I have been watching season one of the BBC Masterpiece series Victoria over the last few weeks when my radar was tweaked with Prince Albert's German family heritage. Namely, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as I knew there might be a connection to Indiana. Indiana?? Specifically, New Harmony, Indiana! What??
What peaked my interest was Albert's speech before the June 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention
Albert was quite the impressive influence on Queen Victoria, and England in general, for that matter. Had he lived longer, he died at 42, we may have seen more of his involvement in the american slavery issues, and his involvement with industrial progress. As to the latter, he became involved with the Great Exhibition of Industry or the Great Exhibition in 1851 which he solely is credited.
At the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 his path crossed with William Lloyd Garrison who chose to sit with the women (Stanton, Lucretia Mott, etc) who were not allowed on the main floor to speak or vote. This doesn't mean they met at all, but to be a fly on the wall! I would love to have known his reaction to Garrison's boldness! His involvement in the Great Exhibition in London with his colleagues at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce show the depth of Albert's social commitments in his short life. Fellows of this Royal Society (RSA)were Charles Dickens, Ben Franklin, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, and Stephen Hawkings to name a few.
While finishing up this article I went to a lecture at the Yale Gilder Lehrman Center by British scholar Anita Rupprecht on Liberated Africans: Indenture and Resistance. I talked to her after the lecture and discussed, among many things, the painting by Nat Turner of the wrecked slave ship from 1840. I mentioned the time correlation with the 1840 World Anti-slavery Convention mentioned above. She told me that the postmaster, I believe, in her town in Brighton is a descendant of one of the men in this Convention painting. You see how the world puts me into serendipitous situations!! Brilliant woman! I hope to read her writings in the future.
So what about Indiana? It's a stretch, but jump with me into the rabbit hole, shall we?
I had read somewhere a while back that a royal duke (the Duke of Saxe-Weimar) had been to New Harmony, Indiana back in the 1820's. So I was motived to find out how he actually got there. There were several Duke's of Saxe-Weimar and I had to find the right one. This was Bernard! Yes, royalty is complicated, but I wondered if there were any connections between Albert (husband of Queen Victoria) and Bernie (haha! not that Bernie) Bernard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar.
New Harmony, Indiana has a rich heritage of progressive movements, specifically utopian societies, both religious, and secular. It was quite the draw in the 1800's. My 4th great grandfather ran a store for the Rapp Society in the early 1800's, my 5th great grandfather helped the Rapp family secure the land in New Harmony, and was friends with many of the visitors to Robert Owen's intellectual experiment, i.e. Frances Wright, Charles Alexander Lesueuer (who drew a picture of my ancestor and his home in Vincennes). I know...I digress...
In 1825 and 1826 Bernard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenbach (Germany/Belguim, etc), son of the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl Augustus (life long friend of Goethe), toured America. Did you know that? You may or may not know that in 1825 the Marquis de Lafayette also toured America, and in 1831 Alexander Tocqueville, and yes there were other dignitary trips during this time period, many for that matter. The Lafayette and Tocqueville tours are more well know and documented. Why is Bernard's tour important, yet not well known?
Well, this Duke, Karl Bernard, the son of the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenbach (Karl Augustus) wrote Travels Through North America 1825-1826, published in English in 1828. The internet is a mecca of amazing things if you really dig. This 2 volume journal is extremely extensive and descriptive, with many names, places, and details of life in America and free to read online (just click on the link above)! Yes, free. In reading this journal I found much that pre-dates Tocqueville, who came to study the prison systems in America. I wonder if Tocqueville read Bernard's journal, and if so did it influence his tour, as Bernard toured many prisons and wrote extensively about them. Did Bernard find his influence in Lafayette's tour that barely predated his own? Probably, not. Did Albert, also, read Bernard's published travels as well as Lafayette's? Digging for a future project. AND...should we not have an international delegation of study of today's American prison systems?? Crap...I'm not supposed to get political in this post 😏
Bernard's travel journal is amazingly detailed from landing in Boston and visiting John Adams, less than a year before his death, John Quincy Adams (in DC) and his son, Charles, at Harvard (father of Henry Adams), his inquiry about Frances Wright and her published letters on America and the scathing feelings about her in Boston and America in general (seeing how a strong, independent woman is vilified and ridiculed, influencing his views), Henry Clay, and many well known and not so well know people of the time. What is most relevant are the countless names of people who may be of genealogical interest to people. I don't think an index to this book exists, if so that would be of great value. The two volumes are an interesting read. Bernard spent much of his journeys visiting prisons (which is why I wonder about his possible influence on Tocqueville), churches of many different faiths, his views on slavery after visiting the south extensively, museums, athenaeums, societies, military institutions, etc. This journal is a very interesting read, yet not for those who can't slog through 19th century writing! His journeys on stage coaches, especially in Georgia, are quite fascinating! Bernard also spends time in Canada, Quebec and Montreal most specifically. The first 50 or so pages are details about his voyage from Ghent to Boston.
An example of the detail in this book of how even a Duke was enamored by the stardom of George Washington:
"At a winding of the
stream we passed by Fort Washington, recently built upon a rock
on the left bank, commanding the stream with its batteries. In
an oblique direction on the opposite shore, we at last perceived
Mount Vernon, beautifully situated. The water near the bank!
being very low, the steam-boat stopped in the middle of tin
stream, about a mile from the shore, and we landed in boats. We
ascended by a very bad road to a place where cattle were grazing, which I heard was formerly Washington's garden. Between
three oaks and some cypress trees, we saw a coarse wooden door
about four feet high, in a very bad piece of masonry. I thought
at first it was a spring-house. How great was my astonishment, when I learned that this was the entrance to the sepulchral vault
of the greatest man of his time; the ornament of his age; of
Washington!
I picked up some acorns fallen from the trees which shaded the tomb; my object was to plant them when I returned home.
I picked up some acorns fallen from the trees which shaded the tomb; my object was to plant them when I returned home.
I look also from this sacred spot a twig of a cypress tree. The
tomb is no longer opened, since strangers have nearly cut to
pieces the whole of the pall covering the coffin, in order to preserve it as a relic. It was last opened at the time of General La
Fayette's visit."1 Cool!!!! Where else will you find this?
Back to a German/Belguim connection. Bernard's son, William Augustus Edward was naturalized as a British subject and became the aide de-camp to Queen Victoria and Colonel in the Army in 1855, and fought in the Crimean War. Whether these two dynasties of Weimar and Coburg enjoyed each others company or had any connections during Albert's short reign (he died tragically of Pneumonia at the age of 42) I have yet to discover specific connections. The two family connections are distant and of minor royalty compared to Britain, but both date back to the illustrious House of Wettin dynasty. Someday I hope to find a closer brush with these two families.
Bernard's travels through Pennsylvania, especially the German areas, list lots of minor clergy and common people who might turn up in someone's German PA heritage. An example:
Back to a German/Belguim connection. Bernard's son, William Augustus Edward was naturalized as a British subject and became the aide de-camp to Queen Victoria and Colonel in the Army in 1855, and fought in the Crimean War. Whether these two dynasties of Weimar and Coburg enjoyed each others company or had any connections during Albert's short reign (he died tragically of Pneumonia at the age of 42) I have yet to discover specific connections. The two family connections are distant and of minor royalty compared to Britain, but both date back to the illustrious House of Wettin dynasty. Someday I hope to find a closer brush with these two families.
Bernard's travels through Pennsylvania, especially the German areas, list lots of minor clergy and common people who might turn up in someone's German PA heritage. An example:
"After the concert I remained
a few hours with Mr. Seidel, his wife is a German by birth ;
moreover, I made acquaintance with a preacher, Mr. Frueauf,
a native of Dictendorf, near Gotha; he married a sister of
Mr. Von Schweinitz, and lives on his income; I found in him a
friendly old gentleman, who was rejoiced to meet a country man."2
And little known tidbits:
And little known tidbits:
"In order to celebrate the day on which William Pcnn landed
in the year 1683 in America, which was the origin of the state
of Pennsylvania, those who respect his memory have established
a society, which celebrates the 24th of October as a public festival. At this time the celebration consisted of a public oration in
the University and a public dinner. Mr. Vaux called for me at
twelve o'clock to go to the oration. The building of the University of Pennsylvania was originally intended as a dwelling for
President Washington, who declined the present, and it was then
used for the University."3
Bernard's visit with Jefferson at Monticello is detailed in this book which is another window into Jefferson's views, and the impact of seeing the Blue Ridge from atop Monticello from the eyes of a German visitor. The fascinating story of Pocahontas that he was told and the carried down lineage through the Virginia Randolph families is a testament to oral history, fact and fiction.
Bernard's visit with Jefferson at Monticello is detailed in this book which is another window into Jefferson's views, and the impact of seeing the Blue Ridge from atop Monticello from the eyes of a German visitor. The fascinating story of Pocahontas that he was told and the carried down lineage through the Virginia Randolph families is a testament to oral history, fact and fiction.
So...you see how just a glimpse of a TV show sends me down interesting paths! We forget to study the German houses of royalty and their influences not just economically and politically, but on philosophical thought, via Goethe4, Kant, and Schiller. As to motives of these travels, you can learn more about current speculation on the subject via several current articles. Jefferson Dillman, for example, has a good one in reference to this motive found on-line5. It's clear in reading Bernard's journal that he had many a preconceived views and was influenced by many American biases of the time which makes for an interesting glimpse of the times.
North America has a rich heritage of connections throughout the world, but history tends to focus on larger North American connections unrelated to the rest of the world. One's ancestry is not always the only focus. When you add historical context to the time period, your ancestors and their world are much easier to understand. Generalities leave loads of very interesting facts out.
You may say, "So WHAT?" Oh, contraire! I would argue, a lack of understanding of little events melded with the big events has kept us from lifting up our heritage and other countries, and I mean even the bad facts, to a deeper understanding and richness that will benefit us all. Fear has in stanched a sugar coated history that has very little to do with reality. This harms us all.
So....where were your ancestor in the mid 1820's? How about the 19th century in general? Might you get a glimpse of the time and events around their lives by reading the Travels of Duke Bernard? Do you have German or Quaker immigrants to Pennsylvania? Or possibly the enamor of New Harmony, Indiana on artist, geologist, philosophers, naturalist, etc.?
This article is by no means thorough in it's research, it's just a starting point for more discussion and digging. Now...about that painting above of the 1840 Anti-Slavery convention. Benjamin Robert Haydon, painter, apparently wrote extensively about art and his own life. He became despondent and committed suicide. I must read his autobiography. See my problem!!!
1Travels Through North America, during the years 1825 and 1826 in 2 Volumes, Philadelphia, Carey, Lea, and Carey, 1828 translation to English. https://archive.org/details/travelsthroughno12bern,
2Ibid, p. 153.
3Ibid, p. 158.
4Goethe: Life as a Work of Art, Ruddier Safranski, 2013, translated by David Dollenmayer 2017, Liveright Publishing Co., NY. ISBN 978-0-87140-490-9.
5For more in-depth study of 19th c. German travel writings, "Imagining North America: Nineteenth Century German Travel Writers and Cultural Transfer, Jefferson Dillman, Traversea, Vol. 1, 2011, pp. 13-25.
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