William Penn’s colony of Pennsylvania, founded in 1681,
attracted many poor European migrants. Many colonists financed
their migration by arriving as indentured servants. Indentured
servants were an important source of labor in the colonies;
those arriving in the 17th century usually signed contracts
(known as indentures) for a fixed term and upon completion
received their freedom and a suit of clothes, a similar practice
to apprenticeship. However, the Germans whom Gottlieb
Mittelberger observed in the mid-18th century had no formal
contracts; instead they were auctioned off to he highest bidder
upon arrival, a practice that Mittleberger labeled as barbaric,
and “a sale in human beings.” Mittelberger, an organist and
schoolmaster, found much in North America not to his taste, and
returned to Germany in a few years where he wrote a book warning
Germans of the dangers of emigration to the New World. When the
ships have landed at Philadelphia after their long voyage, no
one is permitted to leave them except tho