Abraham op den Graeff

Abraham Isacks op den Graeff (* 1649 in Krefeld, † March 25, 1731 in Perkiomen, Montgomery nowadays the community belonging ) was born into a Mennonite family.

He belonged to the so-called "Original 13", the first closed group of German emigrants to America, and initiated on February 18, 1688 together with his brother Derrick, Franz Daniel Pastorius and Gerrit Based Erich the first protest against slavery in America.

Family

His grandparents were Hermann op den Graeff, a leading figure of the Krefeld Mennonites, and Gritgen Pletjes. Isaac married Margaret Hermans ' Grietgen ' Peters Doors (d. 1679 ) and converted over to Quakerism. Abraham and his wife Catharina had four children: Isaac, Jacob, Margaret, and Anne, was the later, his land and his brothers who remained childless, divided.

Life and work

Abraham worked as weavers and traders in his hometown Krefeld, where agents of the Quaker William Penn sought settlers for the newly established North American colony of Pennsylvania. Four members of the Op den Graeff family were persuaded and broke on board the ship Concord on October 6, 1683 in Krefeld with 10 other families to British North America: the brothers Derick (Dirk ) Isaacs, Herman Isaacs, Isaac Abraham, and her sister Margrit. Even in the year of arrival in 1683, the settlement was founded German Town ( Deitscheschteddel ), the first German settlement in North America.

Together with his two brothers Herman and Derrick Abraham acquired 2,000 hectares of land in the vicinity of the newly founded German Town community and established there a linen mill. On February 18, 1688 Abraham initiated in collaboration with his brother Derrick, Franz Daniel Pastorius and Gerrit Based Erich the first protest against slavery in America.

After 1708 he converted only one of his family back to the Mennonite faith. When Abraham Isacks op den Graeff his property was passed in 1731 divided by his four children; Isaac Updegraff, Jacob de Graeff Up, Margaret and her husband Thomas Howe and Anne and Herman de Mayrhofen. Abraham numerous descendants can still be found today under various spellings such as Opdegraf ( f), Updegrave, Updegrove, etc., and under the name Updegraf in Pennsylvania.

988
de