Slavery and the Amish in 18th Century America * Did The Amish own slaves?

[@LivingThatSimpleLife]

Simply Amish - By D. Kraybill - amzn.to/3TU01rL

[@ReflectedMiles]

Not having a redemptionist system for passage would be like not being able to get a mortgage on a farm or home. It was a critical benefit for the poor and most needy who were desperate to start a new life, sometimes even with land (for some time, the person who "indentured" them was granted 50 acres of ground for each servant brought over which would eventually be passed on to the servant). The Amish and others provided this crucial lifeline to many immigrating during that time. The Mennonites (who would now be called "conservative Mennonites" as their lifestyle convictions differed significantly from modernist Mennonites), close cousins of the Amish, were actually the first group in the colonial US to make rejection of slavery an issue, persuading the Quakers (who were prolific slaveholders at the time) to start taking a stand against it at a meeting in Germantown in 1688. That document is still extant, conserved by the National Park Service for its displays. I believe it is currently on loan to one of the universities.

[@LivingThatSimpleLife]

I did read that the Quakers were slave owners. I did not dig in but am glad to hear they changed their ways. This was interesting...thank you for your input!

[@cejannuzi]

Very interesting. We have to remember that if you go back to say 1770, the Amish lifestyle was not unusual. If you lived on an English farm, or a Scot-Irish farm, or a plain Dutch (PA German) farm, the lifestyle would have been about the same. Even in terms of religion. Their sense of being different was really more a matter of their language and some very specific religious beliefs (that most Americans wouldn't have been that aware of anyway). The Amish were actually a rather small group among all the 'PA Dutch' in the colonial period, only about 500 families who first went to Berks County and then on to Lancaster County. Old Order approaches to the plain Dutch lifestyle emerged in the second half of the 19th century. I think it also important to point out that the German-Americans were actually very diverse (and didn't come from any unified Germany but rather shared forms of the German language and a Bible written in it), but they did form much of the core of anti-slavery thinking and even Abolitionism in US society in the first half of the 19th century.

[@LivingThatSimpleLife]

thank you for your comments. I was thinking about that as well - how the Amish 300 years ago were part of the culture as far as their identify and lifestyle. it is ls like they stayed frozen in time and everybody else moved on.

[@marbleman52]

@cejannuzi....I think that you made a very good observation that everyone back in the 1700's all lived a very agriculturally based lifestyle and there were no 'modern' conveniences or 'modern' technologies that the early Amish might consider to be too distracting to their core beliefs. When I said 'everyone', I know that there were people that lived in the more village or townlike areas, but their basic needs were still very similar to the Amish who lived in the country. There was no electricity or indoor plumbing for anyone, village or country. And by indoor plumbing, I mean running water like we have today, or flushing toilets. And I will assume that the horse, and horse & buggy and coaches like the western stage coaches, were the primary form of land transportation besides just walking. And they had boats and keelboats on the rivers. This is another video that inspires thinking and wondering about just how the early settlers lived and what, besides their own particular belief systems, set the early Amish apart from everyone else. These thoughts are what first came to me and I'm sure that there are many other areas that could be mentioned and talked about.

[@meenki347]

Just to put some of the diversity of German immigrants in context. My family was Germany Catholic and settled in Gendorf, Ohio named after Gendorf, Germany. However, there were 27 German newspapers in Ohio as late as 1900. My great great grandmother, whose father fought in the Union Army during the Civil War, could only speak German.

[@Nightbird1914]

Very informative. Thank you. It always bugs me when people compare indentured servants as being the same as owning enslaved people.

[@LivingThatSimpleLife]

I personally learned something new. I did not know about redemptionists. Yes, this gets confused frequently.

[@2breal673]

To conclude that the indentured and redemptionist must have been treated well because they joined the Amish church is way too simplistic. You are ignoring the power of indoctrination and social peer pressure. For some this is a go along to get along strategy. You stated several times the early Amish integrated into the society and their redemptionists were going to church with them. It can be hard to prosper or maneuver in a small community when you are different from everyone else. I know you wouldn't use the same reasoning to explain why African slaves became Christians.

[@LivingThatSimpleLife]

Not "all" redemptioners joined the Amish Church. Some did. African slavery was not anything like redemptioners or indentured servants. There are no similarities. So no, I would not use the same reasoning to explain why African Slaves became Christians. Thank you for shring.