The story of this traffic in white servants is one of the most striking things in the history of labor.Bondmen differed from the serfs of the feudal age in that they were not bound to the soil but to the master.They likewise differed from the negro slaves in that their servitude had a time limit.Still they were subject to many special disabilities.It was,for instance,a common practice to impose on them penalties far heavier than were imposed upon freemen for the same offense.A free citizen of Pennsylvania who indulged in horse racing and gambling was let off with a fine;a white servant guilty of the same unlawful conduct was whipped at the post and fined as well.
The ordinary life of the white servant was also severely restricted.A bondman could not marry without his master's consent;nor engage in trade;nor refuse work assigned to him.For an attempt to escape or indeed for any infraction of the law,the term of service was extended.The condition of white bondmen in Virginia,according to Lodge,"was little better than that of slaves.Loose indentures and harsh laws put them at the mercy of their masters."It would not be unfair to add that such was their lot in all other colonies.Their fate depended upon the temper of their masters.
Cruel as was the system in many ways,it gave thousands of people in the Old World a chance to reach the New-an opportunity to wrestle with fate for freedom and a home of their own.When their weary years of servitude were over,if they survived,they might obtain land of their own or settle as free mechanics in the towns.For many a bondman the gamble proved to be a losing venture because he found himself unable to rise out of the state of poverty and dependence into which his servitude carried him.For thousands,on the contrary,bondage proved to be a real avenue to freedom and prosperity.Some of the best citizens of America have the blood of indentured servants in their veins.
The Transported-Involuntary Servitude.-In their anxiety to secure set-tlers,the companies and proprietors having colonies in America either resorted to or connived at the practice of kidnapping men,women,and children from the streets of English cities.In 1680it was officially estimated that "ten thou-sand persons were spirited away"to America.Many of the victims of the prac-tice were young children,for the traffic in them was highly profitable.Orphans and dependents were sometimes disposed of in America by relatives unwilling to support them.In a single year,1627,about fifteen hundred children were shipped to Virginia.
In this gruesome business there lurked many tragedies,and very few romances.Parents were separated from their children and husbands from their wives.Hundreds of skilled artisans-carpenters,smiths,and weavers-utterly disappeared as if swallowed up by death.A few thus dragged off to the New World to be sold into servitude for a term of five or seven years later became prosperous and returned home with fortunes.In one case a young man who was forcibly carried over the sea lived to make his way back to England and establish his claim to a peerage.
Akin to the kidnapped,at least in economic position,were convicts deported to the colonies for life in lieu of fines and imprisonment.The Americans protested vigorously but ineffectually against this practice.Indeed,they exaggerated its evils,for many of the "criminals"were only mild offenders against unduly harsh and cruel laws.A peasant caught shooting a rabbit on a lord's estate or a luckless servant girl who purloined a pocket handkerchief wasbranded as a criminal along with sturdy thieves and incorrigible rascals.Other transported offenders were "political criminals";that is,persons who criticized or opposed the government.This class included now Irish who revolted against British rule in Ireland;now Cavaliers who championed the king against the Puritan revolutionists;Puritans,in turn,dispatched after the monarchy was restored;and Scotch and English subjects in general who joined in political uprisings against the king.
The African Slaves.-Rivaling in numbers,in the course of time,the inden-tured servants and whites carried to America against their will were the African negroes brought to America and sold into slavery.When this form of bondage was first introduced into Virginia in 1619,it was looked upon as a temporary necessity to be discarded with the increase of the white population.Moreover it does not appear that those planters who first bought negroes at the auction block intended to establish a system of permanent bondage.Only by a slow process did chattel slavery take firm root and become recognized as the leading source of the labor supply.In 1650,thirty years after the introduction of slav-ery,there were only three hundred Africans in Virginia.
The great increase in later years was due in no small measure to the inordinate zeal for profits that seized slave traders both in Old and in New England.Finding it relatively easy to secure negroes in Africa,they crowded the Southern ports with their vessels.The English Royal African Company sent to America annually between 1713and 1743from five to ten thousand slaves.The ship owners of New England were not far behind their English brethren in pushing this extraordinary traffic.