Indentured servitude in Pennsylvania (1682-1820s): The institution of indentured servitude has a significant place in the history of labor in Pennsylvania. From the founding of the colony (1681/2) to the early post-revolution period (1820s), indentured servants contributed considerably to the development of agriculture and various industries in Pennsylvania. Moreover, Pennsylvania itself has a notable place in the broader history of indentured servitude in North America. As Cheesman Herrick stated, "This system of labor was more important to Pennsylvania than it was to any other colony or state; it continued longer in Pennsylvania than elsewhere."Cheesman Herrick, White Servitude in Pennsylvania: Indentured and Redemption Labor in Colony and Commonwealth (New York: Negro University Press, 1969), 26.
Trends
The features of indentured servitude in Pennsylvania, like other colonies, underwent a series of transformations. For example, indentured servitude initially possessed a patriarchal character. Under the "head right" system, prospective proprietors could receive for each "head" (servant/laborer) they brought over, with being given to the servant once his/her indenture had expired.Herrick, White Servitude, 32–34. Most of the indentured servants that migrated to Pennsylvania at this time had some form of acquaintanceship with their masters. In turn, many of the contracts established between the masters and servants were oral and based upon certain "customs" of the home country. In addition, "immigrants in bondage" were "criminals" in England. This could mean a great many things. Many were non-conformists, had problems with the church, or had committed an offense as small as stealing a loaf of bread.Herrick, White Servitude, 52.; Sharon Salinger, "To serve well and faithfully": Labor and Indentured servants in Pennsylvania, 1682-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 25.
Yet, as time progressed the system became more "systematized," acquiring certain standardized procedures and regulations. The transition to written contracts reflected this development. In addition, such factors as poverty, dislocation, personal ambition, or criminal activity "produced" enough indentured servants to support a well-functioning market structure.Salinger, "To serve well and faithfully", 3.; Abbot Emerson Smith, Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776 (University of North Carolina Press, 1965), 7. Indeed, the institution of indentured servitude assumed the characteristics of a "modern labor market."Robert Heavner, "Indentured Servitude: The Philadelphia Market, 1771-1773," The Journal of Economic History 38, no. 3 (September 1978): 713.
During the early period, much of the work undertaken by indentured servants related to agriculture and "taming" the wilderness (e.g. clearing forests).Salinger, "To serve well and faithfully", 22. As industry developed, however, the demand for skilled labor increased; while agriculture still demanded indentured servants, the emergence of different industries required a diverse workforce.Salinger, "To serve well and faithfully", 23–24.; David Galenson, "The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis," The Journal of Economic History 44, no. 1 (March 1984): 11–12. Free labor at this stage proved scarce and highly expensive, thus compelling colonists to seek an alternative via servants (and slaves).Salinger, "To serve well and faithfully", 22–23.
Moreover, the origins and "types" of servants changed over time. Whereas indentured servants in late-17th and early-18th centuries migrated predominantly from England, Scotland, and Wales (Great Britain after 1707 Acts of Union), a majority of those in the mid-to-late 18th century consisted of Irish and German/Palatinate immigrants.Herrick, White Servitude, 142.; Salinger, "To serve well and faithfully", 3. With this "transition" in the national compositions of indentured servants came a shift in the particular "form" of the institution. In the 1720s the "redemptionist system" began to replace the older structure, a subject to be discussed below. This type of indentured servitude provided the greatest source of labor by the end of the 18th century.Farley Grubb, "The Auction of Redemptioner Servants, Philadelphia, 1771-1804: An Economic Analysis," The Journal of Economic History 48, no. 3 (September 1988): 583.
The collapse of indentured servitude has been a subject of debate. A categorization of this debate could roughly divide the positions into "demand" and "supply." Those on the former, such as Sharon Salinger and Cheesman Herrick, have argued that the system collapsed as a result of a growing free labor supply in Pennsylvania: employers found free labor less expensive and more flexible than indentured servitude.Salinger, "To serve well and faithfully", 148, 150-151.; Herrick, White Servitude, 265-266. Thus, the demand of employers essentially determined the rise and fall of the system.
Scholars arguing on the "supply" side have maintained that the ability of migrants to finance their passage to the "new world" ultimately undermined the system. David Galenson, for example, said the fact "that the great nineteenth-century migration of Europeans to the Americas was composed of free individuals and families appears to have been a consequence of both falling transportation costs and rising European income levels."Galenson, "Indentured Servitude in the Americas," 25. Farley Grubb approached the issue from a different perspective; he contended that the demand model fails to provide a satisfactory explanation because employers still paid high prices for indentured (redemptioner) servants. Analyzing specifically German migration in the 19th century, Grubb attributed the end of indentured servitude to the ability of immigrant families in the United States to finance the transportation of relatives through remittances, a "system" facilitated by the declining price of passage–fare.Farley Grubb, "The End of European Immigrant Servitude in the United States: An Economic Analysis of Market Collapse, 1772-1835," The Journal of Economic History 54, no.4 (December 1994): 804-805.
Without evaluating the merits of these explanations, the following article seeks to outline various components surrounding indentured servitude in Pennsylvania, dealing (roughly) with time period of 1682–1820. Of course, a number of these aspects were not unique to Pennsylvania, but, rather, represent features characterizing the institution generally. Yet, the following information will also show that Pennsylvanian society and government, like that of other colonies, had their own particular ways of appropriating the institution of indentured servitude.
Types of Indentured Servitude
Indentured servitude can be described as an arrangement in which one party agrees to serve another for a certain number of years in exchange for an initial payment or monetary outlay.Robert Heavner, Economic Aspects of Indentured Servitude in Colonial Pennsylvania (New York: Arno Press, 1978), 1. In colonial and early-republican Pennsylvania, statutes governing the institution established both protections for and restrictions upon indentured servants. While masters could not wield unlimited authority over their servants, the latter was nevertheless subject to various constraints upon their freedom.Herrick, White Servitude, 31. In fact, indentured servants essentially bore the status of property.Don Jordan and Michael Walsh, White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America (New York: New York University Press, 2008), 14. However, while these details help in generally understanding indentured servitude, the various forms of the system need to be mentioned as well.
Indentured Servants
While the category of indentured servant can apply to all the variations of the institution, scholars have also attached a more precise meaning to the term. Depending on the context, the "indentured servant" usually refers to servant-migrants whose contracts were arranged before the voyage to the colonies. The term may also describe colonial residents who indentured themselves or their relations.Heavner, Indentured Servitude in Colonial Pennsylvania, 2. Of course, features of this type overlap with aspects of others.
With regard to the "migrant variety," persons in Great Britain (including Ireland) seeking transportation across the Atlantic would "finance" the trip by entering into contractual agreements with a merchant. In exchange for passage to the colonies/state, these individuals "sold" their labor to the "master of the ship." The latter, in turn, would recover the cost of the passage by selling the indentured servant's contract (labor) to a buyer in the colonies.Herrick, White Servitude, 3.; Salinger, "To serve well and faithfully", 8–11.
During the negotiation process, agents or merchants would consider a number of variables to project the value of the servant in the colonies/states. Such factors as "productivity," skills in a particular trade, gender, and the provision of education determined the conditions stipulated in the contract, especially the length of service.Smith, Colonists in Bondage, 17. The inclusion of freedom dues, provisions granted to the servants after expiration of the contract, also affected the terms; freedom dues beyond that required by law would increase the "implicit" cost of the servant, potentially requiring an increase in the length indenture.Farley Grubb, "The Market for Indentured Immigrants: Evidence of the Efficiency of Forward-Labor Contracting in Philadelphia, 1745-1773," The Journal of Economic History 45, no. 4 (December 1985): 865. Merchants or agents, therefore, negotiated contracts expected to (at least) recover the costs of the voyage.Sharon Salinger, "To serve well and faithfully", 9-10. Farley Grubb has identified this practice as "forward-labor contracting," as the process aimed to determine the "future market values" of a commodity.Farley Grubb, "The Market for Indentured Immigrants, 856.
Once both parties agreed to a set of terms, the servant had to be "bound" before a magistrate or high official in Britain. Servants over twenty-one had to testify that the contract was voluntary; servants also had to testify that they had no obligations to other persons.Smith, Colonists in Bondage, 78–79. William Moraley, who wrote an account of his experience as an indentured servant in Pennsylvania, noted that he and the agent "went before Sir Robert Bailis, Lord Mayor, where I was sworn as not being a married Person, or an Apprentice by Indenture."William Moraley, The Infortunate: The Voyage and Adventures of William Moraley, an Indentured Servant, eds., Susan Klepp and Billy Smith (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992), 52.
Those under the age of twenty-one needed the consent of even higher officials, as well as the approval of his/her guardians.Smith, Colonist in Bondage, 78. Most immigrant children "sold" by their parents were registered in Pennsylvania as "apprentices," with only a small portion being labeled as "servants." Certainly, apprenticeship and servitude differed in that the former required some sort of education. Although indentured servant contracts could stipulate the provision of "instruction," this condition was not necessary.Heavner, Indentured Servitude in Colonial Pennsylvania, 21–22.