Was Johann Adam Hacker a Redemptioner?

Recently, I’ve been thinking about my ancestor Adam Hacker and his emigration from Germany to Pennsylvania. He was a very young man, just starting out in the world. What were the circumstances of his decision to leave? How prepared was he for the journey? Did the family, in fact, have enough money to pay for his voyage? These things led me to wonder whether or not he could have been a redemptioner.

What is a Redemptioner?

What is a redemptioner, you ask. Wikipedia defines them as “…European immigrants, generally in the 18th or early 19th century, who gained passage to American Colonies (most often Pennsylvania) by selling themselves into indentured servitude to pay back the shipping company which had advanced the cost of the transatlantic voyage.”¹

Unlike indentured servants who made their contract prior to coming to the New World, redemptioners paid for their transportation upfront with credit, then had to come up with payment once they arrived at their destination.

The German Emigrant

About 50% of German emigrants during peak emigration years could not afford to pay for their passage.² Since the price of passage, ranging from five to fourteen pounds sterling, often represented more than a year’s income for them, this is not surprising.

Nor was the ship’s fare their only expenditure. They had already paid—or become indebted for—the price of their passage down the Rhine to Rotterdam. This included the boat fare and fees at each custom house along the way. When they finally arrived at their destination, they also had to pay room and board while they were waiting for the ship to embark and purchase supplies for the voyage. One account states “many passengers have spent $176 from home to Philadelphia.”³ For many their options were limited.

Once they arrived in Philadelphia, the ship’s passengers were inspected by a physician before they were allowed to dock. Healthy immigrants were taken into town where they took the Oath of Allegiance to the King of England, then were returned to the ship. Those with the money to pay for their passage were allowed to leave. Those who did not were required to get it. How they did so was up to them. Some may have had friends or acquaintances who would give them a loan to pay the ship’s captain. Others might have had household goods that they could sell in Philadelphia to pay for their passage. Those not so lucky had to sell themselves into servitude to pay their debt to the ship’s captain within thirty days.

Redemptioners negotiated a contract based on their age, health, job skills or perceived productivity, education, and family circumstances.⁴ They indentured themselves for the shortest, fixed-term period that paid their debt based on the existing market conditions of the colony. These were usually three, five or seven year contracts.⁵

Johann Adam Hacker

When he was just 21 years-old, Johann Adam Hacker set out on his voyage to the New World. He left Rußheim in the spring of 1749⁶ with several other villagers—Maria Margaretha (Hager) Elser, her new husband Heinrich Mock, and her children, Maria Catharina (Hager) Zimmerman and her sons, and Maria Barbara (Spöck) Schmid and her new husband Joh. Wendell Keller.⁷ He arrived in Philadelphia on 28 September.⁸

We don’t know whether or not he had the money to pay for his passage. But it’s most likely he was a far from wealthy man. His grandfather had been a cow herder, one of the lowliest of occupations in the village.⁹ Although he had risen to become a tailor prior to his death, his occupation was still one of the lowest paid. Adam’s father Christopher most likely learned the shoemaking trade from his step-father Johan Georg Schmidt.¹⁰ But from what I’ve seen from the records, there were a number of shoemakers in Rußheim, thus it was likely not a well-earning profession. Class structure in a German village at the time was not particularly fluid, and allowed for little personal advancement.

The Weidman Family

Adam married Maria Elisabetha Weidman sometime prior to 16 Dec 1753 when they sponsored her nephew Christopher Weidman in the Warwick congregation as a married couple.¹¹ Elisabeth’s father Martin Weidman was a wealthy property owner in Cocalico Township. Unlike most German emigrants, the Weidmans had been well-to-do even before they immigrated.¹² Their wealth only increased after their 1733 arrival. Martin purchased 200 acres in 1734.¹³ Between 1745 and 1758, he acquired the rights to an additional 1,000 acres.¹⁴

Because of their extensive land holding, the Weidmans, no doubt, required additional labor to work their land. Because of their wealth, they would have been able to purchase the indentures of their fellow countrymen as a source of this labor. Perhaps this is how Adam came to know Martin Weidman’s daughter. Perhaps he was a servant to Weidman, or perhaps Weidman paid off the passage for a fellow Badener.

In 1756, the first available tax record, Adam was taxed on 50 acres of land.¹⁵ I have not been able to find a record of how he acquired this land.

However, “[it] was decreed that bond servants should receive at the expiration of their term of service fifty acres of land from the Proprietary Government at the exceedingly low annual quit rent of two shillings, or about one cent per acre.”¹⁶ So, it’s not unrealistic to believe that he received this land from Martin Weidman—either as part of a settlement after he finished his contract or perhaps subsequent to his marriage to Maria Elisabetha.

In Conclusion

Without further information, I can only conclude that he might have been a redemptioner. But it’s something I hadn’t even considered before. If he was a redemptioner, I think it would say quite a bit about the family’s economic status in Rußheim and the options for future advancement there.

Between his arrival in 1749 and late 1753, Adam demonstrated himself and his ability to provide for a wife and family sufficiently to convince Martin Weidman—a successful, wealthy man—that he was a wise choice as husband for his eldest daughter. Furthermore, his younger brother did the same after his arrival in 1751, marrying Weidman’s daughter Anna Margaretha sometime after 28 July 1754.¹⁷ I think this speaks well for Adam and George’s determination to make the most out of the opportunities they found in the new world.

• Category: Research
• Tag: Hacker-Hocker Genealogy