A large group of people in what we mostly think of as Germany today began their preparations for their journey to America, where the land of opportunity awaited them. This became known as the Palatine Emigration of 1709-1710.

The pink areas in this map of Rhineland, Germany, show the regions where the Palatines came from.

The Palatines, as these people were called, mostly came from the Rhenish or Lower Palatine—but some came from neighboring districts. The home principalities were: the Palatinate; the districts of Darmstadt and Hanau; Franconia (including the area around the cities of Nuremburg, Baireuth and Wurzburg); the Archbishopric of Mayence; the Archbishopric of Treves; the districts of Spires, Worms, Hesse-Darmstadt, Zweibrucken, Nassau, Alsace, Baden, and Wurtemberg. The entire area extended along both sides of the Rhine River and its tributaries, the Main and Neckar Rivers. It extended roughly from the junction of the Moselle and the Rhine south to Basle, Switzerland; and from Zweibrucken, alongside Lorraine, as far west along the main as Baireuth, bordering the Upper (or Bavarian) Palatinate.¹

The Palatines left their homeland for a better chance at survival for themselves and future generations. Their land had been ravaged by war. The Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), a "series of wars fought by various nations for various reasons, including religious, dynastic, territorial, and commercial rivalries," had left them prostrate.² Just as the land and its people had begun to recover from the war, the land was invaded by armies of the French King Louis XIV in the latter part of the 17^th century.³

As if war was not enough to devastate the region, there was the winter of 1708. The weather became very cold in October, and within a month later, "firewood would not burn in the open air!" A few months passed and then in January "wine and spirits froze into solid blocks of ice; birds on the wing fell dead; and it is said, saliva congealed in its fall from the mouth to the ground." All the rivers were frozen, even the Rhone—one of the rapid rivers of Europe—and people were walking across it with heavily laden carts! People from several countries froze to death. There was heavy frost from January 6^th to the 25^th, then it finally snowed until the 6^th of February. When the winter came to an end, the husbandmen and vinedressers discovered that their fruit trees and vines had been destroyed by the hard winter. These people made up the majority of the Palatines who emigrated.⁴

In addition to being victims of war and the winter of 1708, the Palatines were being forced into a life of poverty by their rulers. The elector Palatines, influenced by French King Louis XIV, decided to emulate French King Louis XIV’s lavish lifestyle in Versailles. To do this, the Palatines were financially bled dry in order to afford their elector Palatines’ extravagant lifestyles in addition to financing the ongoing war effort.⁵

The final push for the Palatines was in the form of pamphlets by British land agents, highly praising the wonderful climate and life in the British colonies of Carolina and Pennsylvania in America. Also circulated was the "Golden Book," which encouraged people to come to England where they would be taken to Carolina or any of the Queen’s plantations. This book was in great demand that there were three more editions printed.⁶

The reason why England was waging an advanced and clever public relations campaign was because they wanted to increase the population in the British colonies in the New World and remain strong against opposing powers as the French. Their philosophy was that "the increase of people is a means of advancing the wealth and strength of a nation."⁷

In 1708, a little group of Palatines, led by Reverend Joshua Kocherthal, was brave enough to leave their homeland so they could start life anew.⁸

^{| Next Page >}