Essay on Germantown, PA

Zachary Gardner

Germantown:  A Hub of Industrial and Cultural Might in the Revolutionary Period

 A close analysis of 18th century primary source documents uncovers the importance of Germantown during the colonial and revolutionary periods. Due to its settlement in a valley between two rivers and its skilled, enterprising inhabitants, Germantown emerged as an economic, cultural and intellectual leader throughout the 18^th century. For these reasons and more, Germantown continues to hold an important place in our county’s growth and history.

Geographically, Germantown was perfectly situated to emerge as an economic powerhouse. The city lay in a verdant valley, six miles north of Philadelphia, the most populous city in the colonies.[1] Set apart from the urban centers, Germantown had access to large swaths of arable land. Citizens hawked available properties in the newspapers, emphasizing expansive, open acreage, soil suitable for farming, and beautiful vistas. One citizen promoted a property of “eleven acres pleasantly situated in Germantown [with] an orchard, greens and nursery, [along] with a variety of fruit trees of the best kind.”[2] Another resident, a German named Anthony Snyder, listed a “pasture of land, containing about four acres, on a very high and heathy place … [with] a fine prospect over the town and even the River Delaware.”[3] Endowed with an abundance of fertile soil, Germantown supported many small family-owned farms, which grew flax seed and hemp, cultivated fruit trees, and raised farm animals such as horses, chickens and sheep.[4][5]

While capable of supporting itself agriculturally,[6] Germantown emerged as a prodigious manufacturing hub due to its technical skill in weaving. Germans, the eponym of the city, emigrated into the town, introducing an industrious work ethic and craftsmanship. According to the Manufacturing Society, by 1783 Germantown controlled more than eighty private looms, each capable of carding and spinning 12,000 lbs. of cotton per annum.[7]  The city became renowned for its fine cloth clothing: stockings, hats, and gloves, all of which marked by a distinctive “Germantown pattern,” according to an advertisement in Philadelphia.[8] The town retailed these products in Philadelphia, and distributed them throughout the colonies, from Boston, to Trenton, to New York. Gabriel Thomas believed that Germantown clothing and linens were of such high-grade that “no person of Quality need be ashamed to wear [them].”[9]

Additionally, Germantown accumulated significance due to its location on two major waterways, the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers.[10] To Germantown, these rivers were freighted with economic import. They allowed easy importation of southern cotton for spinning and carding.[11] They powered the sawmills,[12] fueled paper production,[13] cleansed the tanning industries,[14] and offered clean, fresh water for livestock and flax seed. Moreover, the rivers fostered the spread of new ideas, enriched the city with new settlers, both local and international, and introduced foreign and exotic goods, such as urinals, ivory and horn combs, and Spanish White chalk.[15] Nathanial Tweedy opened an apothecary in Philadelphia which sold foreign medicines – Spanish Brown Oker, Pearl and French Barley – to “families who live distant from a doctor” in the suburbs of Germantown.[16] The rivers opened opportunities, helping convert a parochial German settlement, into a bilingual, bustling and learned haven. The city, linked with the outside world, became more cosmopolitan, carrying newspapers such as, The Pennsylvania Journal, The Pennsylvania Gazette and the “Germantowner Zietung”, a local German publication. In addition, the town earned mention in the far reaches of British America, including within The Boston Gazette, The New York Weekly Journal, and The Virginia Gazette – a signal of its economic and cultural salience.  It even became a home for those seeking a new life. On October 6^th, The Pennsylvania Gazette reported that the Ship Richmond arrived from Rotterdam transporting “upwards of 200 Germans” and other settlers.[17]  

Alongside economic and cultural preeminence, Germantown emerged as a leader in intellectual thought. The city precociously opposed slavery. It carried few slaves, manifested by the dearth of runaway slave advertisements, which were so frequent in other areas.[18] In fact, on January 23^rd 1775, Germantown and the surrounding areas, including Philadelphia, voted unanimously to “procure a law forbidding the future importation of slaves into th[e] province.”[19] Alongside the struggle for emancipation, the city became a leader in the pursuit of rights and liberties as British subjects. In 1775, it pledged loyalty to the Continental Congress and agreed to “defend the rights and liberties of America” should the British administration attempt submission by force.[20] Unlike the unruly, rabble-rousing northern cities, however, Germantown was imbued with strong Quaker ideals, committed to order and non-violence. Instead, the city preferred respectful dissent, predicated upon “see[ing] harmony restored between Great-Britain and the colonies”.[21] It professed that a peaceful resolution with Great Britain was its “most desirable goal.”[22]

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