Dissertation Information for Susanne Mosteller Rolland NAME: - Susanne Mosteller Rolland
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (1991)
ADVISORS: - Charles Strickland
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Jonathan Prude - Robert Paul
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: From the Rhine to the Catawba: A study of eighteenth century Germanic migration and adaptation
Abstract: This is a study of eighteenth century German families who immigrated to Pennsylvania, then traveled on South, after a Middle Colony stay varying from around a decade to generations. Focus is upon understanding the nature of the early stages of adaptation to American life. Case studies of German-speaking families who traveled to the western edge of North Carolina settlement, beyond the Catawba River, especially those who arrived in the first decade of its settlement, the 1750s, are the core of the study. Migration from Europe is considered in the context of the material, spiritual and political circumstances of early eighteenth century Germany. German emigrants of the time (and the Swiss and French Huguenots among them) had destination choices. Most did not cross an ocean. Pennsylvania's reputation for unprecedented freedom, helped to select the population who traveled there.
In their early settlements in Pennsylvania, Germans, in the absence of the intricate and controlling social structure they had left behind, created their own informal substitutes, and developed extensive networks of communication between scattered family and acquaintances. Their efforts to develop churches and schools were their only attempt to reestablish familiar formal structure. North Carolina communities were obvious replicas of Pennsylvania ones (excluding the highly-organized Moravian colony). They quickly developed a variety of rural industries, grew grains and raised herds, carried products to the Charleston ports. German settlement beyond the Catawba was guided by young men who hunted there, small entrepreneurs in the profitable fur trade, at least some of them Brethren (Dunkers). Sectarians, seekers of the solitude of wilderness and respecters of its native American inhabitants, opened up the wilderness for others to follow. Many sectarians left for new wildernesses; the Lutheran and Reformed Churches became the core communal institutions for cultural preservation in North Carolina. A local colony to Missouri was observed in 1820 as striking in its preservation of a German way of life. That could have been observed of clusters of German-Americans who remained behind. Others, active participants in the larger world, retained German industry and skills, but drew boundaries of identity in broader terms.
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MPACT Scores for Susanne Mosteller Rolland A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-05-31 16:03:15
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