In the United States children are taught
in school, and the historical places we visit, many people wanted a new life in
the colonies but could not afford the passage. These persons became indentured
servants and were a vital part of settling the American colonies. Over half of the persons who immigrated to the
colonies, south of New England, were indentured servants under the age of 19.[1]
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John Smiths 1612 Map of Virginia. Shifflett, Crandall A. (2007) Virtual Jamestown. http://www.virtualjamestown.org/page2.html.
An indentured servant was a "person
who signs and is bound by indentures to work for another for a specified time,
especially in return for the payment of travel expenses and maintenance."[2] Once
here, an adult servant would work for four to seven years, and at the end, they
would be free to start a life of their own.
However, that was not the case for children.
Richard Hayes Phillips, PhD researched the
indentures of children brought to the Maryland and Virginia Colonies in the 17th
and 18th centuries. Through
an examination of extant original colonial documents, he discovered over 5,300
children in colonial court records with no legal indenture.[3]
These children did not agree to be servants, often being kidnapped,
and were forced to work without pay or compensation. While they usually served
until the age of 21, if they survived the appalling conditions where they lived
and worked.[4] In all definitions of the
word, these children were slaves to those who paid for their passage[5]
in these cases of forced immigration.
This series of posts focuses on the indenture of George Brassfield. It can be argued that he was one of these
children forced into a form of slavery through the laws of the time. Whether it
was due to circumstances beyond his control, we do not know, but his is one
story among many.
The children who were
forced to immigrate to the colonies without indentures could be the missing
link to many family genealogies. Perhaps
an empty line on a tree in England where a genealogist assumes the child died.
In the United States, an adult with no trace of origin. Through searches within
the court records and indexes, a researcher could bring distant genealogies
together.
Resources for Research
Three books on this
topic were written by Dr Rishard Hayes Phillips, PhD. These are an excellent resource for
unindentured children recorded within extant Maryland and Virginia court
records. At the writing of this paper, these are the only books on this subject
in print. Source citations are given throughout the text in addition to historical
perspectives to explain the history of indentured servitude to the reader.
Starting in Europe, records
from England do contain information on indentured servants. Manorial and parish
chest records often make mention of those sent to the colonies, indentured or
otherwise. The guild of one name
studies could help identify the origins of indentured servants with less common
surnames. There is a one-name study for the Brassfield family, for
example. The administrator of it
continues to add information as found to the database.
Colonial records are
difficult to research in Virginia and Maryland due to large amounts of record
loss from manmade and natural disasters.
In general, within the United States records held at the county level
are the most useful for researchers in this timeframe.
Deeds, various types of
court records, and land patents are other sources to identify indentured
servants. Personal records like diaries
and plantation account books also contain notes on servants who worked for that
master. A less used source are colonial-era newspapers which included advertisements
for runaway servants, but few survive.
Passenger lists, ship
manifests and cargo logs need to be consulted as well. Here researchers can
trace the where the ship stopped, who was loaded and unloaded, as well as
demographic information on the people transported for indenture.
All published colonial
laws of Virginia, from 1619 – 1792, were collated and printed by William Waller
Hening. The 13-volume set was published in 1823 and are known collectively as “Hening’s
Statutes at Large.” These books are considered
the authority on the laws for the Virginia Colony and will help researchers
understand the laws for the colony on Indentured Servitude.
Likewise, legislative
records for the Maryland Colony can be found online at the Maryland State
Archives. They were published in 1853 in
a total of 76 volumes. Similar to Hening’s Statutes at Large, these are
considered the authority for researchers in colonial law.
Finally, an excellent
resource for records on indentured servants is the Virtual Jamestown website.[1]
It holds over 10,000 entries for servants in addition to colonial newspaper
articles, letters, court records, and maps concerning indentured servants in
Virginia. The central database is
searchable for indenture registrations from Bristol, Middlesex and London.
[1] Mason, Mary Ann. (1994) Masters
and Servants: The American Colonial Model of Child Custody and Control.
Berkeley Law. http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/facpubs : accessed 8
March 2018.
[2] Merriam-Webster.
(2018) "Indentured Servant." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indentured%20servant : accessed 27 March 2018.
[3] Phillips, Richard Hayes. (2013) Without Indentures: Index to White Slave
Children in Colonial Court Records (Maryland and Virginia). Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Company.
[4] Wolfe, Brendan and McCartney Martha.
(2015) Indentured Servants in Colonial Virginia. Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Indentured_Servants_in_Colonial_Virginia : accessed 8
March 2018.
[5] Howard, Penny. (1999) Bound to Serve:
Indentured Servitude in Colonial Virginia, 1624-1776. The Corinthain. 1(1). http://kb.gcsu.edu/thecorinthian/vol1/iss1/4 : accessed 8
March 2018.
[1] Shifflett, Crandall A. (2007) Virtual Jamestown. http://www.virtualjamestown.org/page2.html : accessed 8 March 2018.
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