17 Facts About Pennsylvania Dutch

Pennsylvania Dutch, known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Pennsylvania Dutch maintained numerous religious affiliations, with the greatest number being Lutheran or German Reformed, but many Anabaptists, including Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren.

The Anabaptist groups espoused a simple lifestyle, and their adherents were known as Plain people; this contrasted to the mostly Lutheran or German Reformed Fancy Pennsylvania Dutch, who tended to assimilate more easily into the European American mainstream.

Speakers of Low Pennsylvania Dutch called themselves "Niederduitsers" and speakers of High Pennsylvania Dutch called themselves "Hochdeutsche".

The Plain Pennsylvania Dutch are descendants of refugees who left religious persecution in the Netherlands and the Palatinate of the German Rhine.

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Pennylvania Pennsylvania Dutch had a strong dislike for New England, and to them the term "Yankee" became synonymous with "a cheat.

Pennsylvania Dutch fought in the American Civil War; the ones who fought were the Fancy Dutch.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania originally had slavery, and slaves living within Pennsylvania Dutch lands learned the Pennsylvania Dutch language; slavery sharply declined after the emancipation act of 1780, creating a free Black Dutch population.

Black Dutchmen of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country spoke Pennsylvania Dutch and followed the same Fancy Dutch traditions as their white counterparts.

These Pennsylvania Dutch were usually Plain Dutch Mennonites or Fancy Dutch Lutherans.

An early group, mainly from the Roxborough-Germantown area of Pennsylvania Dutch, emigrated to then colonial Nova Scotia in 1766 and founded the Township of Monckton, site of present day Moncton, New Brunswick.

Fewer of the Pennsylvania Dutch settled in what would later become the Greater Toronto Area in areas that would later be the towns of Altona, Ontario, Pickering, Ontario and especially Markham Village, Ontario and Stouffville, Ontario.

Pennsylvania Dutch culture is still prevalent in some parts of Pennsylvania today.

The Pennsylvania Dutch today speak English, though some still speak the Pennsylvania Dutch language among themselves.

The Pennsylvania Dutch have some foods that are uncommon outside of places where they live.

Immigrants of the 1600s and 1700s who were known as the Pennsylvania Dutch included Mennonites, Swiss Brethren and Amish but Anabaptist-Pietists such as German Baptist Brethren and those who belonged to German Lutheran or German Reformed Church congregations.

Pennsylvania Dutch organized the Ministerium of Pennsylvania in 1748, set out the standard organizational format for new churches and helped shape Lutheran liturgy.