Migration Settlement | Settlement

Germanna, Virginia

Credit: Library of Congress
After her husband's death in 1740, the widow of Alexander Spotswood remarried and lived at Germanna in a large plantation house known as "Salubria."
Working for Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood, German immigrants established the settlement of Germanna on the edge of the frontier in colonial Virginia.

Enticed by the prospect of economic opportunity in the American colonies, German immigrants came to Virginia in the early 1700s under the sponsorship of Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood. Granted a large tract of land near the Rapidan River in what was then Virginia's western frontier, Spotswood needed immigrants to settle the land. He hired agents to go to Germany and find miners willing to relocate. Spotswood hoped to establish a silver mining industry in Virginia and also provide a settlement buffer against Native American and French incursions. About 42 German immigrants arrived in 1714, followed by 20 families in 1717. The small settlement of Germanna consisted of a fort and a cluster of houses. When the silver mining endeavor proved to be fruitless, Spotswood ordered the Germans to mine iron, which they did while completing their four-year term of service. While some of the original settlers stayed on the land as farmers, others moved on further south or west.

Credit: Getty Images
Up to 100,000 German-speaking people immigrated to America during the colonial period for economic, religious, and political reasons.

 

Credit: Public Domain
As lieutenant governor of the Virginia Colony, Alexander Spotswood acquired more than 86,000 acres of land from the British Crown, including the site of Germanna.

 

Credit: Library of Congress
Many of Germanna's original settlers followed pioneer trails west through the Cumberland Gap into Tennessee and Kentucky in the late 1700s.