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INDENTURED SERVANTS. 55
repugnance and horror of the treatment received in the colony by indentured
servants and redemptioners. The " free-willers," or redemptioners, servants
who had come out voluntarily, upon condition that, on arriving out, their
" time " (five years) was to be sold to pay the cost of transportation, he says,
fared worst of any. Convicts, he says, usually returned " home " after serving
out their "time," which was seven years. But the indented servants and
redemptioners, actually kidnapped by crimps, or deceived into embarking by
lying advertisements, and still more lying agents, promised kind treatment
and the chance for speedy fortune, soon find how they have been deceived
when they arrive out. There is little difference between the treatment they
receive and that bestowed upon the convicts—if any, it is in favor of the
latter, who, having two years longer to serve, are esteemed the more valuable
servants, while negroes, being slaves for life, are always taken care of. " Persons resident in America," says our author,1 "being accustomed to procure
servants for a very trifling consideration, under absolute terms, for a limited
period, are not often disposed to hire adventurers, who expect to be gratified
in full proportion to their acknowledged qualifications; but, as they support
authority with a rigid hand, they little regard the former situation of
their unhappy dependents." Hence, these free-willers must all be sold,
as they cannot find places for themselves, and they are sold into a very
hard slavery indeed, so hard that the honest Eddis says: " Were the
particulars of this iniquitous traffic universally divulged, those who have
established offices in London, and in the principal sea-ports, for the regular
conduct of their business, would be pointed out to obloquy, and their punishment would serve as a beacon to deter the ignorant and unwary from becoming
victims to the insidious practices of avarice and deceit."
This is the one side of the case, purposely elaborated more fully than on
previous pages, in order to give relief to the fact that there is decidedly another
side to it also, showing not only that servants were both serviceable to and
trusted by their masters, but that these services were often appreciated by the
masters in the highest degree—in fact, that the principle of "live and let
live " frequently regulated this intimate domestic relation. Not a few of our
" old Maryland families " are descended from indentured servants and apprentices, and from convicts also, sold in the colony, and it is important to show
that this could have easily been the case. Often, of course, the rude, ignorant
back-woods planters, tired of bachelor lives, married their convict servants,
or raised children by them without marriage, the children being legitimized
afterwards, or anyhow so recognized as to be able to succeed to their
father's estate. Sometimes a likely servant would win the affections of
the master's daughter and a marriage had to follow.2 But we are able
to give, from private sources of the best character, two letters of Henry
1 Eddis' Letters, p. 73. put on, as well as the freedom and familiarity
2 In the Sot - Weed Factor arz some coarse but with which they lived with the men servants
lively pictures of the sort of women who emi- and with the planter and his lads. The factor,
grated in Master Cook's time, and the airs they to give the first picture, takes too heavy a drink
| Title | History of Maryland - 2 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000080 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | INDENTURED SERVANTS. 55 repugnance and horror of the treatment received in the colony by indentured servants and redemptioners. The " free-willers," or redemptioners, servants who had come out voluntarily, upon condition that, on arriving out, their " time " (five years) was to be sold to pay the cost of transportation, he says, fared worst of any. Convicts, he says, usually returned " home " after serving out their "time," which was seven years. But the indented servants and redemptioners, actually kidnapped by crimps, or deceived into embarking by lying advertisements, and still more lying agents, promised kind treatment and the chance for speedy fortune, soon find how they have been deceived when they arrive out. There is little difference between the treatment they receive and that bestowed upon the convicts—if any, it is in favor of the latter, who, having two years longer to serve, are esteemed the more valuable servants, while negroes, being slaves for life, are always taken care of. " Persons resident in America," says our author,1 "being accustomed to procure servants for a very trifling consideration, under absolute terms, for a limited period, are not often disposed to hire adventurers, who expect to be gratified in full proportion to their acknowledged qualifications; but, as they support authority with a rigid hand, they little regard the former situation of their unhappy dependents." Hence, these free-willers must all be sold, as they cannot find places for themselves, and they are sold into a very hard slavery indeed, so hard that the honest Eddis says: " Were the particulars of this iniquitous traffic universally divulged, those who have established offices in London, and in the principal sea-ports, for the regular conduct of their business, would be pointed out to obloquy, and their punishment would serve as a beacon to deter the ignorant and unwary from becoming victims to the insidious practices of avarice and deceit." This is the one side of the case, purposely elaborated more fully than on previous pages, in order to give relief to the fact that there is decidedly another side to it also, showing not only that servants were both serviceable to and trusted by their masters, but that these services were often appreciated by the masters in the highest degree—in fact, that the principle of "live and let live " frequently regulated this intimate domestic relation. Not a few of our " old Maryland families " are descended from indentured servants and apprentices, and from convicts also, sold in the colony, and it is important to show that this could have easily been the case. Often, of course, the rude, ignorant back-woods planters, tired of bachelor lives, married their convict servants, or raised children by them without marriage, the children being legitimized afterwards, or anyhow so recognized as to be able to succeed to their father's estate. Sometimes a likely servant would win the affections of the master's daughter and a marriage had to follow.2 But we are able to give, from private sources of the best character, two letters of Henry 1 Eddis' Letters, p. 73. put on, as well as the freedom and familiarity 2 In the Sot - Weed Factor arz some coarse but with which they lived with the men servants lively pictures of the sort of women who emi- and with the planter and his lads. The factor, grated in Master Cook's time, and the airs they to give the first picture, takes too heavy a drink |
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