In the first 100 years, many many Europeans came to the colonies as indentured servants... They did not consider themselves to be defined as slaves...
I don't know much about it, but the story is that after working at the funeral home without pay, just room and board (how many years I do not know) she absconded with the man she loved --- a wine and beer-barrel maker, (also from Rhineland-Palatinate) and they went to another state and got married.
Don't know why she was never caught. I'm pretty sure that legally she could have been dragged back to her employer or imprisoned.
It has all the elements of a happy story, though. True love, a thrilling escape, and beer.