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PASTORIUS, Francis Daniel (1651-1720).
German-American, lawyer and colonizer, b. Sommerhausen, Germany. Practiced law in Germany; as agent for Quaker group founded (1683) Germantown, Pa., and became its first mayor, chief citizen, and schoolmaster. He marks the beginning of German settlement in the US. He was the leader of the 13 Quaker families from Krefeld, who had to leave because of their religious believes. They arrived on the ship called Concord
on October8, 1683 in Philadelphia. Pastorius founded Germantown (now part of Philadelphia). He was a lawyer, teacher, poet and mayor. As a mayor he took precise record of the German settlement in Germantown. Germantown
was a poor town, but Pastorius spend a lot of effords in getting the industry going. In November16, 1684 he held the first fair in Philadelphia, which became later a rolemodel for American country fairs. Soon after that
Germantown started to flourish by selling clothing to New York and Boston. Pastorius didn't believe in slavery and started a protest against it on February 18, 1688, which resulted that slavery was outlawed in German
religious colonies, even in the south. The town of Philadelphia followed this law in 1771, by prohibiting the import of slaves, almost a century later. |
