickly. The war of 1688/89 left the region a wasteland. King Louis XIV of France instructed his forces to "ravage the Palatinate." His orders were effectively obeyed. Twelve hundred towns and villages went up in smoke. In 1693 he sent his army in again to complete the desolation.

Wars did not cease. Between 1701 and 1713 European powers united against France and the Palatinate became the scene of marching armies going to or from battles in Bavaria, Italy, and the Netherlands. Conrad, if conscripted, may have been involved in some of these wars. Some researchers even posit the idea that the Liphards may have been living in the Palatinate by this time. War became a powerful inducement for the people to leave their homeland.

War also led to poverty. The wars fought in the early 1700s caused great poverty because the armies had to live off the country through which they passed. The failure of crops and the harshness of the winter, plus destruction by soldiers, left the people very poor. When they appealed to the Electorate, there was little relief. The people could not go on, so they chose to leave and seek a new life in the New World.

Finally, people left because of religion. Because each Elector had the power to decree what confession would become that of the population, the religion of the region changed four times in as many changes of Electorates. The people were expected to accept the religion of the prince. Those who refused could either leave their native land or conform to the decrees of the state. French rulers, being Catholic, oppressed Protestants as heretics and took away their churches. Such persecution contributed greatly to the dissatisfaction of the people.

Imagine these folks, our folks, after this most recent attack by the French when they once more face the loss of family and friends. Again, they survey the damage to their homes, their village, their shops, their manufactories, and their fields. They discuss, as they have many times before, their bleak future in Germany, including the fact that in a few years Wilhelm and Catharina's now young sons probably will be conscripted for local military service or even be sold to fight in foreign lands in these never-ending wars. They pray to God for guidance. We also should consider the possibility that either or both Conrad or Wilhelm at a military age were conscripted. The Hessian rulers of the time, like the Swiss, were notorious for renting out their young men to fight in other territories' wars.

From Thomas Paine's booklet entitled "Common Sense"' published in the year of our Declaration of Independence from England, 1776, "The Reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety."

One still cool, March day, shortly after the latest battle, the arrival of a stranger in the village reminds them of another option. This newcomer is a so-called "Newlander," a German who has lived in America for a time and is now being paid to return to Germany to entice new immigrants to William Penn's colony of Pennsylvania. This "Newlander" presents a probably exaggerated account of the wonders of the colony and distributes to the villagers William Penn's pamphlet entitled Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania in America, translated into German. In it Penn promises asylum for the persecuted of all countries and of all religions.

That evening after the "Newlander" departs, the weather is still quite cool so the villagers gather as they have all winter in the few larger of the cottages around their fires because there is not enough wood, it belongs to the prince, for them to have a fire in each home. Conrad reads the "Newlander's" pamphlet to the others in his cottage. Afterward, they discuss other accounts, probably also frequently exaggerated, that they have heard about life in Pennsylvania. They speak in hushed tones of those they know who have slipped away from the harsh conditions in Germany to begin a new life in America. Those folks have "slipped away" because the law at this time forbids anyone to leave Germany without first obtaining a letter of manumission from the local prince. The local prince seldom gives his approval primarily for economic reasons because he wishes to retain all his peasants to work his land, in his shops or in his industries. Thus, most all who leave do so surreptitiously without leaving any formal or legal record of their departure. Upon some rare occasions, church books record special prayers being said for those who intend to emigrate.

As they have before, the families gather around the cottage fires that March night to discuss their options. This time the Lippards and several other families and young men decide there is no future left for them in Germany where they live in constant danger, constant threat of war and poverty. They have lost too many folks dear to them and have rebuilt too many times only to see more death and destruction. They decide that their hopes lie in America.

What great courage it took to embark upon such a journey! I especially feel great admiration for Conrad, who at age fifty-eight was already considered in his day to be an old man. And then there was Wilhelm's wife, Catharina, with probably four small boys under the age of nine and either pregnant or with a small infant girl to protect and care for. Wilhelm, at age thirty-nine, probably felt the responsibility for the entire family. This journey they are about to embark on will be nothing like any journey any of us today could imagine undertaking.

Those villagers, including our Lippards, who decide to depart, hastily pack the little savings they have and the belongings they can carry with them. They sell or give away the rest to those who remain. They need what money they can amass to pay for many expenses along the way. This will be not only a dangerous but an expensive journey.

The villagers know that they must hurry on foot or by boat to a river flowing to the Rhine or to the Rhine River itself where they must hire a small boat that will transport them to Rotterdam, Netherlands. They have heard that this portion of their journey will take them from four to six weeks because of the long delays at the perhaps fifty toll points, usually at the castles of local lords, where the lord's officials generally collect tolls and conduct inspections at their leisure to bilk the travelers of all that they can.

Our Lippards and their companions know the urgency of reaching Rotterdam and gaining passage on a sailing ship before late summer when ordinarily the last of the ships sail before the cold blast of winter storms on the sea and the cold of winter without shelter in a new land. And so, our Lippards and their companions, carrying all that they can, slip off into an early spring night after tearful but hopeful farewells and promises to send letters to the ones they leave behind.

AN IMAGINARY LETTER FROM ROTTERDAM

CONRAD'S LETTER (Imaginary description of the emigration experience)

Imagine still the same small German village on a chilly autumn night almost six months later. Once more the villagers who remain behind are at the few cottages around the communal fires. Earlier in the day a man on horseback arrived at a cottage door with a letter from Rotterdam. It is a letter from Conrad, and now the entire village has gathered full of excitement to hear what Conrad has written to them. The villagers are thankful and praising God because until today they have heard nothing from the little band that sneaked off in the night almost six months ago, and many had feared their friends and relatives had perished on the dangerous journey down the Rhine. They are eager for another of the literate villagers, close to the dancing light from the fire, to read –