Servants and Servitude in Colonial America

224 Pages·2018·1.706 MB·English

by  Russell M. Lawson

Servants and Servitude in Colonial America

Servants and Servitude in
Colonial America
Russell M. Lawson
Copyright © 2018 by Russell M. Lawson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a
review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Control Number: 2017050144
ISBN: 978-1-4408-4179-8 (print)
978-1-4408-4180-4 (ebook)
22 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available as an eBook.
Praeger
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ABC-CLIO, LLC
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This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
In Memory of Laura Susan Lawson, 1964–2005

Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow
them short of hanging.
—Samuel Johnson in 1769, referring to the American
colonists, in Boswell, Life of Johnson

Contents
Prologue: Human Bondage xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Chapter 1: The Children of Jamestown 1
Chapter 2: Indian Bondage 19
Chapter 3: The Captives of New France 31
Chapter 4: English Town by the Sea 41
Chapter 5: The Dutch Servants of New Netherland and New York 55
Chapter 6: Daniel Defoe’s London 67
Chapter 7: The Voyage of the Free-Willers 81
Chapter 8: Infortunate Servants 93
Chapter 9: Oglethorpe’s Dream 103
Chapter 10: The Prisoners of Culloden 113
Chapter 11: John Harrower and Servitude in the Colonial South 123
Chapter 12: New England Apprentices 135
Chapter 13: Servants and the American Revolution 145
Afterword 157
Appendix: Documents in the History of Colonial American Servitude 159
Sources Consulted 185
Index 199