Ancestry.com- Shaking Your Family Tree, April 01, 1999

		Member Login \| My Account \| Guest Registry

| | | |


Learn > Articles & Columns > Daily News > Current Article

Shaking Your Family Tree

April 01, 1999

Shaking Your Family Tree, by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.

Colonists in Bondage

by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.

Many of our European progenitors came to America in bondage. If you have ancestors who arrived south of New England prior to the American Revolution, the numbers are far greater than you might suspect.

They were variously known as indentured servants, redemptioners, and Christian or white servants. However, some of them were convicts from the jails in England who were transported instead of being hanged. Some were political and military prisoners taken in various wars or rebellions. Then there were the rogues, vagabonds, and rabble of all description, who were raked from the gutter and kicked out of the mother country. Additionally, there were the unfortunate French, German, and Swiss Protestants who were fleeing from religious persecution, as well as the starving Irish, rack-rented Scottish farmers, and poverty-stricken German peasants, plus artisans and brash adventurers of all sorts.

There was a labor shortage in early America. This made it profitable for English merchants trading with the colonies to load their outgoing ships with a cargo of servants, for the labor of these servants could be transferred to the colonial planters at a price well above the cost of transporting them. On the other hand, it was profitable to the planter to buy them, for he could rise from mere subsistence to prosperity only by commanding the labor of others.

Some of our ancestors were decoyed, deceived, seduced, inveigled or forcibly kidnapped and carried off as servants to the American plantations. This darker side of American history is of great importance to genealogists, and one about which there is not a great deal of information. Colonists in Bondage. White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776, by Abbot Emerson Smith, was first published in 1947, but has been recently reprinted. It is a narrative historical account of indentured servitude and convict labor in the America colonies, and a fascinating read.

Divided into three parts, it first discusses the trade in servants. In part two, the focus is on the transportation of convicts and the issues surrounding the transportation of rogues and vagabonds on the one hand and military prisoners on the other. The final portion captures the life of the bonded immigrant in America itself, beginning with the voyage and arrival in America, prevailing customs pertaining to servile labor, conditions of the workplace and the path or conditions to freedom.

Kidnapping or "spiriting away'' was not uncommon. In London and seaport towns, there were plenty of unsavory characters who collected wandering children, simple-minded adults and sleeping drunks to convey them on board a ship. Once aboard, the unfortunate victim never saw the light of day until the ship was at sea.

In 1654, the English port city of Bristol passed a corporate ordinance requiring the registry in the Tolzey Book of the names of all departing servants, together with their destinations and the terms of their indentures. A penalty of 20 pounds was imposed on any ship captain who disregarded this order, and for 20 years the ordinance was observed. The registrations of more than 10,000 servants may still be seen at Bristol, and the two volumes containing the entries are said to be the only systematic records of English servant transportation during the 17th century known to exist.

Colonists in Bondage (435 pages, paperback) is available ($38.50 postpaid) from Clearfield Company, 200 E. Eager St., Baltimore, MD 21202; 410/625-9004; http://www.genealogybookshop.com/

(c) 1999, Los Angeles Times Syndicate

Myra Vanderpool Gormley and Julie Case are co-editors of Missing Links, a free weekly genealogy e-zine. To subscribe, send your request to: Missing Links Newsletter

Return to Myra Vanderpool Gormley Main Page
Return to Columns Main Page

Copyright 1998, 1999, Ancestry.com Inc. and its subsidiaries.
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement

April 01, 1999
	Colonists in Bondage by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.
Many of our European progenitors came to America in bondage. If you have ancestors who arrived south of New England prior to the American Revolution, the numbers are far greater than you might suspect. They were variously known as indentured servants, redemptioners, and Christian or white servants. However, some of them were convicts from the jails in England who were transported instead of being hanged. Some were political and military prisoners taken in various wars or rebellions. Then there were the rogues, vagabonds, and rabble of all description, who were raked from the gutter and kicked out of the mother country. Additionally, there were the unfortunate French, German, and Swiss Protestants who were fleeing from religious persecution, as well as the starving Irish, rack-rented Scottish farmers, and poverty-stricken German peasants, plus artisans and brash adventurers of all sorts. There was a labor shortage in early America. This made it profitable for English merchants trading with the colonies to load their outgoing ships with a cargo of servants, for the labor of these servants could be transferred to the colonial planters at a price well above the cost of transporting them. On the other hand, it was profitable to the planter to buy them, for he could rise from mere subsistence to prosperity only by commanding the labor of others. Some of our ancestors were decoyed, deceived, seduced, inveigled or forcibly kidnapped and carried off as servants to the American plantations. This darker side of American history is of great importance to genealogists, and one about which there is not a great deal of information. Colonists in Bondage. White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776, by Abbot Emerson Smith, was first published in 1947, but has been recently reprinted. It is a narrative historical account of indentured servitude and convict labor in the America colonies, and a fascinating read. Divided into three parts, it first discusses the trade in servants. In part two, the focus is on the transportation of convicts and the issues surrounding the transportation of rogues and vagabonds on the one hand and military prisoners on the other. The final portion captures the life of the bonded immigrant in America itself, beginning with the voyage and arrival in America, prevailing customs pertaining to servile labor, conditions of the workplace and the path or conditions to freedom. Kidnapping or "spiriting away'' was not uncommon. In London and seaport towns, there were plenty of unsavory characters who collected wandering children, simple-minded adults and sleeping drunks to convey them on board a ship. Once aboard, the unfortunate victim never saw the light of day until the ship was at sea. In 1654, the English port city of Bristol passed a corporate ordinance requiring the registry in the Tolzey Book of the names of all departing servants, together with their destinations and the terms of their indentures. A penalty of 20 pounds was imposed on any ship captain who disregarded this order, and for 20 years the ordinance was observed. The registrations of more than 10,000 servants may still be seen at Bristol, and the two volumes containing the entries are said to be the only systematic records of English servant transportation during the 17th century known to exist. Colonists in Bondage (435 pages, paperback) is available ($38.50 postpaid) from Clearfield Company, 200 E. Eager St., Baltimore, MD 21202; 410/625-9004; http://www.genealogybookshop.com/ (c) 1999, Los Angeles Times Syndicate Myra Vanderpool Gormley and Julie Case are co-editors of Missing Links, a free weekly genealogy e-zine. To subscribe, send your request to: Missing Links Newsletter Return to Myra Vanderpool Gormley Main Page Return to Columns Main Page
Copyright 1998, 1999, Ancestry.com Inc. and its subsidiaries. Terms and Conditions \| Privacy Statement