t by the Pharisees,
Matt. 27, 4: 'What is that to us? See thou to that!' Even the children,
when they are cruelly kept and learn that they must remain in bondage
all the longer on account of their parents, conceive a hatred and
bitterness toward them." (G., 474 ff.)

36. Mittelberger on Redemptioners.--Mittelberger, who, in 1750,
brought to America the organ built at Heilbronn for the Lutheran church
in Philadelphia, and served Muhlenberg also as schoolteacher in
Providence, describes, in substance, the sad lot of the Redemptioners as
follows: "Healthy and strong young people were bound to serve from three
to six years, young people from their tenth to their twenty-first year.
Many parents, in order to obtain their freedom, must themselves bargain
about and sell their own children like cattle. A wife must bear the
freight of her husband if he arrives sick; in like manner the husband is
held for his sick wife; thus he must serve not only for himself, but, in
addition, five or six years for his sick spouse. When both are sick,
they are brought into the hospital, but only when no buyer is found. As
soon as they are well, they must serve in payment of their freight, or
pay, if they have property. It frequently happens that a whole family,
husband, wife, and children, being sold to different buyers, are
separated, especially if they are unable to pay anything on their
freight themselves. When a spouse dies on the ocean after one-half of
the voyage is completed, the remaining spouse must not only pay or serve
for himself, but also for the freight of the deceased one. When both
parents die on the ocean, their children must serve for their own and
their parents' freight till their twenty-first year. If anybody escapes
a cruel master, he cannot get very far, since good provisions are made
for the certain and speedy recapture of escaped Redemptioners. A liberal
reward is paid to him who holds or returns a deserter. If a deserter was
absent for a day, he must serve a week for it; for a week, a month; and
for a month, half a year. Men of rank, skill, or learning, unable to pay
their freight, or to give any surety, must serve their masters by doing
manual labor like ordinary servants. While learning to perform the
unaccustomed hard labor, they are treated with lashes like cattle. Many
a suicide was the consequence of the abominable deceit of the
Newlanders. Others sank into utter despair, or deserted, only to suffer
more afterwards