University Park, PA -- Abandoning all that he knew, a fifteen-year old boy left Germany in 1773 to seek a life in America. His journey begins at Stralsund, a seaport on the Baltic Sea, then Swedish Pomerania and now Germany. To pay his passage, he became an indentured servant, and upon his arrival in Philadelphia, a Quaker family in Berks County bought his indenture, and he lived with them for almost seven years.

Adopting the name John Frederick Whitehead, the young man taught himself English and used his newfound skill to keep a diary of his life experiences, including a detailed description of the servant contracting process—a unique source for historians of the period. The diary also contains his last will and testament, signed and dated in 1815 at Hamilton County Ohio, where he migrated with his family as land became available.

On June 26, 2003, Whitehead's descendent Dennis E. Whitehead and his father will present the manuscript to Jim Quigel, head, Penn State Historical Collections and Labor Archives in the University Libraries Special Collections Library.

Plans are underway by Penn State University Press to publish this diary in the same volume with another little-known indentured servant's diary, that of Johann Carl Buettner, who traveled to Colonial American on the same ship as Whitehead. Together, the diaries are the only known first-hand accounts of German indentured servant migrants to America.

For more information, contact Penn State Historical Collections and Labor Archives, 814-865-1793.

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Editor's Contact:
Catherine Grigor, 814-865-0401