Shenandoah Germans

The Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia and parts of West Virginia is home to a long-established German-American community dating to the 17th century. The earliest German settlers to Shenandoah, sometimes known as the Shenandoah Deitsch or the Valley Dutch, were Pennsylvania Dutch migrants who traveled from southeastern Pennsylvania. These German settlers traveled southward along what became known as the Great Wagon Road. They were descendants of German, Swiss, and Alsatian Protestants who began settling in Pennsylvania during the late 1600s. Among them were German Palatines who had fled the Rhineland-Palatinate region of southwestern Germany due to religious and political persecution during repeated invasions by French troops.

From the colonial period to the early 1900s, people of Germanic heritage formed the social and economic backbone of the Shenandoah Valley. The majority of German settlers in the valley belonged to Anabaptist denominations, such as the Mennonites, the Dunkers (now known as the Brethren), and others. Smaller and later numbers of settlers were German Catholics or German Jews. Such German Americans were the earliest European settlers of the Shenandoah Valley, mostly in the northern portions. Scotch-Irish, many of whom also migrated from Pennsylvania, mostly settled in the southern portions of the valley. It was considered the backcountry in contrast to established communities of the Tidewater and Piedmont.

Because of their close community, many ethnic Germans continued to speak the German language here until World War I. Anti-German sentiment at the time resulted in many German Americans abandoning their language in public and making more effort to assimilate into the cultural mainstream.^[1]

The German contribution to the culture of the Shenandoah Valley has been substantial. They popularized Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine and adopted shape note singing from Baptist and Methodist preachers during the Great Awakening.^[2] Because the majority of white Southerners were often of English and Scotch-Irish ancestry, these German Americans gave the area some ethnic diversity, "a characteristic more Pennsylvanian then Virginian".^[3] While the valley is geographically Southern, the German contribution from the Mid-Atlantic has "made it appear Northern."^[3]

In the 21st century, the Shenandoah Valley and Harrisonburg in particular have become known as a haven for refugees, primarily from Mexico and the Americas. Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren have helped migrants from Latin America and elsewhere. These two denominations share an emphasis on pacifism and social justice. They try to honor their own history of having been refugees from religious persecution in Europe.^[4] Current immigration of Latinos from the Caribbean, Central and South America is diversifying the valley's culture.^[5]