From the February 1999 Issue --
INDENTURED SERVANTS
by Karen Mullian
The institution
was not considered inhumane - many of our Quaker
ancestors came to Pennsylvania and other colonies as
indentured servants to more well-to-do Friends.
Still, it is certainly true that there were probably
as many miserable masters of indentured servants as
there were miserable slavemasters. Servant's
time was certainly not his or her own during the term
of servitude; however, for the most part, those who
hired themselves out under such terms knew that,
assuming all went well and there was no sickness or
pregnancy, then after a specific period of time, and
the time varied greatly, they would be free.
Generally speaking, servants could not marry during
the term of their indenture. If a female servant
became pregnant, regardless of who the father of the
child might be, her term could be extended for the
period of time during which she was incapable of
working due to pregnancy and any consequences
thereof. If an indentured servant was accused of
fathering a child, he could face legal action and if
the mother of the child was another servant, the time
she might miss on account of her condition could be
added to the servant-father's time as well as her
own. Servants (and bound apprentices) were also
expected, if learning a trade, to keep all the
"mysteries" of the trade secret, a holdover
from the medieval trade guilds.
Servants were usually to work for a set number of
years at a specific trade, if one was already had, or
learning a trade could be part of the bargain.
Women usually were to be trained in the skills of
housewifery, far more demanding than anything
housewives do today. I know this, because I have
been learning 18th century housewifery skills for the
last 8 years. At the end of the term, the
servant would be given his or her freedom dues a suit
of clothes, sometimes along with hand-farming
implements (grubbing hoe, rakes, etc.), and his or her
freedom.
Those servants who came over to work for a specific
person in this country were one type of indentured
servants. Early on in the founding of
Pennsylvania, indentured servants were granted a tract
of land, an incentive established by William Penn to
induce young landless individuals to settle his
colony. They were often kinsmen or members of
the same community as their masters who would pay
their passage, and the time they served as to repay
the master for footing the bill of transatlantic
travel.
There were also redemptioners, generally Germans and
sometimes Scots, whose passage was paid for by the
shipmaster and then their contracts were sold to the
highest bidder when they landed in a port.
Sometimes whole families came over this way. The
Pennsylvania Gazette is full of ads from people
looking for siblings with whom they had come over but
as the families were split up and individuals sold to
masters from different parts of the colony, they
hadn't seen them in years. Sometimes they never
saw one another again.
Although the average age for ordinary children to be
bound as an apprentice to learn a trade was 14, poor
children could be bound out as early as 18 months to 3
years of age for periods as long as 18-20 years, or
until they reached maturity (usually 21 for males, 18
for females), as evidenced by a list of indentured
servants who were bound out under the guidance of the
Guardians of the Poor of the City of Philadelphia now
housed by the Philadelphia City Archives. Some
of the trades to be learned were weaving, shallop
fishing, husbandry (farming), housewifery,
cordwaining, tobaccanist, shoemaker, joinery
(carpentry), tanning, and curriery (sp?). Sometimes
all the indenture says is that the child is to learn
to read, write and cipher, or to read, sew, knit, and
spin, especially in indentures before 1762.
After that time, the expectation changed to specify
the freedom dues as well, such as "Farmer, read,
write, cipher, 2 complete suits of apparel, one to be
new" or "Read, write, cypher to rule of 3,
spade, axe, grubbing hoe, and sickle,
freedom". In the case of Anne Callins who
was indentured in 1768 for 15 years to William Moore
of West Caln, she was to be trained in
"housewifery,to be taught to read, write, and
cipher, and sew, knit and spin, and to have the
customary freedoms". Elizabeth Baley in
1770 was bound to Mathew Taylor of Edgmont for 15
years and she was to be taught "housewifery, sew,
knit, and spin, to read in the Bible, and write a
legible Hand". Gabriel Stevenson was bound
for six years in 1770 to Thomas Swain of Ridley who
was to provide Gabriel with 12 months of school six
months of which were to be in the last year of his
term. In 1779 Thomas Bubridge (possibly
Burbridge) was bound to Edward Horne of Darby and was
to learn "the trade of a farmer or fuller, read
the Bible, write a legible hand, and cipher as far as
the Rule of 3, with the customary dues".
Edward Hoope was bound in 1799 for 3 years to John
Jones of Radnor, "to be taught the art &
mistery of a mariner".
Undoubtedly, many of these children became like
members of the family. Not surprisingly, some
probably opted to bolt at the first opportunity.
There were many advertisements in local papers,
primarily the Pennsylvania Gazette, the Pennsylvania
Evening Post, and the Virginia Gazette. These
advertisements, while necessarily subjective, often
provide a detailed description of facial features,
hair color, height, and the clothing the person
"had on and took with" him or her. The
clothing descriptions alone give a fascinating look at
the wide variety of clothing worn (and stolen) by
runaway servants.
Further Reading:
Indentured Servants and Transported Convicts
Gottlieb Mittelberger's Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750
Bailyn, Bernard. Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution. Knopf, New York, 1987
Salinger, Sharon V. To Serve Well and Faithfully Labor and Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania, 1682-1800, Cambridge University Press, 1987
Smith, Abbot Emerson. Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776. Gloucester, Mass., Peter Smith, 1965.
Karen Mullian, co- editor of Had On and Took With Her, Runaway Female Servant Advertisements in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, 1774-1784.
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