Download or read book Palatines, Liberty, and Property written by A. G. Roeber and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1998-05-08 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historians usually look for the origins of American political culture among English-speaking people and British constitutional and legal sources. Yet German immigrants to the colonies also contributed to - and developed for themselves - an American political consciousness. In Palatines, Liberty, and Property A.G. Roeber focuses on this neglected subject and explains why so many Germans, when they faced critical choices in 1776, became active supporters of the patriot cause. Employing a variety of German-language sources, Roeber explores German conceptions of personal and public property in the context of cultural and religious beliefs, village life, and family concerns. He follows all the major German migration streams, beginning with the Palatines in New York and including Germans who settled in Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. Roeber's study of German-American ideas about liberty and property provides a unique perspective within a growing historiography on the transfer of culture and beliefs from Europe and Africa to America.