INTRODUCTION

Because this volume is being bound together with Volume XIII, which outlines the story of the Georgia Salzburgers, it is unnecessary to repeat the story here. Therefore we will put the reader in medias res, into the year 1750, while life in Ebenezer was proceeding smoothly. Agriculture was flourishing, and cattle raising was increasing as a result of the purchase of the Trustees’ cowpen and cattle at Old Ebenezer. Silk manufacture was also advancing and was surpassed only by the lumber business, which was calling for yet another sawmill. The Salzburgers’ boards, shingles, and barrel staves had won a good name and were being exported to the West Indies in great numbers.

The most tragic event in the year 1750 was the epidemic of a disease diagnosed as Friesel, or das rote Friesel, which has been identified as “the purples,” and “military disease,” as well as scarlet fever and measles. The symptoms as described do not let us identify the disease with any precision. It attacked both adults and children, mostly the latter, and was often fatal. Among its victims were two of Boltzius’ children. After having often persuaded his parishioners that they should praise the Lord for having taken their children while they were still without sin, he now had to convince himself twice in one week of this Pietistic principle.

Because of the high infant mortality, the Salzburgers were without help on their farms. Many of the Palatine servants who had come the previous October on the Charles Town Galley had proved unsatisfactory: some had absconded and others were lazy and refractory. Because the aging and often childless Salzburgers could not find hired hands, many of them were convinced by their English neighbors that they should acquire slaves. Boltzius and most of his flock still opposed the introduction of slavery on moral, social, and economic grounds; but the authorities in Savannah had put such pressure on Boltzius that he no longer openly resisted it; and several of his parishioners, including previous opponents like Christian Leimberger, were beginning to buy slaves. These were mostly bought on credit from the Salzburgers’ friend and patron, James Habersham, who was now a successful merchant and the secretary of the Council in Savannah.

Aware that the Salzburgers were in such dire need of labor, and hoping to prevent the use of slaves, Urlsperger determined to recruit more Protestant German immigrants. The Duke of Wurttemberg being opposed to emigration from his realm, Urlsperger sought his emigrants in the territory of the Imperial Free City of Ulm, a thriving city-state on the Danube, especially in the area of Leipheim. Since many people were going from there to America anyway, Urlsperger argued that it would be better for them to go to Ebenezer, where they would find spiritual guidance, rather than to areas without Lutheran clergy. To stimulate interest, Urlsperger’s son and successor, Johann August, composed a promotional pamphlet praising Georgia as the foremost American colony. This pamphlet was in Latin, and this indicated that it was aimed at the clergy, who were to approve all applicants.

To judge by the results, the ministers appear to have chosen their emigrants well. Many of them paid all or much of their passage money and were mostly substantial people and well above the usual run of immigrants. They proved a valuable addition to the Salzburgers, to whom they conformed and with whom they soon intermarried. After they were followed by two more Swabian transports in the next two years, the Swabian dialect seems to have replaced the Salzburgers’ Bavarian dialect as the dominant one in Ebenezer.