Where they went
... AND WHERE THEY WENT.
A Look at Germans in the United States in 1860
The total poulation of the United States in 1860 was about 31,400,000, living in 33 states (as compared to our present 50 states).
19,000,000 people were living in the "free states", where slavery was not permitted, or territories, areas not yet formed into states.
3,300,000 people were living in the border states- slave states that remained in the union.
9,100,000 people were living in the slave states that would end up seceeding.
3,950,000 of the total poulation of the country were slaves.
Living in the United States were 1,301,136 people who were born in Germany. This group made the second largest group of immigrants in the country at that time, (second only to the Irish, with 1.6 million). Of these, the vast majority were living in Northern states- 1, 229,174 people to be exact. If this web page ever seems to be Union biased, the above numbers should explain why.
Please note that the figures for German populations are counting only those people who were actually born in Germany. If the census takers had a category for people who considered themselves to be "German-Americans", the numbers would no doubt be much higher. Many children and grandchildren of earlier immigrants were living in these German-American communities, and being raised with strong German influences, and in many cases even speaking German. Still the numbers of the German-born can be good representations of where the German-American communities were, considering the tendency of immigrants to settle among people similar to them, and the tendency of American society to place them there.
Alabama
22nd State. Achieved statehood in 1819.
Slave state. Seceeded January 1861.
Total population in 1860: 964,201
German born population in 1860:not available at this time.
German born population per thousand total population:
Arkansas
25th state. Statehood in 1836.
Slave state. Seceeded ****
Total population in 1860: 435,450
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
California
31st state . Statehood in 1850.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 379,994
German born population in 1860: 21,646
German born population per thousand total population: 57
Statehood came as a result of the Compromise of 1850, when California was admitted to the Union as a free state, but the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted.
Connecticut
Fifth state (one of the original 13). Statehood in 1788.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 460,147
German born population in 1860: 8,525
German born population per thousand total population: 19
Delaware
1st state (part of the originial 13). Adopted US Costitution in 1787.
Slave state, but remained loyal to the Union.
Total population in 1860: 112,216
German born population in 1860: 1,263
German born population per thousand total population: 11
Florida
27th state. Statehood in 1845.
Slave state. Seceeded in Jaunary, 1861.
Total population in 1860: 140,424
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
Georgia
4th state (part of the original 13). Statehood in 1788.
Slave state. Seceeded in Jaunary, 1861.
Total population in 1860: 1,057,286
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
Illinois
21st state. Statehood in 1818.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 1,711,951
German born population in 1860: 130,804
German born population per thousand total population: 76
Chicago was an important center for the German populations, as were Bellville in St. Clair County, the village of Waterloo, Galena, Quincy, Alton, Peoria, and Peru. Turnvereine first appeared in Illinois in Chicago and Peoria in 1851. Chicago also had a German theater, an orchestra, bands, lodges, and singing societies.
Belleville was really a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, lying only sixteen miles from it. Belleville was a pure German neighborhood, and was the home of the "Latin Farmers". This influential group of men were highly educated Germans (who could speak Latin and Greek, hence the name) who had become gentlemen farmers. There were about eighty German families in the settlement.
Indiana
19th state. Statehood in 1816.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 1,350,428
German born population in 1860: 66,705
German born population per thousand total population: 49
German settlements at Lafayette and Fort Wayne were the most important. There were also many Germans at Richmond and New Harmony.
Iowa
29th state. Statehood in 1846.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 674,913
German born population in 1860: 38,555
German born population per thousand total population: 57
Kansas
34th State. Statehood January, 1861. Note: Kansas was still a territory in 1860.
Free State, when admitted.
Total population in 1860: 107,206
German born population in 1860: 4,318
German born population per thousand total population: 40
The admission of Kansas as a state was the spark of much debate and even violence in the period before the Civil War. Violent clashes between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces caused the territory to be known as "Bleeding Kansas" in the 1850s.
Kentucky
15th state. Statehood in 1792.
Slave state, but remained loyal to the Union. A large number of its citizens fought in the Confederate armies.
Total population in 1860: 1,155,684
German born population in 1860: 27,227
German born population per thousand total population: 24
Louisiana
18th state. Statehood in 1812.
Slave state. Seceeded January 1861.
Total population in 1860: 708,002
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
Maine
23rd state. Statehood in 1820 (had separated from Massachusetts).
Free state
Total population in 1860: 628,279
German born population in 1860: 384
German born population per thousand total population: less than 1
Admitted as a free state as part of the Missouri Compromise, when Missouri was admitted as a slave state in order to keep a balance between the two sides in the Senate.
Maryland
7th state (part of the original 13). Statehood in 1788.
A slave state, though it remained loyal to the Union.
Total population in 1860: 687,049
German born population in 1860: 43,884
German born population per thousand total population: 64
The Northern boundary of the state of Maryland, and the southern border of Pennsylvania is the famous "Mason-Dixon" line, south of which slavery existed. This fact put Maryland in the slave states, but the location of the U.S. capital, Washington D.C., on the Potomac river along Maryland's southern border made this state a crucial one for the North to hold. Citizens from the state fought on both sides during the war.
Massachusetts
6th state (one of the original 13). Statehood in 1788.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 1,231,066
German born population in 1860: 9,961
German born population per thousand total population: 8
Though not German the following people called Massachusetts home in the 19th cnetury: writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, and Herman Melville; the antislavery leaders William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips; the architect Henry Hobson Richardson; the jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes; the historians Francis Parkman, Henry Adams, and William Hickling Prescott; the sculptor Horatio Greenough; the painter John Singer Sargent. This made Massachusetts the intellectual center of the United States.
Michigan
26th state. Statehood in 1837.
Free state
Total population in 1860: 749,113
German born population in 1860: 38,787
German born population per thousand total population: 52
Minnesota
32nd state. Statehood in 1858.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 172,023
German born population in 1860: 18,400
German born population per thousand total population: 107
The population of Minnesota was booming, raising from about 5,000 people in 1850 to 172,000 in 1860. This same population boom was also causing conflicts with the Native-American Sioux from the area.
Mississippi
20th state. Statehood in 1817.
Slave state. Seceeded January 1861.
Total population in 1860: 791,305
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
Missouri
24th state. Statehood in 1821.
Slave state, but remained loyal to the Union.
Total population in 1860: 1,182,012
German born population in 1860: 88,487
German born population per thousand total population: 75
The formation of Missouri as a state was the cause of a great deal of controversy, but this was settled with the Missouri Compromise. This act admitted Missouri as a slave state, admitted Maine as a free state, and prohibited any more slave states from being formed in territory north of 360 30'. In 1861, the specially called convention declared it could find no reason for secession, but many of its citizens and much of its government were sympathetic to the Confederacy. The split nature of this border state was the cause of much conflict in the state during the Civil War years, and Missouri would become the stage for a smaller scale Civil War itself.
Germans were forming settlements along the banks of the Missouri River. St. Louis was the center of German settlement in Missouri, and formed one third of the midwestern "German Triangle" (along with Cincinnati, Ohio, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.) Germans lived chiefly in the southern half of the city.
The town of Hermann was laid out in 1837 and was still in existence in 1860. Called "Little Germany" the town had a disctinctly German character. It had a reputation for quality wine and for Schiller, Goethe, and Mozart in the streets. A theater guild gave plays every Sunday from 1848 to 1902.
There were also German settlements at Franklin, Morgan, Warren, and Benton Counties, and at Warrenton, Dudenville, and St. Charles.
New Hampshire
9th state (part of the original 13). Statehood in 1788.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 326,073
German born population in 1860: 412
German born population per thousand total population: 1
New Jersey
3rd state (part of the original 13). Statehood in 1787.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 672,035
German born population in 1860: 33,772
German born population per thousand total population: 50
New York
11th state (part of the original 13). Statehood in 1788.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 3,880,735 (most populous state)
German born population in 1860: 256,252
German born population per thousand total population: 66
New York City, of course, was one of the most important arrival points for incoming immigrants, and a final destination for many of them. About 100,000 of these Germans were kiving in New York City at the time. "From Chatham Square to Astor Place, as far as St. Marks- a section of the Old Bowery characterized then by beer gardens, bowling alleys, and numerous German societies."
Completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 had opened up the Western portion of the state to settlement, and also provided a route to the western states bordering on the Great Lakes. These facts were large factors in the patterns of settlement for all immigrants in the 19th Century. Germans were begining to settle in Buffalo shortly after the opening of the canal, as well as along the canal itself.
North Carolina
12th state (one of the original 13). Statehood in 1789.
Slave state. Seceeded May 1861, the last state to do so.
Total population in 1860: 992,622
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
Ohio
17th state. Statehood in 1803.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 2,339,511
German born population in 1860: 186,210
German born population per thousand total population: 80
Cincinnati was "the most important of all the German-American cities." Around one third of the city was German. One section of the city, on the far side of the canal that bisected the town, had such a large population of Germans that the area was refered to as "Over The Rhine". Cincinnati had a German mayor by 1807, the first German newspaper in America in 1826, and the Volksblatt, perhaps the best German newspaper in the country, in the 1850s. German was seen on signs and heard in the streets, and many citizens were even wearing the peasant costume of black velvet with red vests and large silver buttons from the Rhineland that many of them came from. Cincinnati became one corner of the "German triangle" that included the other midwestern cities of St. Louis and Milwaukee.
By 1860, there were also large number of Germans living in Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, and Cleveland. One third of the 70,000 people living in Cleveland were Germans. There were also smaller groups of Germans in New Bremen, Minster, Chillicothe, Xenia,Delphos, Piqua in Miami County, Greenville in Darke County, Canton, Sandusky, Massillon, Alliance, and Steubenville. German agricultural colonies were in Meigs, Brown, and Stark Counties. Auglaize and Henry Counties also were rural centers of German populations. Union County drew a large German-Lutheran population form Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt.
Orgeon
33rd state. Statehood in 1859.
Free state
Total population in 1860: 52,465
German born population in 1860: 1,078
German born population per thousand total population: 21
Pennsylvania
2nd state. (one of the original 13). Statehood in 1787.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 2,906,215
German born population in 1860: 138,244
German born population per thousand total population: 48
The German element in Pennsylvania was so large that the legislature began printing the governor's addresses and their own laws in German translation in 1837. German instruction in schools was permitted.
The so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch" were and are descendants of early German immigrants. Many of them were Amish or Mennonites, and they lived in Lancaster county and other parts of Eastern Pennsylvania. They formed a distinctive and well-established German-speaking community, complete with its own dialect of German. Many of these people had come from the lower Rhine provinces, Bavaria, and Saxony. The "Plain people" had immigrated to Pennsylvania for religious freedom, and they segregated themselves from the rest of the population, causing their traditions and language to be perpetuated. Interestingly, the new German immigrants were not attracted to this established German population. Their strict belief system would have been anethema to the Catholics, Lutherans, and even Free-thinkers. Furthermore, the new arrivals tended to live in cities, while the older group tended to be rural because of its philosophy.
Rhode Island
13th state (last of the original 13). Statehood 1790.
Free state.
Smallest state.
Total population in 1860: 52,465
German born population in 1860: 815
German born population per thousand total population: 16
South Carolina
8th state (one of the original 13). Statehood in 1788.
Slave state. First to seceed, Dec. 1860.
Total population in 1860: 703,708
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
Tennessee
16th state. Statehood in 1796.
Slave state. Seceeded ******
Total population in 1860: 1,109,801
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
Texas
28th state. Statehood in 1845.
Slave state. Seceeded ******
Total population in 1860: 604,215
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
Formed as an republic independent of Mexico in 1836, Texas became a state prior to the Mexican-American War in 1847-48.
Vermont
14th state. Statehood in 1791.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 315,098
German born population in 1860: 219
German born population per thousand total population: less than 1
Virginia
(inculded West Virginia)
10th state (one of the original 13). Statehood in 1788.
Slave state, seceeded ****.
Total population in 1860: 1,596,318 (most populous slave state)
German born population in 1860:
German born population per thousand total population:
Upon Virginia's secession, the capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond, only ** miles from the capital of the Union, Washington D.C. The closeness of the two capitals would mean that Virginia would be the focus of the fighting in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War, and most of that theater's battlefields are consequently located here.
Unionists in the western part of the state broke away in 1861 to form the state of West Virginia. This new state took one third of the territory of the old state of Virginia, and 300,000 people. It was admitted to the Union in 1863. After the Civil War, the state of West Virginia continued to exist, and exists today as the 35th state.
Wisconsin
30th state. Statehood in 1848.
Free state.
Total population in 1860: 775,881
German born population in 1860: 123,879
German born population per thousand total population: 160, the highest proportion for any state.
The 1840s and 1850s saw the first heavy German immigration into the state. Wisconsin was a logical choice for many Germans to go. It had soil, climate, and products similar to the Fatherland. State officials were actively encouraging Germans and other immigrants to settle there.
Milwaukee was the center of German life in Wisconsin, and was called the "German Athens". Like Cinicinatti and St. Louis (the other two corners of the "German triangle"), Milwaukee had a portion of town noted for its large number of Germans. In this case, the area was known as "German Town" and it had "German newspapers, typically German houses with German inscriptions and signs on the doors, and German music, dancing, and other diversions." These characteristics distinguised the town from other Anglo-American communities that were developing at the time. As in Cincinatti, German was often heard on the streets.
Rural areas in Wisconsin also attracted German settlers, especially the densely wooded areas of the eastern and north-central parts of the state.
Elsewhere
There were also 3,254 people of German birth living in the Disctrict of Columbia, and 4,093 living in the territories.