Swiss Migration to America in the 1730s: A Representative Family : the Pfister family of Hori, Canton Zurich and the Feaster family in America

Authors

Hans Ulrich Pfister

Keywords

Swiss emigration, Swiss Americans, American immigration, Pfister family, Feaster family

Abstract

America or, more precisely stated, the British colonies in North America, was for the residents of Zurich of the 17th century a very distant region, about whose attributes the strangest information was circulated. The embodiment of the various colonies was Carolina, for whose settlement the recruiter's drum was beaten in Switzerland. The Neuenberger Jean Pierre de Pury solicited with a small tract for settlers for his newly founded settlement Purysburg in South Carolina and thereby created the impetus for a great emigration movement out of Canton Zurich . The living conditions which awaited the settlers in South Carolina were naturally described in the most glowing terms in his solicitations. To the horror of the Zurich authorities, there were many credulous vassals who wished to undergo the hazards of the distant journey. The Zurich Rat [Councillor] stood firmly against their intentions and immediately forbad the spread of the solicitations. He was guided by his concern for his Reformed vassals, who would meet with disorderly religious circumstances in the colonies and might disavow the true Confession.

Recommended Citation

Pfister, Hans Ulrich (2003) "Swiss Migration to America in the 1730s: A Representative Family : the Pfister family of Hori, Canton Zurich and the Feaster family in America," Swiss American Historical Society Review: Vol. 39: No. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol39/iss1/2