Extra Credit for HIS 121
Extra
Credit Documents Set # 1
Unfree
Labor in the Colonies
Document
1
Elizabeth
Sprigs, Letter to Her Father (1756)
This
letter was written by Elizabeth Sprigs, an indentured servant in Maryland, to
her father in England. It is clear than conditions for some
indentured servants had not improved much in the more than 130 years
sinceRichard Freethorne wrote from Virginia to his parents. She wrote to her
father in 1756 and complained bitterly of the brutal treatment by her master and
the harsh privations of daily life, begging him to send clothing.
Maryland,
Sept'r 22'd 1756
Honred
Father
My
being for ever banished from your sight, will I hope pardon the Boldness I now
take of troubling you with these, my long silence has been purely owning to my
undutifullness to you, and well knowing I had offended in the highest Degree,
put a tie to my tongue and pen, for fear I should be extinct from your good
Graces and add a further Trouble to you, but too well knowing your care and
tenderness for me so long as I retain'd my Duty to you, induced me once again to
endeavor if possible, to kindle up that flame again. O Dear Father, believe what
I am going to relate the words of truth and sincerity, and Balance my former bad
Conduct my sufferings here, and then I am sure you'll pity your Destress
Daughter, What we unfortunate English People suffer here is beyond the
probability of you in England to Conceive, let it suffice that I one of the
unhappy Number, am toiling almost Day and Night, and very often in the Horses
drudgery, with only this comfort that you Bitch you do not halfe enough, and
then tied up and whipp'd to that Degree that you'd not serve an Animal, scarce
any thing but Indian Corn and Salt to eat and that even begrudged nay many
Negroes are better used, almost naked no shoes nor stockings to wear, and the
comfort after slaving during Masters pleasure, what rest we can get is to rap
ourselves up in a Blanket and ly upon the Ground, this is the deplorable
Condition your poor Betty endures, and now I beg if you have any Bowels of
Compassion left show it by sending me some Relief, Clothing is the principal
thing wanting, which if you should condiscend to, may easily send them to me by
any of the ships bound to Baltimore Town Patapsco River Maryland, and give me
leave to conclude in Duty to you and Uncles and Aunts, and Respect to all
Friends
Honored
Father
Your
undutifull and Disobedient Child
Elizabeth
Sprigs
Questions
1.
Why did Elizabeth become an indentured servant in Maryland?
2.
What were the conditions that drove Elizabeth to beg her father for aid?
Document
2
Gottlieb
Mittelberger, The Passage of Indentured Servants (1750)
Gottlieb
Mittelberger traveled to Pennsylvania from Germany in 1750 on a ship primarily
filled with poorer immigrants who would become indentured servants upon arriving
in Philadelphia. Mittelberger's
own fortunes were not so bleak as those of his shipmates. Mittelberger served as
a schoolmaster and organist in Philadelphia for three years. He returned to
Germany in 1754.
Both
in Rotterdam and in Amsterdam the people are packed densely, like herrings so to
say, in the large sea-vessels. One person receives a place of scarcely 2 feet
width and 6 feet length in the bedstead, while many a ship carries four to six
hundred souls; not to mention the innumerable implements, tools, provisions,
water-barrels and other things which likewise occupy such space.
On
account of contrary winds it takes the ships sometimes 2, 3, and 4 weeks to make
the trip from Holland to . . . England. But when the wind is good, they get
there in 8 days or even sooner. Everything is examined there and the
custom-duties paid, whence it comes that the ships ride there 8, 10 or 14 days
and even longer at anchor, till they have taken in their full cargoes. During
that time every one is compelled to spend his last remaining money and to
consume his little stock of provisions which had been reserved for the sea; so
that most passengers, finding themselves on the ocean where they would be in
greater need of them, must greatly suffer from hunger and want. Many suffer want
already on the water between Holland and Old England.
When
the ships have for the last time weighed their anchors near the city of Kaupp [Cowes]
in Old England, the real misery begins with the long voyage. For from there the
ships, unless they have good wind, must often sail 8, 9, 10 to 12 weeks before
they reach Philadelphia. But even with the best wind the voyage lasts 7 weeks.
But
during the voyage there is on board these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes,
horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat,
constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth rot, and the like, all of which come
from old and sharply salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water, so
that many die miserably.
Add
to this want of provisions, hunger, thirst, frost, heat, dampness, anxiety,
want, afflictions and lamentations, together with other trouble, as . . . the
lice abound so frightfully, especially on sick people, that they can be scraped
off the body. The misery reaches the climax when a gale rages for 2 or 3 nights
and days, so that every one believes that the ship will go to the bottom with
all human beings on board. In such a visitation the people cry and pray most
piteously.
Children
from 1 to 7 years rarely survive the voyage. I witnessed . . . misery in no less
than 32 children in our ship, all of whom were thrown into the sea. The parents
grieve all the more since their children find no resting-place in the earth, but
are devoured by the monsters of the sea.
That
most of the people get sick is not surprising, because, in addition to all other
trials and hardships, warm food is served only three times a week, the rations
being very poor and very little. Such meals can hardly be eaten, on account of
being so unclean. The water which is served out of the ships is often very
black, thick and full of worms, so that one cannot drink it without loathing,
even with the greatest thirst. Toward the end we were compelled to eat the
ship's biscuit which had been spoiled long ago; though in a whole biscuit there
was scarcely a piece the size of a dollar that had not been full of red worms
and spiders' nests. . . .
At
length, when, after a long and tedious voyage, the ships come in sight of land,
so that the promontories can be seen, which the people were so eager and anxious
to see, all creep from below on deck to see the land from afar, and they weep
for joy, and pray and sing, thanking and praising God. The sight of the land
makes the people on board the ship, especially the sick and the half dead, alive
again, so that their hearts leap within them; they shout and rejoice, and are
content to bear their misery in patience, in the hope that they may soon reach
the land in safety. But alas!
When
the ships have landed at Philadelphia after their long voyage, no one is
permitted to leave them except those who pay for their passage or can give good
security; the others, who cannot pay, must remain on board the ships till they
are purchased, and are released from the ships by their purchasers. The sick
always fare the worst, for the healthy are naturally preferred and purchased
first; and so the sick and wretched must often remain on board in front of the
city for 2 or 3 weeks, and frequently die, whereas many a one, if he could pay
his debt and were permitted to leave the ship immediately, might recover and
remain alive.
The
sale of human beings in the market on board the ship is carried out thus: Every
day Englishmen, Dutchmen and High-German people come from the city of
Philadelphia and other places, in part from a great distance, say 20, 30, or 40
hours away, and go on board the newly arrived ship that has brought and offers
for sale passengers from Europe, and select among the healthy persons such as
they deem suitable for their business, and bargain with them how long they will
serve for their passage money, which most of them are still in debt for. When
they have come to an agreement, it happens that adult persons bind themselves in
writing to serve 3, 4, 5 or 6 years for the amount due by them, according to
their age and strength. But very young people, from 10 to 15 years, must serve
till they are 21 years old.
Many
parents must sell and trade away their children like so many head of cattle; for
if their children take the debt upon themselves, the parents can leave the ship
free and unrestrained; but as the parents often do not know where and to what
people their children are going, it often happens that such parents and
children, after leaving the ship, do not see each other again for many years,
perhaps no more in all their lives. . . .
It
often happens that whole families, husband, wife and children, are separated by
being sold to different purchasers, especially when they have not paid any part
of their passage money.
When
a husband or wife has died a sea, when the ship has made more than half of her
trip, the survivor must pay or serve not only for himself or herself but also
for the deceased.
When
both parents have died over half-way at sea, their children, especially when
they are young and have nothing to pawn or pay, must stand for their own and
their parents' passage, and serve till they are 21 years old. When one has
served his or her term, he or she is entitled to a new suit of clothes at
parting; and if it has been so stipulated, a man gets in addition a horse, a
woman, a cow. When a serf has an opportunity to marry in this country, he or she
must pay for each year which he or she would have yet to serve, 5 or 6 pounds.
Questions
1.
What
was indentured servitude like in the colonies? Was it much different from being
a slave?
2.
How are the hardships of
the sea exacerbated upon reaching land?
3.
What could have motivated people to take the journey described by
Mittelberger?
Document
3
Equiano
(c. 1750-1797), an Ibo prince kidnapped into slavery when he was eleven years
old, was brought first to Barbados and then sent to Virginia.
After service in the British navy, he was at last sold to a Quaker
merchant who allowed Equiano to purchase his freedom in 1766.
In later years he worked to advance the Church of England, his adopted
religion, and to abolish the slave trade. The
Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vass, the African, Written by Himself, is
one of the most important eyewitness accounts of the African slave trade.
.
. . The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the
sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its
cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror
when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I
were sound by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a
world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions too
differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke,
(which was very different from any I had ever heard) united to confirm me in
this belief. Indeed such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment,
that, if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with
them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own
country. When I looked round the ship too and saw a large furnace of copper
boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together,
every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer
doubted of my fate; and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell
motionless on the deck and fainted. When I recovered a little I found some black
people about me, who I believe were some of those who brought me on board, and
had been receiving their pay; they talked to me in order to cheer me, but all in
vain. I asked them if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible
looks, red faces, and loose hair. They told me I was not; and one of the crew
brought me a small portion of spirituous liquor in a wine glass; but, being
afraid of him, I would not take it out of his hand. One of the blacks therefore
took it from him and gave it to me, and I took a little down my palate, which,
instead of reviving me, as they thought it would, threw me into the greatest
consternation at the strange feeling it produced, having never tasted any such
liquor before. Soon after this the blacks who brought me on board went off, and
left me abandoned to despair. I now saw myself deprived of all chance or
returning to my native country or even the least glimpe of hope of gaining the
shore, which I now considered as friendly; and I even wished for my former
slavery in preference to my present situation, which was filled with horrors of
every kind, still heightened by my ignorance of what I was to undergo. I was not
long suffered to indulge my grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and
there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in
my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I
became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to
taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but
soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables; and, on my refusing
to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across I think the
windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never
experienced anything of this kind before; and although, not being used to the
water, I naturally feared that element the first time I saw it, yet
nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the
side, but I could not; and, besides, the crew used to watch us very closely who
were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water: and I
have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting
to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often the case with
myself. In a little time after, amongst the poor chained men, I found some of my
own nation, which in a small degree gave ease to my mind. I inquired of these
what was to be done with us; they gave me to understand we were to be carried to
these white people's country to work for them. I then was a little revived, and
thought, if it were no worse than working, my situation was not so desperate:
but still I feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted,
as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen among any people such
instances of brutal cruellty; and this not only shewn towards us blacks, but
also to some of the whites themselves. One white man in particular I saw when we
were permitted to be on deck, flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the
foremast, that he died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side
as they would have done a brute. This made me fear these people the more; and I
expected nothing less than to be treated in the same manner. I could not help
expressing my fears and apprehensions to some of my countrymen: I asked them if
these people had no country, but lived in this hollow place (the ship): they
told me they did not, but came from a distant one. "Then," said I,
"how comes it in all our country we never heard of them?" They told me
because they lived so very far off. I then asked where were their women? had
they any like themselves? "and why," said I, "do we not see
them?" they answered, because they were left behind. . . .
The
stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that
it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted
to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship's cargo were
confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the
place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was
so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.
This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for
respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among
the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice,
as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again
aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth
of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost
suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the
whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. Happily perhaps for myself I was
soon reduced so low here that it was thought necessary to keep me almost always
on deck; and from my extreme youth I was not put in fetters. In this situation I
expected every hour to share the fate of my companions, some of whom were almost
daily brought upon deck at the point of death, which I began to hope would soon
put an end to my miseries. Often did I think many of the inhabitants of the deep
much more happy than myself. I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as
often wished I could change my condition for theirs. Every circumstance I met
with served only to render my state more painful, and heighten my apprehensions,
and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites. One day they had taken a number of
fishes; and when they had killed and satisfied themselves with as many as they
thought fit, to our astonishment who were on the deck, rather than give any of
them to us to eat as we expected, they tossed the remaining fish into the sea
again, although we begged and prayed for some as well as we could, but in vain;
and some of my countrymen, being pressed by hunger, took an opportunity, when
they thought no one saw them, of trying to get a little privately; but they were
discovered, and the attempt procured them some very severe floggings. . . .
.
. . I and some few more slaves, that were not saleable amongst the rest, from
very much fretting, were shipped off in a sloop for North America. . . . While I
was in this plantation [in Virginia] the gentleman, to whom I suppose the estate
belonged, being unwell, I was one day sent for to his dwelling house to fan him;
when I came into the room where he was I was very much affrighted at some things
I saw, and the more so as I had seen a black woman slave as I came through the
house, who was cooking the dinner, and the poor creature was cruelly loaded with
various kinds of iron machines; she had one particularly on her head, which
locked her mouth so fast that she could scarcely speak; and could not eat nor
drink. I was much astonished and shocked at this contrivance, which I afterwards
learned was called the iron muzzle . . .
Questions
1.
How was the middle passage of slaves similar to the voyage of indentured
servants to America? How was it
different?
2.
In what trade system did the slave trade form one part?