An Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Written 1789

An Open Access edition of An Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Written 1789 is available through PSU Press Unlocked. To access this free electronic edition click here. Print editions are also available.

Published in 1789, just one year after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, this account remains as part of an eighteenth-century narrative that stressed the virtues of Jeffersonian Republican ideals, which Rush held strongly. His positive generalizations about Pennsylvania German diet, material culture, work ethic, religion, hospitality, and other manners came from experience working with the members of the community, and are put forth to reinforce the group as an example of citizenship to others. The volume concludes with a call to citizens of the United States, and national and state legislators, to see the Pennsylvania Germans as a model for upholding the republican virtues of industry and economy.

Benjamin Rush’s brief account is accompanied, in this reprint of an 1875 edition, by extensive notes, a preface, and appendixes written by the Pennsylvania historian I. Daniel Rupp.

Benjamin Rush (1746–1813) was a physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, as well as a member of the Second Continental Congress.

I. Daniel Rupp (1803–1878) was a historian and translator best known for his county and local histories of Pennsylvania.

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Pennsylvania & the Mid-Atlantic

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