The Role of Germans in Ending Slavery in Missouri in 1865

They wrote boldly that they were “not afraid that a colored man will ever be an aspirant to the office of Governor, or any other state office.” Instead, they argued, “should he-though sprung from a race systematically kept in ignorance by the tyranny of the white man—still be the superior of his white competitor…we do not wish that he be barred out because…his skin was not as white.” Minority Report Com. on the Executive prepared by George Husmann and G. Thilenius.
 
That German immagrants opposed slavery is well known. Less well known is that may of them supprted allowing free blacks to vote. Has anyone ever studied if Lincoln could have won the election of 1860 without the support of the immagrants? Most newly arrived immagrants supported the concept of an economy based on free labor.
 
The role of the German immigrants in Missouri was rich and complex even before the war, but especially so during the war. In my hometown of Boonville, a Home Guard unit comprised mostly of German immigrants received word of an impending attack by pro-southern forces in early autumn, 1861. This word was brought to them by runaway slaves. The commander of the Home Guard unit, named Eppstein, reportedly armed and even uniformed the runaway slaves, who served as combatants during the rebel attack. This might be one of the earliest cases of blacks being armed and uniformed and serving in combat roles during the war.

However, instances such as this didn't mean that German immigrants were necessarily integrationist. Eliminating slavery might have been one thing, but segregation was alive and well for a very long time around here, as it was elsewhere, too. Plenty of people with German surnames continued to be extremely prejudiced for generations after the war. This didn't make them unique among immigrant groups by any means.

The irony is that Germans, Irish and other immigrant groups were often victims, themselves, of cultural biases--even as some of them maintained their prejudices against blacks.
 
The irony is that Germans, Irish and other immigrant groups were often victims, themselves, of cultural biases--even as some of them maintained their prejudices against blacks.
I don't know that it is ironic. Suffering persecution does not inoculate a person against bigotry.

As we know, victims of child abuse sometimes become advocates for the rights of children and sometimes become abusive parents.
 
Still, it was a very inspiring and interesting column. I will be using your extensive list of resources to try and find some of the names of the men who took such a noble stand. Thank-You!
 
Attended a lecture at ECU where the Professor talked about the first and second battles of Boonville.

General Franz Sigel and General Heinrich Bornstein were mentioned as well due to the communist leaning.

ECU Lecture.jpg
 
My newest article looks at the end of slavery in Missouri. Missouri had slavery until 1865, until it was abolished by the state. This article looks at the German immigrant program of emancipation:

http://www.longislandwins.com/colum...ts_and_the_end_of_slavery_in_missouri_in_1865
Thanks for sharing this... one of my CW ancestors was a German who fought for the Union with the 25th Missouri and the 1st Missouri Engineers. He was a Republican and indeed abhorred slavery.
 
The irony is that Germans, Irish and other immigrant groups were often victims, themselves, of cultural biases--even as some of them maintained their prejudices against blacks.
Agree... this was especially true during g WW I, as stories passed down in my family attest. My grandfather grew up speaking German at home, but when the war began he was admonished to only speak English outside of the home because of the strong anti-German sentiments. This carried on to the extent that he forgot all of his German, and as an adult could not speak a word.
 
Last edited:
Attended a lecture at ECU where the Professor talked about the first and second battles of Boonville.

General Franz Sigel and General Heinrich Bornstein were mentioned as well due to the communist leaning.

View attachment 84707
This is quite interesting to me and I appreciate you posting it. I was superficially aware of Guinea Sam through the writings of local historian Bob Dyer. Prior to that, I knew nothing of him even though he was apparently quite a character in my home town.
 
Agree... this was especially true during g WW I, as stories passed down in my family attest. My grandfather grew up speaking German at home, but when the war began he was admonished to only speak English outside of the home because of the stong anti-German sentiments. This carried on to the extent that he forgot all of his German, and as an adult could not speak a word.
My family name was Jung. During World War I my family suffered discrimination even though both my Grandfather and his brother were in the U.S. Army. Grandpa was born in the U.S. There is a story of a rock being thrown through the window. True or not, I do not know. They changed the name to Young to not be readily identified as German.
 
It's unfortunate that so many felt compelled to change their surnames, but certainly understandable. It was called preservation of life.
 
My family name was Jung. During World War I my family suffered discrimination even though both my Grandfather and his brother were in the U.S. Army. Grandpa was born in the U.S. There is a story of a rock being thrown through the window. True or not, I do not know. They changed the name to Young to not be readily identified as German.
My family's surname was changed as well... "Americanized"... I never sensed any regrets about it from my grandfather or even his parents while they were alive, but I was very young and they very old, and they never lost their German accent. I think they just accepted it, and were glad to have been eventually assimilated and accepted after WW I...
 
Last edited:
My family's surname was changed as well... "Americanized"... I never sensed any regrets about it from my grandfather or even his parents whIle they were alive, but I was very young and they very old, and they never lost their German accent. I think they just accepted it, and were glad to have been eventually assimilated and accepted after WW I...
People changed their names for any number of reasons. Most only resent those they were forced to change.
 
My primary German line was Klapp in Germany.

By the time they sailed to Philadelphia and headed south to North Carolina, it was Clapp.

By the time my grandmother was a young girl, the name was Clappe as to sound French (Clappay).
 
Dad remembered ' Victory Cabbage ', what good old sauerkraut was supposed to be called. How many people of German ancestry did that? ( not to be outdone by ' Freedom Fries ' of more recent memory :roflmao: )

Yes, it's odd. The German name in our family is all but letter-perfect from early 1700's Germany although not much you could so with it, ' Steigerwalt '. Why bother trying?

Pretty interested in German communities and their resolves on slavery, thanks Pat, They are done an injustice historically here in PA especially, different phases of immigration from quite different areas of ' Germany ' ( floating borders through centuries ) clumped together under ' PA Dutch '. Really different- one wouldn't easily understand the German spoken by t Amish today. The anti-slavery Germans were landowners and farmers, business owners, names connected with the Underground Railroad, not just Quakers. It'd be interesting to know if German communities in various states had connections with each other.

Hee- that must have been some lecture. You do not frequently see General Sigel in the same sentence as ' communist leaning '. Wish we had a ' head spinning ' emoticon.
 
Here is a file about Germans in Missouri fighting for Abolition...

Dr. Sydney Norton and I first met when she was preparing a paper on German immigrant abolitionists for presentation at the Society of German American Scholars conference in St. Louis in 2015. A visit to Deutschheim State Historic Site revealed new insights into the significance of the German language press and its fight against slavery

Highlight...
Pauline expresses her ethical quandary regarding slave ownership in a letter to her aunt in Germany.
" It has been 2 years now since my husband bought a negro Maid of 13 years for 800 and 20… because you…can’t get any help here, I was reluctant for so long as I can’t stand the thought that I would own a slave, because I have always been disgusted by this trade, yet what can you do? When you live in a country where such a thing is allowed, and you can’t help yourself in any other way. One…such a creature of good deed, if one does as we have, buying her from a hardened sir and then… treated humanely, as good as our own child, she has regular meals and clothing, is handled benevolently, and of course her freedom is absent but in its stead she has not worries.13"

Highlight... Germans predict civil war...

4 Missouri German radicals living in St. Louis also expressed outrage that President Pierce and his administration would reverse legislation designed to limit slavery’s expansion in order to support a small minority of powerful slaveholders. The St. Louis German press gave regular accounts of the bill’s damaging consequences. “We are on the eve of a civil war,” reported the Anzeiger. “This is the fruits of the Nebraska Bill, that curse-worthy measure that has concocted a hunter for a conscienceless presidency, [and] has pushed through a miserable administration which we are supposed to recognize as holy and unalterable, simply because it has been written into the statute book albeit through lying and fraud.”3

So much more too the link: http://hermanndeutschheimverein.org/images/abolitionists_exhibit_catalog.pdf
 
Back
Top