German Immigration: Praise for a New Life in a New World
Students will read excerpts from Christopher Sauer’s letter to his family and friends describing his journey to America in 1724. Sauer left Germany with his wife and young son for a better life in Pennsylvania. In the letter, he describes the journey across the ocean and his arrival in Philadelphia. Students should immediately be able to detect a difference in tone and content between Sauer’s letter and Mittelberger’s account. Even though the two documents are describing the same journey and mapping the same path, Sauer and Mittelberger were distinctly different in their attitude and how they described the people and the experience. Students will encounter the same problems historians deal with when analyzing different points of view and will be asked to assess Mittelberger’s and Sauer’s credibility.