Selections from an American History Collection
Assembled by Peter Pappas
www.peterpappas.com

 

2b. How did indentured servitude  impact colonial society?           
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Tasks -
1. Identify the arguments for and against indenture.
2. Compare the costs and benefits of indenture for both the servant and master.
3. Assume you are a teenager considering considering an indenture for travel to the New World. What would you do and why?
4. Assume the role of a servant and write a letter home to England describing the conditions of your life.
5. "Document My World"    In colonial times some some young people  were willing to indenture themselves to the role of apprentice  in exchange for learning a trade. In what ways do you volunteer your time in exchange for learning a new skills?

Documents

Format Subject

Indentured Service - positive

Doc 4 Alsop Justifies Indentured Servitude text rationale behind servitude

Doc 10 The Benefits of Indentured Servitude

text to be edited
Doc 25 "The Natural Tie Between Master and Apprentice has been Rent Asunder: An Old Apprentice Laments
Changes in the Workplace," 1826 http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6622/

Indentured Service - negative

Doc 6 Convict poem about indenture text sad tale of a wayward youth sold into indenture
Doc 8  John Frethorne's Letter to his Parents   text to be edited
Doc 12 "Stolen Children." from London text Warning that children are being stolen from their parents

Relationship master  - servant

Doc 7 Disputes between servants and masters text court record form Mass Bay  - same source as 2-8

Doc 9 Indentured Servant's Confession (1684).

text to be edited
Doc 11 Virginia co takes children from London text The Privy Council grants the Virginia Company authority to coerce children, 1620
Doc 18 Discipline of apprentices text

Two examples of apprentices disciplined for bad behavior, Salem, Massachusetts, 1669

Doc 21 Indentured boy freed text  because of ill treatment by his master
Doc 22 Indenture reversed? text  Master may end up owing the servant?

Advertisement, promotions

Doc 1 Advice to bring slaves to Florida text  Need slaves to get the work done  -needs to be edited
Doc 3 Ads for runaway servants plus one poem  text  
Doc 15 Tobacco Brides shipped text Va Co to colonist - brides for sale

 Geography of Slavery, 18th Century Runaway Slave and Indentured Servants Advertisements. Good source of ads, docs, essay, accounts

Contracts / legislation

Doc 2 Act to inherit father's slavery text responding to intermarriage
Doc 5 Rev Bright’s agreement for passage text shows learned classes also "indentured" for passage
Doc 13 Indenture of 4 yr old black girl text

Indenture of the manumitted Negress Kitty, May 18, 1804

Doc 14 Indentured boy freed text  because of ill treatment by his master
Doc 16 Status of children with one slave parent text Deny freedom to mulatto children
Doc 17 Parish clerk binds out mulatto boy text Contrast to free white and full slave
Doc 19 Widow apprentices her young son text

Spinster binds out four year old son as "apprentice and servant," 1723

Doc 20 Indenture of 4 yr old black girl text

Indenture of the manumitted Negress Kitty, May 18, 1804

Doc 23 Notice for runaway indentured servants text Try to pass themselves of as married couple?

Demographics

Doc 26 Age, gender, price of servants pdf table Almanacs of American Life Set, Revolutionary America, 1763 to 1800 (p 120)
Doc 27 Data on indentured servants and slaves pdf table

Almanacs of American Life Set,  Colonial America to 1763 (p 166)

Possible internet additions:

Good docs and historians comment on indentured servitude to slavery at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr3.html

Labor Contracts, Virtual Jamestown - Created by Crandall Shifflett and located at the Virginia Center for Digital History, this page allows users to search 17th century indentured servant registers. http://www.virtualjamestown.org/servantcontracts.html

The Misfortunes of Indentured Servants . by Gottlieb Mittelberger.  Mittelberger describes the hardships suffered by prospective servants and their families from the voyage to America to their fates once landed.  Also online at Gottlieb Mittelberger   On the Misfortune of Indentured Servants (1754) http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1601-1650/mittelberger/servan.htm

 

 

 

Selections from an American History Collection
Assembled by Peter Pappas
www.peterpappas.com

Copyright © 1997-2006, 
Peter Pappas
, unless otherwise noted,
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