The economic state of the Siegerland at the time the First Germanna Colony left was chaotic and depressed. This was brought out by the late Heinz Prinz in his talk to the Germanna Foundation at their 2002 Reunion. His remarks were printed in the Germanna Foundation 2002 Winter Newsletter and in Beyond Germanna (vol. 14, n.2, p. 855). Though the Siegerland had been an economically important region in "Germany" largely due to the iron industry, the region had become stagnant in the early eighteenth century. Largely this was the result of dividing the Nassau-Orange principality into two regions with one headed by a Protestant and the other by a Catholic. Both used Siegen as their capital. The Catholic prince, William Hyazinth, of the Upper Castle claimed to be the heir to the King of England (after the death of his cousin King William III). In pursuit of this he visited the monarchs of other countries in the hope of gaining recognition. To support him, taxes were raised on his subjects. Adolf, the Protestant prince, was rebuilding the Lower Castle in Siegen and he found it necessary to increase taxes on his subjects. The severest burden in the region though arose from the ban of delivery of charcoal to the Protestant areas in the Siegerland which brought the iron working to a halt due to the lack of this vital ingredient for the smelting furnaces and forges. In addition, the sale of iron products was banned. The miners, iron workers, and their families were particularly affected by these developments and thus found themselves falling into a deep state of misery. On December 6, 1706, the subjects of the district of Weidenau (in the Catholic area) rebelled agai! nst Hya zinth while he was in Vienna attempting to obtain recognition as the heir to the principality of Orange in the southern part of France. On his return Prince William Hyazinth seized Friedrich Flender of Weidenau and convicted him without a trial and then beheaded him. Josef I, the Holy Roman Emperor, intervened and turned the administration of the Siegerland region over to the Archbishop of Cologne.This placed Siegerland under the rule of the Jesuits and living conditions did not improved in the Protestant region. On May 26, 1712, just one year before the emigration of the first Germanna Colonists, the situation became more violent when the imperial guards of the Upper Castle clashed with those of the Lower Castle resulting the death of several civilians and soldiers. Prince Adolf sought support from the King of Prussia and the Counts of Hesse. In summary, at the beginning of the 18th century, the living conditions of the miners and iron workers in the Siegerland became very bad as their troubles overflowed to all of the residents of the regions. The unemployment rate went up very sharply. It is not difficult to understand why some of the inhabitants of the Siegerland decided to leave their homeland in view of the living conditions there at the time. When Johann Justus Albrecht appeared on the scene seeking miners to the British colonies in North America, this represented an employment opportunity. Albrecht's main qualification for hiring was a willingness on the part of the workers to go and not a skill test. -- John.Blankenbaker@comcast.net