Christoph von Graffenried (1661-1743) led a group of Swiss and Palatine Germans to North Carolina in 1710, and later authored Relation of My American Project, an account of this unsuccessful attempt to settle in the New World. Year 1743 ( MDCCXLIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth specifically the Americas and Australia.
Graffenried was born November 15, 1661 in Worb, in the German-speaking Canton of Bern in Switzerland, the eldest son of Anton von Graffenried (1639-1730) and Katharina Jenner (? -1669). Events 655 - Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. WORB (903 FM is a non-commercial, College radio station located on the campus of Oakland Community College in Farmington Hills Michigan The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the states of the Federal state of Switzerland. The Swiss Canton of Berne is Bilingual (Kanton Bern Canton de Berne and has a population of about 958000 Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Year 1730 ( MDCCXXX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a The Graffenried family lived in Bern, Switzerland; they were a well-to-do, noble family. [1]
In April of 1684, Graffenried married Regina Tscharner (1665-1731). Year 1731 ( MDCCXXXI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Regina came from a very ancient and noble family. In twenty years, Regina and Christoph had four sons and seven daughters. Graffenried had a hard time keeping his family fed, so in 1702, when he was 41 years old, he acquired the position as bailiff of Yverdon. Year 1702 ( MDCCII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Bailiff (from Late Latin baiulivus, Adjectival form of baiulus) is a Governor or Custodian (cf Yverdon-les-Bains (called Eburodunum and Ebredunum during the Roman era is a municipality in the district of Yverdon He did not enjoy his job very much.
After a few weeks, Graffenried met Franz Ludwig Michel who had discovered silver mines in Virginia and owned land in the New World. The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth specifically the Americas and Australia. He told Graffenried what glorious places North Carolina and Virginia were and he advised him to move to North Carolina. North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States With the idea of paying off his debts and making money on the cheap land in North Carolina, Graffenried left his debts to his father and secretly departed for London so that he could see this New World. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.
When in London, Graffenried had met with John Lawson who was publishing a book entitled "A Voyage to Carolina". John Lawson (1674? – 1711 was a British explorer naturalist and writer Lawson was the Surveyor General of North Carolina. Lawson promised to show Graffenried and his settlers a perfect place to establish a community. Graffenried then met the proprietors who gave him the title Baron of Bernberg, after the settlement he was supposed to found. Baron is a specific Title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin (liber Consequently, Graffenried gathered a group of Germans from the Palatine region and Swiss immigrants. This article is about the German diaspora See Germans for the German ethnicity in general Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz is one of the 16 federal states (German Bundesländer) of Germany. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation They had faced hardships in their own countries and wanted to start over in North Carolina. He sailed to North Carolina in 1710. On the sea, the settlers were attacked by French privateers who stripped them of everything they brought. A privateer was a private Warship authorized by a country's Government by Letters of marque to attack foreign shipping
Once in the New World, the settlers sold everything that remained, except the clothes on their backs. John Lawson took them to a site at the junction of the Trent and Neuse Rivers, which they named New Bern. The first season, the settler's crops did not do well. Graffenried returned to Europe to get supplies and additional settlers. He returned to the colony unscathed.
In addition to a lack of food and supplies, there was great tension between the settlers and the Tuscarora Indians of the Neuse River region. The Neuse River is a major permanent stream rising in the piedmont of North Carolina, emptying into the Pamlico Sound below New Bern. Unknown to the settlers, their new settlement was on the site of an old Tuscarora Indian village. The Tuscarora ("hemp gatherers" are an American Indian tribe with members in New York, Canada, and North Carolina. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States In 1711, Graffenried and the settlers evicted a group of Tuscarora from nearby lands without payment, and Graffenried assumed the title "Landgrave of Carolina. " Retaliatory raids by the Tuscarora, under a leader named Hancock, led to deaths and damage to the settlement.
During the summer of 1711, Graffenried, along with John Lawson, took a trip up the Neuse River. Year 1711 ( MDCCXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Graffenried wanted to crossbreed European grapes with wild, native grapes and start a vineyard. The Tuscarora Indians took Graffenried and John Lawson (and a slave who was carrying the baggage) captive. While in captivity, John Lawson and Graffenried were given three separate trials, each in a different Tuscaroran village. One found the men not guilty; the other two pronounced them guilty of wrongful crimes against the Tuscarorans. The Tuscaroras decided to kill them, but the elders talked and decided Graffenried would be released. He wore such fine clothes they mistook him for the governor of North Carolina. A governor is a governing official usually the executive (at least nominally to different degrees also politically and administratively of a non-sovereign level of government They thought if they let the "governor" go, the colony would let the incident pass. They informed him they were planning an attack on all the settlements in North Carolina (this came to be known as the Tuscarora Indian War). The Tuscarora War was fought in North Carolina during the autumn of 1711 until 11 February, 1715 between the British, Dutch, and The next day, Lawson was killed and Graffenried was allowed to return to his settlement, which he found abandoned and in flames.
Graffenried had lost his fortune and returned to Bern, Switzerland in 1714. Graffenried was penniless and owed a great deal of money to the people of North Carolina. He sold his part in the North Carolina town to Thomas Pollock for 800 pounds. In an attempt to pay off his debts, Graffenried soon wrote a book entitled "Relation" as an apology and explanation as to why his settlement failed. He included several documents, among them a letter written to the governor of North Carolina and a layout of the settlement of New Bern. An artist, he included sketches of early colonial North Carolina. Graffenried also talked about how Lawson brought his death upon himself. He said that Lawson was a money grubbing land speculator and that he thought Lawson wanted the colony to fail because he was the one that told them about the land. Graffenried died unhappy and in debt in 1743. Year 1743 ( MDCCXLIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a
References
- Vincent H. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland is an Encyclopedia on the History of Switzerland that aims to take into account the results of modern historical research Todd, Editor (1920) Christoph von Graffenried's Account of the Founding of New Bern. Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission, Raleigh, N. C. : Edwards & Broughton
- Swiss Roots: Christoph von Graffenried
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