Abraham Isacks op den Graeff

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Inscription plaque on the memorial in Vernon Park, Philadelphia, in memory of Pastorius and the first settlers

Abraham Isacks op den Graeff (* 1649 in Krefeld ; † March 25, 1731 in Perkiomen , now part of the Montgomery community ) came from a Mennonite family.

He was one of the so-called " Original 13 ", the first closed group of German emigrants to America , and initiated the first protest against slavery in America on February 18, 1688, together with his brother Derrick, Franz Daniel Pastorius and Gerrit Henderich .

family

Abraham op den Graeff was the son of Isaac Hermans op den Graeff (1616–1679) and Margaret 'Grietgen' Peters Doors († 1679), who both converted to Quakerism . His brother Abraham op den Graeff (~ 1610–1656) married Eva von der Leyen (~ 1619–1678), a sister of Adolf von der Leyen , the founder of the Krefeld silk industry. Abraham's paternal grandparents were Hermann op den Graeff (1585–1642), a leading figure of the Krefeld Mennonites , and Greitgen (Greitje) Pletjes (1588–1643). Her sister Alet Pletjes (* 1583), who was married to John Jasper, had Margaret Jasper (1624–1682) as a daughter who lived in Rotterdam; she married the English admiral Sir William Penn (1621-1670) in her second marriage . That was the father of Governor William Penn (1644-1718), the founder of Pennsylvania; thus the Op family was the Graeff cousins ​​to William Penn.

life and work

Petition for the Abolition of Slavery (Abraham op de (n) Graeff's signature is on the right)

Abraham worked as a linen weaver and trader in his hometown of Krefeld, where agents of the Quaker William Penn were looking for settlers for the newly founded North American colony of Pennsylvania . Four members of the Op den Graeff family were persuaded and set out on board the Concord ship on October 6, 1683 with ten other Krefeld families for British North America : the brothers Derick (Dirk) Isaacs, Herman Isaacs, Abraham Isaacs and their sister Margrit. In the year of arrival in 1683, the settlement of Germantown ( Deitscheschteddel ) was founded, the first German settlement in North America .

Together with his two brothers, Herman and Derrick, Abraham purchased 2,000 acres of land in the vicinity of the newly founded parish of Germantown and established a linen mill there. On February 18, 1688, Abraham initiated the first protest against slavery in America together with his brother Derrick, Franz Daniel Pastorius and Gerrit Henderich .

After 1708 he was the only one of his family to convert back to the Mennonite faith. When Abraham Isacks op den Graeff died in 1731, his property was divided among his four children; to Isaac Updegraff, Jacob Up de Graeff, Margaret and her husband Thomas Howe and Anne and Herman in de Hofen. Abraham's numerous descendants can still be found today under different spellings such as Opdegraf (f), Updegrave, Updegrove etc. and under the name Updegraf in Pennsylvania.

literature

  • Robert F. Ulle: The Original Germantown Families. In: Mennonite Family History. Vol. 2, No. 2, April 1983, ISSN  0730-5214 , pp. 48-51.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Kriedte: Baptism-minded and large capital: Baptism-minded and large capital: the Lower Rhine-Bergisch Mennonites and the rise of the Krefeld silk trade (= publications of the Max Planck Institute for History, 223). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-35801-6 p. 185 .
  2. ^ June Shaull Lutz: History of the Op Den Graeff / Updegraff family. 1988, p. 1.
    Rich Preheim: More than our family tree. In: Mennonite World Review. December 7, 2015, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Original Document: First Protest Against Slavery, Germantown, PA, April 18, 1688. In: ExplorePAHistory.com. Retrieved November 16, 2019 (English, facsimile pages 1 and 2 ). Charles R. Haller: Across the Atlantic and beyond: the migration of German and Swiss Immigrants to America. Heritage Books, Bowie (Maryland), 1993, ISBN 1556136978 . Junius P. Rodriguez: The Germantown Protest (1688). In: Junius P. Rodriguez: Slavery in the United States: a social, political, and historical Encyclopedia, Volume 2. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, among others, 2007 ISBN 978-1-85109-544-5 S. 533 retrieved on November 16, 2019 (English).

  4. ^ Charles R. Haller: Across the Atlantic and beyond: the migration of German and Swiss Immigrants to America. Heritage Books, Bowie (Maryland), 1993, ISBN 1556136978 , pp. 129-130.
personal data
SURNAME Graeff, Abraham Isacks op den
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Member of the so-called Original 13
DATE OF BIRTH 1649
PLACE OF BIRTH Krefeld
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1731
Place of death Perkiomen , today the church Montgomery (Pennsylvania) belong