Sins of the Fathers -- Slavery's Roots in Virginia by Carrie Fancett Pagels

I began the following post several years ago, but didn't post it. I recently completed a novella, "Love's Escape" which will be published in November, 2017, by Barbour in The Captive Brides collection. This novella includes two escaped slaves who are one-eighth African descent, being brought out of bondage via my hero, the son of a funeral home owner and his friend.

Recently, Pegg Thomas post about Abolitionism in colonial times. I pulled the following post out of draft mode to share! And I've modified it and added to my original post.

As I've mentioned in a previous post several year ago, with Julian Charity, Historian at Shirley Plantation, the indentured servants were the first main workforce in Virginia and it was only later that slavery began its pernicious roots. I live right here in the heart of of where the enslavement of Africans began. Lest you think only the British were transporting slaves, one of the first cargoes to Virginia was from a captured Spanish shipload and diverted to Virginia.

Also, as documented at Colonial Michilimackinac in the St. Anne parish, the French enslaved both Indians and Africans, and many of these children were baptized, leaving a record of such barbarisms as recordings that child of slave girl and her owner was baptized on such and such a date. I'll admit I'm ignorant of what the French did with offspring of such unions, but I'm assuming they continued to be enslaved in the far north. However, I do know what happened in Virginia after 1662. The white landowners enacted laws that stated that the children born to those enslaved remained enslaved and the property of the owner.

Therein, during colonial times, began the not only the horrible practice of enslaving future generations but from then forward any children born between master and slave were continued to be enslaved (unless freed, of course--but there were various restrictions there, too.) So that by the time of the 1860s, abolitionists utilized the modern-day technology of photographs to share picture of enslaved white children, in the south, offspring of multi-generational owner-slave "unions" -- and while it shouldn't have taken that to have awakened consciousness of the evil of slavery, at least sympathies were finally stirred to the point of taking action.

But I digress. Early on, in the mid 1600s, records indicate there were only several hundred blacks present among over ten thousand colonials. Just a fraction. Can you imagine, if you were, say, one of these very small minority blacks, a freeman, and now you see shiploads of slaves being brought into Jamestown and Yorktown? I know what I'd be thinking--how long till they try to enslave me?

Near where I live, across the York River, is an area referred to as Guinea. Locally, they've said this was because the watermen who settled there were often paid in Guineas. But the reason for the name of the British guinea coin is from Africa, specifically Guinea. The first guinea coins weren't minted until 1663.

In the 1660's, the Royal Africa company began business and soon thereafter brought thousands of slaves to Virginia.

Rosewell and a dependency

The owners of the once-magnificent Rosewell Plantation (see above), in Gloucester, were some of the main importers of human lives. The ruins of a majestic brick three-story home (with twenty-one fireplaces!) still stand in Gloucester. It is an interesting place to visit.

In my July 2016 release, Saving the Marquise's Granddaughter (White Rose/Pelican), my characters go into indentured servitude. But it is a much kinder and gentler situation than most folks endured. Simply perusing the newspapers from that time frame (mid-1700s) reveals all kinds of misuse of indentured servants.

And lest you think I am pointing the finger, I have deep Virginia roots myself, back to the 1600s in the very area where I live, but wasn't raised.

In the November release, we have brides from all kinds of backgrounds but who are "captive" by something.

Question: Do you have an ancestor who was enslaved or indentured? Do you possibly not know but suspect it?

INDENTURED SERVANTS IN COLONIAL AMERICA

In my guest post for Colonial Quills, Coming To America, September 16, 2011, I delved into the subject of immigrants coming to the colonies as indentured servants.

Indentured Servants were emigrants who signed contracts, or “indentures,” committing themselves to work for a fixed number of years, usually four to

seven, in payment for their passage. The captain would transport the indentured servants to the American colonies, and sell their legal papers to colonists; farmers, planters, and shopkeepers, thereby providing them a labor force.

That post examined some of the reasons people left their homeland to start a new life in the young colonies. It also detailed some of the challenges they endured to cross the Atlantic and what they experienced upon arrival.

Indentured servitude was a subject that has interested me for a long time and was the basis for the story I wrote, A Heart Set Free, a tale of an indentured servant who travels from Scotland to the Virginia colony in 1770.

The research I did for the story was fascinating. Since my character, Heather Douglas emigrated from Scotland; I primarily studied the people signing indentures from the British Isles.

Poverty and unemployment were rampant in early seventeenth century Britain, which prompted many to seek a better life in the colonies. Poor crop years in the eighteenth century also brought people from there and northern Europe to the colonies.

The Enclosure Acts, a series of Parliamentary Acts in England passed between 1750 and 1860, and the high cost of rents caused many from England and Scotland to emigrate. Impoverished Ireland also caused many to emigrate for what they hoped would be a better life.

The ages of men and women who indentured themselves varied in ages from the teens through those in their sixties. They came from rural areas and cities throughout England, Scotland and even Ireland.

Most indentured servants were laborers and often uneducated. As the slave

trade became more common, particularly in the south, many indentured servants learned trades. They did wool spinning, tailoring, hat making, retailing, baking, brewing, butchering, leather processing and smithing of all sorts, and the construction trades also apprenticed bondservants in carpentry, joinery, masonry, plastering, wheel-righting, and shipbuilding.

It was not uncommon for bondservants to prosper once their term of service was over.

I was surprised to learn that as many as 48% of European immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 were indentured. The onset of the American Revolution reduced the entry of indentured servants significantly.

If your ancestors came from Western Europe before the Revolution, It is likely that some may have been indentured.

A TRIBUTE ON VETERAN'S DAY and A DREAM REALIZED

 A TRIBUTE ON VETERAN'S DAY

Each year on November 11^th we acknowledge and express appreciation for all the men and women who have served or are serving our nation in the armed forces. This practice dates back to the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month when the armistice was declared at the end of World War I.

As someone who was raised in a military family and with two sons and a step-son-in-law currently serving, it is a day filled with humility and gratitude. As Americans, we enjoy liberty and so many freedoms only because others were and are willing to sacrifice. Many will spend vast amounts of time away from family and friends, work long hours under stressful conditions, and put themselves in harm’s way. Their service has preserved our union and allows us to pursue our plans and dreams. Take some time today and thank them.

A DREAM REALIZED

Five years ago, I was asked to submit a guest post for Colonial Quills.

Coming To America, September 16, 2011.

http://colonialquills.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-post-by-janet-grunst-coming-to.html

It was a privilege to be invited to join this esteemed group of writers who love delving into our colonial history and sharing their knowledge with interested readers. In addition to learning so much from them, I’ve made some treasured friends.

Coming To America detailed how many Europeans without funds came to the colonies by becoming indentured servants, serving for a specified period of time in exchange for passage. This was a common method of emigration during the 17^th and 18^th centuries, and it was a subject that has fascinated me for many years. 

In the mid-eighties, I wrote a story about a woman who left Scotland in 1770 and traveled to Virginia as an indentured servant. And now after many years that story is being published. Its theme is forgiveness.

Here’s a peek into A Heart Set Free published by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas.

In 1770, Heather Douglas is desperate to escape a brewing scandal in her native Scotland. Penniless and hoping for a fresh start far away, she signs a seven-year indenture and boards a British merchant vessel headed to Virginia.

Widowed planter Matthew Stewart needs someone to help raise his two young children. The tall blond standing on the Alexandria quay doesn’t look like much after her harrowing sea voyage, but there’s a refinement about her that her filthy clothing cannot hide. Could God be leading him to take this unknown indentured servant as his wife?

When Matthew purchases Heather’s indenture, marries her, and takes her to his farm, she faces new and constant challenges. And Matthew wonders if they can ever bridge their differences and make a life together.

It is in the Virginia countryside that Heather begins her greatest journey, one of self-discovery and of maturing faith. Here, she discovers that her emotional and spiritual scars bind her far more than her indenture . . . and love will finally set her heart free. 

I’m delighted that A Heart Set Free will be released December 2^nd, 2016 and will be found at:

http://Amazon.com

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

Janet S. Grunst is a wife, mother of two sons, and grandmother of eight who lives in the historic triangle of Virginia (Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown) with her. A lifelong student of history, she has been fortunate to live overseas as well as throughout the United States. Her love of writing fiction grew out of a desire to share stories that communicate the truths of the Christian faith, as well as entertain and bring inspiration, healing, and hope to the reader. 

Janet Grunst
http://JanetGrunst.com                                                                                                                   https://www.facebook.com/Janet-Grunst-Author-385405948228216/                            http://colonialquills.blogspot.com/
Represented By Linda S. Glaz
Hartline Literary Agency

Guest Post - Julian Charity of Shirley Plantation on Slavery in Colonial Times

Our guest post today is by Julian Charity, Historian for Shirley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia.  Julian also has a new book release that we will be giving away to one lucky visitor this week.  We will be reviewing his book, about war at Shirley Plantation from the American Revolution, soon.

Slavery at Shirley Plantation 

by Julian Charity

Plantations in the New World supplied the English empire with an abundance of tobacco.  Cultivation of tobacco was labor intensive and cost prohibitive unless it is produced in large quantities. In order to keep the cost down and the production quantity up, indentured servants and slaves provided an economical labor force.  With indentured servants and slaves, the plantations became the economic backbone of the English empire.

The first record of servants at Shirley Plantation dates to 1616 when John Rolfe documented that Captain Isaac Madison commanded 25 men in planting and curing tobacco. These men were all white and indentured servants, also called indentures. Indentured servants were the original labor force at Shirley as well as in the rest of the English colonies. Indentured servants were people of various races who were contractually obligated to become laborers for a specified period of time in exchange for debt repayment, food, lodging, transportation to the colonies, and the teaching of a trade. Indentured servants were brought from Africa, the Caribbean islands, Scotland, Ireland, and England. In some of the British colonies of New England, servitude took the form of apprenticeships, in which an individual was a servant in exchange for learning a craft. In Virginia and throughout the southern colonies, where the economy was primarily agricultural, most indentured servants were field hands who tended tobacco fields. Though indentured servitude sounded appealing, the lives of these men and women were very difficult. They faced harsh punishments for petty crimes and transgressions against their masters. Penalties included whipping, hanging, shooting, and even burning the indenture alive. Masters could extend servants contracts and they had little recourse, legal or otherwise.

Africans first arrived in Virginia in 1619. The majority of these Africans likely became indentured servants though records from this era were unclear regarding their fates. The first documented African slave in Virginia came in 1640. John Punch, an African indentured servant, ran away from his master and a Virginia court ordered that Punch’s punishment be a lifetime of service to his master. In 1622, records for Shirley Plantation first mention an African or islander when documents indicated that eleven men including “One Negar,” had died since April.

Until Virginians committed to slave labor, indentured servants comprised the majority of the workforce.  Edward Hill I, the first Hill Carter family member to live at Shirley, probably took part in the indentured servant system. He imported 43 people in 1661. These people were likely indentures because the indentured servant system was more cost-effective and practical than the African slave system.

In The Making of New World Slavery:  From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492-1800, Robin Blackburn argued that indentured servants were a better investment until the end of the 1600s for several reasons. The high mortality rate of new arrivals to the New World was a contributing factor. An indentured contract may have only called for three or four years of service, but if the person only lived three or four years, then investing in more servants and fewer slaves was more cost efficient. White indentures were more popular because their masters knew their language and their work habits. Credit for purchasing servants was more easily received when buying white indentured labor (Blackburn 241-242). By the end of the seventeenth century, these issues became irrelevant and slaves began replacing indentures.

Bacon’s Rebellion in 1675 was a major contributing factor to the demise of the indentured servant system. Former and current indentured servants supported Nathaniel Bacon in his uprising. Colonial elite no longer favored the indentured servants after their collaboration with Bacon. Still in need of inexpensive labor, the importation of slaves to the colonies increased.

Read the entire article by clicking here.

GIVEAWAY:  Leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of Julian's book.

Guest Post by Janet Grunst: Coming To America

No, I’m not referring to the 1981 Neil Diamond hit song or the 1988 Eddie Murphy movie, but the seventeenth and eighteenth century emigration to the North American Continent of a vast number of people, many in servitude.




Two common means that brought Europeans to North America:

Free Willers or Redemptioners were emigrants who had a portion of their passage to the west paid prior to their passage and were permitted a specific amount of time once they arrived in the Colonies to raise the unpaid portion of the cost of their transportation. Failing to do this they would become indentured for a period determined by the amount of passage costs still owed.
Indentured Servants were emigrants who signed contracts, or “indentures,” committing themselves to work for a fixed number of years, usually four to seven, in payment for their passage. The captain would transport the indentured servants to the American colonies, and sell their legal papers to colonists; farmers, planters, and shopkeepers, thereby providing them a labor force.

Why would these people leave their homeland for such an uncertain future? There are probably as many reasons as there were people who emigrated from their homeland to an uncertain future in a distant land. Some unscrupulous people called “spirits” profited by prowling seaports and slums recruited victims who were destitute and might sign anything for a meal, a drink, or a promise of a better life. Others, in Britain or Germany, found the cost of a transatlantic passage might cost anywhere from a half to a full year’s salary, so they saw it as an opportunity to escape the poverty at home. Several poor crop years in the eighteenth century brought people from Britain and northern Europe.

The conversion to commercial agricultural enclosures and the high cost of rents caused many Scots to emigrate. Between 1763 -1775 about 20,000 Scottish Highlanders came to North America. Ireland was impoverished causing many to flee for what they perceived to be a better life. Many from England wanted to escape what they viewed as a dismal future. Others were convicts, sentenced to deportation and on their arrival in America were indentured unless they had personal funds to maintain themselves.

What conditions did they endure to come to America? If you think travel is stressful today it’s a walk in the park compared to travel across the Atlantic in the seventeen and eighteenth centuries. It was risky for anyone but often perilous if not deadly for indentures servants. Often a hundred or more passengers were housed below deck in poorly lit, stuffy, cramped quarters so low that adults couldn’t stand up straight for what could be a seven to twelve week voyage. During frequent ocean storms the vessels would pitch and roll creating sickness and terror. Food was limited to salted meat, smoked fish, peas, hardtack, and molasses as long as it lasted and the water was brackish. A prolonged voyage often meant severe rationing. Scurvy was commonplace due to the lack of fresh fruit and vegetables. Many of the travelers became ill and died as a result of these conditions.

What was life like once they reached the Colonies? The lives they found on this side of the Atlantic depended largely on who purchased their indenture and what kind of labor they were committed to perform. Their lives could be very restrictive and harsh, sometimes so difficult that they did not survive their years of service. Some of the indentured servants were in the service of individuals who treated them like any other employee and some lived like family members. Often as part of their contract, indentured servants were promised a small tract of land and other incidentals when their service ended.

There was no permanent stigma attached to indentured servitude, and the families of these persons blended readily with the total population. Children born to parents serving their indenture were free. Terms of an indenture contract were enforceable in the courts, and runaway servants could be forced to return to their masters and complete their service. Many of these people were skilled in a trade or were artisans. Upon completion of their years of service, many went on to become very successful business people and pillars of their communities.

In 1775 a formal ban on Scottish emigration along with informal restrictions of overseas movements from England went into effect. Indentured service for the most part ceased after the American Revolution.

What about you? Do you have an ancestor who was either an indentured servant or a redemptioner?

Janet Grunst is a member of Colonial American Christian Writers and a new contributor to Colonial Quills. She lives in the Historic Triangle of Virginia. Janet is a member of Tidewater Christian Writers, ACFW, and My Book Therapy. Her two sons serve in our country's armed forces.