A Consideration of European Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina

Author(s): Alan D. Watson

Source: The North Carolina Historical Review , OCTOBER 2014, Vol. 91, No. 4 (OCTOBER
2014), pp. 381-406
Published by: North Carolina Office of Archives and History

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 A Consideration of European Indentured
Servitude in Colonial North Carolina

Alan D. Watson

Indentured
benefits benefits for servitude,
for the development development
of the English North anAmerican
institution of the
colonies English of bound North labor, American provided colonies incalculable in the
in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by enabling the transportation of men and
women who were unable, and often unwilling, to cross the Atlantic to help settle
a continent desperately in need of people. In essence a credit arrangement by
which human labor was leased, the indenture system proved enormously popular, a
circumstance largely predicated on its profitability to those concerned in the
trade, as well as the desire of many servants who sought to exchange constraints in
Europe for opportunity in America. Numerically far more important than slaves
before 1700, and remaining a conspicuous component of the bound emigrants to
English America until the American Revolution, indentured servants constituted
well more than half and perhaps as many as two-thirds of the whites who traveled
to the colonies before independence.
For more than three-quarters of a century, indentured servitude in its many
forms has received scholarly attention, beginning principally with Marcus W.
Jernagan in 1931 and Richard B. Morris and Abbot E. Smith in the 1940s. The
works of numerous scholars - notably A. Roger Ekirch, David W. Galenson,
Sharon V. Salinger, and Aaron S. Fogleman - followed, and research has contin-
ued into the current century. Given the greater importance of indentured servitude
outside New England, studies have focused mostly on the middle and southern
colonies, particularly the Delaware Valley and the Chesapeake region, though
South Carolina has also benefited from a short examination of the subject.1

1. Marcus Wilson Jernegan, Laboring and Dependent Classes in Colonial America, 1607-1783 (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1931); Richard B. Morris, Government and Labor in Early America (1946;
reprint, New York: Harper and Row, 1965); Abbot Emerson Smith, Colonists in Bondage: White Servi-
tude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776 (1947; reprint, New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1971);
David W. Galenson, White Servitude in Colonial America: An Economic Analysis (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1981); A. Roger Ekirch, Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the
Colonies, 1718-1775 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987); Sharon V. Salinger, "To Serve Well and
Faithfully": Labor and Indentured Servitude in Pennsylvania, 1682-1800 (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1987); Aaron S. Fogleman, Hopeful Journeys: German Immigration, Settlement, and Political Culture in

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382 Alan D. Watson

Servitude in North Carolina h

the attempt of this essay to br
in an effort to expand the auth
institution in the colony, and
of the North Carolina popula
runaway servants from Virgin
and unsettled polity in North
as the "Sinke of America." Th
servant women to argue that i
of patriarchal society that pre
tured servitude, which involve
to pave the way for a readier
servitude as the preeminent fo
North Carolina, or more acc
Carolina, granted by Charles
the Lords Proprietors, was firs
1650s as an extension of the
lation, some Virginians sought
ties for trade with Natives, wh
religious dissenters - sought re
prominence of indentured ser
colony in the seventeenth cent
in the Albemarle. The Carolin

Colonial America, 1717-1775 (Philadelp

"Labor, Markets, and Opportunity: Inden
(Spring/Summer 1997): 311-338; Chris
Migration and the Early American La
Christopher Tomlins, Freedom Bound: L
1865 (New York: Cambridge University
Century English Atlantic: A Brief Sur
902; Warren B. Smith, White Servitude
Press, 1961). For earlier works, see Jam
the System of Indentured Labor in the
Geiser, "Redemptioners and Indenture
Supplement to the Yale Review 10 (Augu
1634-1820 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins P
sylvania: Indentured and Redemption La
2. An early and less than satisfactory in
Bassett, Slavery and Servitude in the Co
86, who appended a short chapter on se
Alan D. Watson, "Indentured Servitude
the Social Studies 21 (December 1975):
in the Albemarle Borderlands of North
ary 2010): 1-27; Donna J. Spindel, Crim
siana State University Press, 1989), 70 (
Resistance in Colonial North Carolina (It
David W. Galenson, "White Servitude a
Economic History 41 (March 1981): 39-

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 383

and economic growth of their fledgling colony, encouraged

in governance documents and commissions and instructions to
Attempting to attract settlers and concomitantly their serv
ally would join the ranks of the free, the proprietors in 166
sions and Agreement, which offered land grants or headrigh
on the time of their arrival in the colony, their marital statu
servants accompanying them, among other factors. Immigra
acres of land for each "able man servant" and forty acres for e
but the acreages diminished over time. The proprietors also
mistresses to keep on their land one servant for each hundr
allotted to heads of household. Upon the expiration of their
initially were entitled to a headright, a grant that stabilized
end of the seventeenth century but probably ceased well bef
Revolution.3
Regardless of the efforts of the proprietors, European ind
never occupied the eminent position in North Carolina that
Coincident with the settlement of Carolina, Virginians, consc
began to substitute African slave labor for European servants,
potential reservoir of servants in the northern colony.4 Whil
vants early originated in Virginia by way of purchase or imm

3. Mattie Erma Edwards Parker, William S. Price Jr., and Robert ]. Cain, eds
North Carolina [Second Series], 1 1 vols, to date (Raleigh: Office of Archives an
of Cultural Resources, 1963-), 1:121-122; 2:xxxiii-xxxv; William S. Powell, ed.
in Carolina: A Collection of Documents, 1664-1675 (Raleigh: State Department
1958), 22, 25, 45, 48; Herbert R. Paschal Jr., "Proprietary North Carolina: A
ment" (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, 1961), 389-433 passim; Jo
History of North Carolina (1737; reprint, Murfreesboro, N.C.: Johnson Publish
Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of North Carolina, 78; Morris, Government
395-396; Duane Meyer, The Highland Scots of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.
tenary Commission, 1963), 39. In South Carolina, however, a fifty-acre head
continued to the Revolution. Smith, White Servitude in Colonial South Carolina
4. For the literature on the debate about the transition from servitude to slaver
Nettels, "British Mercantilism and the Economic Development of the Thirteen
nomic History 12 (Spring 1952): 105-1 14 (the Navigation Act of 1660 reduced p
forcing a reliance on slaves to reduce costs); Edmund S. Morgan, American Slaver
Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (New York: W. W. Norton, 1975) (slavery was more
combating political unrest, including Bacon's Rebellion, abetted by white servan
Russell R. Menard, "From Servants to Slaves: The Transformation of the Ch
Southern Studies 16 (Winter 1977): 355-390 (a decline in the supply of serv
"The Law of Servants and Slaves in Seventeenth-Century Virginia," Virgini
Biography 99 (January 1991): 45-62 (a constant turnover of and need to replace
lengthy and risky process, coupled with a vexatious and troublesome class of p
ering Indentured Servitude," 72 (increasing stratification of Virginia society, t
for freed servants, compounded by a rapid decline of servant immigrants); and
of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapea
University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early Ame
2010) (elite planters deliberately turned to Africans because mixed work gro
black slaves prevented a full exploitation of slave labor). For the transition in V
slavery, see Tomlins, "Reconsidering Indentured Servitude," 11, 13-14.

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384 Alan D. Watson

the geographic isolation and rela

the presence of large numbers o
separated Virginia and North Ca
colonies, and the Outer Banks o
and immigration difficult throu
North Carolina's competition wit
weather, disease, Indian unrest,
to invest in bound labor, servant
Notwithstanding the economic
tude in North Carolina, an invest
the term "servant" subsumed so m
rubric encompassed not only poo
(including redemptioners), or in
religious prisoners),6 but also Af
ticed by courts, children bound
racial parentage, vagrants, person
those who voluntarily indentured
Carolinians, like Virginians, use
the enslaved as well as the indent
with them into the province in
proved "One negro servant," wh

5. Powell, Ye Countie of Albemarle in Carol

7:416; Hugh T. Lefler and William S. Powel
ner's Sons, 1973), 43-55; A. Roger Ekirch, "
1729-1776 (Chapel Hill: University of No
Colonial North Carolina , rev. ed. (Raleigh:
Resources, 1996), 10-12; Barth, "Sinke of A
have been former servants, runaways from
region, much to the chagrin of Virginia
North Carolina , 10 vols. (Raleigh: State
of America," 8, 14, 27; Fischer, Suspect Re
Representation Crisis in North Carolina
authority, particularly in the northern co
Provinces charged that North Carolina "is
tives," a statement attested by a newspape
Cobnial Records , 4:926; North Carolina Gaz
6. References to redemptioners and conv
before the American Revolution may hav
tions Concerning the Province of North C
Carolina, ed. William K. Boyd (Raleigh: E
ence of convicts is scant. See Thomas Jo
Cumberland; and John Allen in Mecklenb
Sessions, July 1756; Minutes of the Cumbe
Minutes of the Mecklenburg County Cou
of North Carolina, Raleigh. Minutes of th
N.C. State Archives, will hereinafter be c
purchase of North Carolina, the Crown in
sufficient proof of their crimes. Parker et

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 385

one English servant." Testimony in chancery court in 1697 inc

by William Duckenfeild of "all my servants black and whit
purchase Africans from Guinea, Anglican missionary John
claimed that "Here's no living without servants, there are non
and none of the black kind to be . . . [bought for] under £50 or
Rev. Richard Marsden, an Anglican missionary residing in the
in 1733, wrote that he had "procured a few servants which m
doubtlessly was referring to African slaves in an area in which
was already recognized as a necessary avenue to wealth.7
Native Americans not only found themselves enslaved b
servants. One Alexander, "the Indian," ran afoul of the court
thetic jury in Perquimans County after he destroyed his indent
with court costs, resulted in extended bondage from which he
escaped. Enoch Ward of Carteret County bought the contract
an Indian servant originally from Barnstable, Massachusetts. J
lengthened after he ran away, was apprehended, and then con
of a coat in 1730. Twelve years later Edward John petitioned fo
was denied by the court, which declared that he still owed mon
an Indian woman in nearby Craven County, found more symp
justices who approved her petition for freedom.8
In addition to slaves, colonials occasionally used the term
"apprentice" interchangeably, and not surprisingly, since appr
of the earliest formal institutions of contractual servitude in E
tuted a precedent in many ways for indentured servitude. Appr
to orphans with little or no financial support as well to free i
dren. However, in Craven County in 1745, the court assigned
deceased Simon Lucas to another master to complete his term o
Chowan justices in 1748 penalized a runaway "Apprentice" in t
indentured servant. And New Hanover magistrates in 1768
girl, Fanny Silvester, formerly an "indentured servant" of He
"apprentice" to John Eustace.9

7. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second Series J, 2:99 (first quotation), 39 (second
quotation); 10:234 (fourth quotation), 344; Robert Beverley, The History and Prese
Susan Scott Parrish (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013), 216
8. Perquimans County Court Minutes, April 1690; July 1705; Carteret County
ber, December 1730; June 1742; Craven County Court Minutes, April 1766. Fo
England Native Americans, see David J. Silverman, "The Impact of Indentured
and Culture of Southern New England Indians, 1680-1810," New England Quarte
622-666.
9. Walter Clark, ed., The State Records of North Carolina, 16 vols. (11-26) (Raleigh: State of North
Carolina, 1895-1906), 23:581; Craven County Court Minutes, March 1745; Chowan County Court Min-
utes, July 1748; New Hanover County Court Minutes, April 1768; Smith, White Servitude in Colonial
South Carolina , 71; Billings, "Law of Servants and Slaves," 52. For apprenticeship, see Paul M. McCain,
The County Court in North Carolina before 1750 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1954), 74-84;

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 386 Alan D. Watson

Nonetheless, while apprentice

tude - limited terms of obligat
dues - indentured servitude te
autonomous individuals. Appre
ing only impos minors, which
out the consent of children a
"apprenticeship code" in Nort
opinion, "treated apprenticeshi
parameters of accepted contrac
bound labor and mandated appr
jurisprudence to administer the
between indentured servitude a
Beyond apprentices, other ch
servitude. Mothers and occasio
necessarily - under the paramet
food and clothing, training in
those private indentures did no
sionally courts were needed to
of James Green to the Craven
concealed by her mother.11 By
mothers - free or indentured -
one, as attested by the demand
return of a mulatto "Servant B
Jacob, a mulatto, as a "servant"
Vagrants constituted another t
ber in North Carolina. In 1755,
disorderly" people who neglecte
taxes, permitted county court
Immediately upon passage of t
all constables to apprehend vag
ing. But prosecutions, such as

Morris, Government and Labor in Early

North Carolina: Edgecombe County as a
105-119.
10. Karin L. Zipf, Labor of Innocents: Forced Apprenticeship in North Carolina, 1715-1919 (Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 2005), 11 (quotations). Similarly, Richard B. Morris claims that
apprenticeship in the colonies "was merely a highly specialized and favored form of bound labor." Morris,
Government and Labor in Early America, 310. See also McCain, County Court in North Carolina , 85-86; and
Robert J. Steinfeld, The Invention of Free Labor: The Employment Relation in English and American Law and
Culture, 1350-1870 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), for the relationship between
English labor law and indentured servitude.
11. McCain, County Court in North Carolina , 86-87; Craven County Court Minutes, September 1743.
12. Clark, State Records, 23:65, 195; Parker et al., Cobnial Records [Second Series], 6:563-564; Onslow
County Court Minutes, April 1743; McCain, County Court in North Carolina, 87-88.

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 387

the Rowan County Court in 1774, binding William Allen and Fr

son respectively for a year as vagrants, were few. More likely, c
lead of the New Hanover County Court, which in 1769 granted
man a month to find "honest employment" or be subjected to th
vagrant law.13
Servitude potentially applied to many others in North Caroli
slaves who failed to leave the colony might be sold into serv
traded illicitly with or concealed indentured servants and thos
livestock might be bound if the offenders were unable to pay a
the offenses. Insolvent debtors, with their consent, might be hired
pay their judgments.14 And self-imposed servitude often satisfie
obligations. Margaret Guard in 1695 contracted to serve Jacob
years for expenses incurred after Devillard cured Guard of "an I
Mariner," who was unable to pay court costs as an unsuccessful
suit, obligated himself to servitude in order to avoid jail; and, in
convicted of theft, promised to serve John Worley for three ye
agreed to pay court costs and to assume responsibility for makin
the stolen property.15
The inclusiveness of the term "servant," compounded by a pau
renders the determination of even an approximate number of
tured servants in North Carolina problematic. According to Jacq
a study of population and landholdings in proprietary North C
more than a half century of settlement, planters owned few s
Marvin L. Michael Kay and Loren Lee Cary contend that "serva
stituted an "important source of labor," but after 1748, they bec
than slaves, and by 1770, were less significant than twenty ye
lating the number of servants depends principally upon annual
county) tax lists, only a few of which survive. Defined by law, t
included white males age sixteen and over; all blacks, free and
and over; and white women married to black men. But the tax
are rarely explicit, usually recognizing the head of household a
white and black taxables, the latter sometimes distinguished as m

13. Clark, State Records , 23:435-437, 538, 678, 831-832; Chowan County Court
Wake County Court Minutes, June 1772; Rowan County Court Minutes, Augus
County Court Minutes, October 1769. In addition to the charges of vagrancy, Allen
of Counterfeit Money," and he appeared to the Wake court to be "a person of evil
with bad Company," and thus was remanded to superior court. Wake County Court
14. Clark, State Records , 23:28, 57-59, 65, 107, 176-177, 194, 197, 203-204; Parker
[Second Series]f 2:396; Morris, Government and Labor in Early America , 345-349.
15. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second Series J, 2:212 (first quotation); 6:375-37
tion); Clark, State Records , 23:28, 176-177.
16. Jacquelyn H. Wolf, "Patents and Tithables in Proprietary North Carolina, 1663
Historical Review 56 (July 1979): 272-273; Marvin L. Michael Kay and Loren Lee
Analysis of Colonial North Carolina with Special Emphasis upon the Slave and

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 388 Alan D. Watson

In proprietary North Carol

by the Crown, a Craven Precin
"servants" separately, along wi
and Indians. Servants appeared
in Craven and totaled seventee
might lead one to question Wo
doubt included apprentices, am
Eight families contained one s
included three servants.17
Although instructions to Nor
ments required them to remit
ing servants, among surviving
have designated servants sep
servants appeared in 20 and 29
almost one-fourth of the total
the households in which serva
servant; none had more than
European indentured and other
Beyond Craven and Bertie c
most questionable internal ana
Pasquotank County (1769), wh
often, but not always, the n
author looked for male heads o
taxables or white women (unt
After eliminating households i
tives (sons and brothers) or ap
the remaining taxables were d
otherwise. The author also con
number of taxables was given b
or race.19
The author chose the Granville County and Pasquotank County lists in part
to compare the results with those of Kay and Cary, who have undertaken the only
systematic analysis of servant (and slave) demography in colonial North Carolina,
at least from 1748 to 1772, including Granville (1755) and Pasquotank (1769)

Jeffrey ]. Crow and Flora J. Hatley, eds., Black Americans in North Carolina and the South (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 112; Clark, State Records , 23:106-107, 344-345; 25:162.
17. Craven County Tax List, 1720, Tax Lists, 1720-1839, Office of Secretary of State (hereinafter cited as
Secretary of State Records), N.C. State Archives.
18. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second Series], 7:608; 8:515; 9:523, 665; Bertie County Tax Lists, 1763,
1768, Bertie County Taxables, 1755-1764, 1765-1771, N.C. State Archives.
19. Granville County Tax List, 1755, County Settlements and Tax Lists, Treasurers and Comptrollers
Records, N.C. State Archives; Pasquotank County Tax List, 1769, Tax Lists, Secretary of State Records.

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 389

The inclusiveness of the term "servant" makes it difficult to determine even the ap
dentured servants in North Carolina. However, one section of this Craven Precinct
of three servants (lines five and six). Craven County Tax List, 1720 Tax Lists, 1720
Records, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh.

counties« Without explanation of their methodology, Kay and

62 white male servants in the two counties respectively. The pr
the criteria established for analyzing the tax lists, concluded
have contained 53 male servants and possibly an additional 59
no indication was given by name or race), for a total of 1
County, the numbers were 28 for which names were given an
explanation was offered, for a total of 7 7- 20

20. Kay and Cary, "Demographic Analysis of Colonial North Carolina," 104.

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390 Alan D. Watson

Thus, the analyses of Granv

vague guidance on the subject
crepancies in the tabulations ca
only for Granville and Pasquot
More suspect is their effort to
population figures by using a m
heads of households. Few servan
not comparable in size to those
vant" remains confounding. Sur
listed as servants or not, would
Regardless of number, indentu
"chattels personal," no differe
committee of the Irish House o
North Carolina to observe that
do our cattle." For the protectio
William Ray, servant, to Willia
deeds of sale - a servant woman
cinct in 1735. As property, serv
bought and sold multiple time
for the purchase of a boat, hire
and bequeathed to heirs. Am
Douglas of Orange County to h
The lack of restrictions on the
with the need for labor, ensure
colonial era. Tax lists, certainly
ence of servants. Thomas Mack
Pasquotank counties, as well as
eleven servants in Pasquotank a
the Revolution, claimed four se
mission for reimbursement fo
McLeod (Macleod), who emigr
sessed of his property by the v
servants - six men and six wom
The nativity of North Carolin
the century prior to the Amer
originated in England and arri
21. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Seco
(hire); Chowan County Court Minutes,
County Court Minutes, September 1752.
22. Pasquotank County Tax List, 1769; T
in America," Audit Office, Class 13, Bu
sustained by Captain Alexander Macleod,
Records, N.C. State Archives.

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 39 1

Most indentured servants initially arrived in the Albemarle from England. This m
ber 17, 1718, from Thomas Berry, an English citizen, states his willingness to serv
in North Carolina. Photocopied document from Indentures, Memoranda of Agreem
and the West Indies (CLRO Indentures, selections), 1718-1740, N.C. State Archive
Metropolitan Archives, City of London, reproduced by permission.

Virginia owners or by purchase from Virginians. Some repor

from England and France and used to clear and cultivate the
Lords Proprietors. England continued to contribute servan
colonial era.23 However, by the fourth decade of the eighteen
earlier, Ireland apparently became the preferred source of serv

23. Powell, Ye Countie of Albemarle in Carolina , 58, 59, 62, 63; Parker et al., Colon
4:459; 7:404, 416; 10:177, 209; Barth, "Sinke of America," 6, 7, 27; Fischer, Suspec

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392 Alan D. Watson

the interest of the Irish House

in the 1730s to recruit Irish serv
promotional tract in Dublin ex
newspaper advertisements in the
an English writer and agricultu
numbers of Irish who sailed or
cally mentioned the colony as o
indentured Irish were bound.24
Supplementing the English and
ers, the result of an immigrati
intensified during the quarter
dence indicates that many Highl
merchant and placeman in the L
from Leith to North Carolina. P
may have enticed Scots to the co
Jamaica Pockety bound for the C
selves to the ship's captain when
sions for a voyage that lasted lon
manifests for other vessels boun
voluntary Scottish servants.25
The origin of this peculiar spe
traced to the English feudal pas
the Middle Ages and was forma
concept of temporary chattel pr
servitude in the New World, be
coerce labor to the colonies. Orig
tom, and later formalized by law
legislation that sought to define th
owners or masters of servants, r

24. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Secon

North Carolina ; North Carolina Gazette ,
1773; Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg), A
ary 17, 1774 (Purdie and Dixon); Arthur
1779) j 2 vols., (London: George Bell and
Fischer, Suspect Relations , 111-112; H. Roy
Historical Geography (Chapel Hill: Unive
Servitude in Colonial South Carolina , 41-4
to the North American Colonies between
25. Janet Schaw, Journal of a Lady of Qua
Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal . . .
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Pre
ing the Province of North Carolina," esp.
and Scotland to North Carolina, 1774-177
Meyer, The Highland Scots of North Caro
America, 1607-1785 (Athens: University

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 393

For JSor-th-Carolina in America,

Cnpt. JameiLeflie, Eurthen 20 Tons,

a prime Sailor, being wel man 'd and
Vi al cd, and properly fit ed with
every Thing commodious for Pat en-
pert oí every Decre , and wil be ready
to fi l from CAR icr KRGUs about the
Firft Day July next at lartheft.
Whoever has a Mind to gó as Paf-
âTHE fender, Firft to every pert Cnpt. Vi al cd, a prime Whoever fi l oí Day JameiLeflie, from Thing SHIł' Redemption«, every Sailor,fJenudleyr,aRneddemCpAtiRon«,icorrSeKrvRanGtU, tsrahyas Decre , commodious next being DO a properly Mind Eurthen B S at and wel or lartheft. Servant, to wil GAL EY, man 'd fit ed for gó 20 about be as Pat en- Tons, ready with tray Paf- and the
ap ly to SnmucJ Smith Merchant in Belfaft, Robert Wil fon
Merchant in Larne, or to the Captain «n board hu Ship at
Car ickfergut, where they wil know the Ternu, and meet
with good EncoUra^cmcnt.

By the fourth decade of the eighteenth century, the majority of servants came fro
of Ireland in the 1770s, English writer Arthur Young noted the large numbers of Ir
for North Carolina. This advertisement, published in the Belfast Newsletter , May 2
redemptioners, and servants to sail on the Dobbs Galley to "North-Carolina in Amer

protection for the welfare of servants. Consideration for the

well as a regard for the indentured also elicited legal prescrip
lina, whose statutes regulating indentured servitude, like m
early legal code, depended greatly upon those of Virginia, fro
early settlers of North Carolina Albemarle came.26
Virginia first addressed indentured servitude extensively
ued to make alterations and emendations to the laws over th
Initial legislation established the "custom of the country," or s
entering the colony without indentures; forbade servants to m
without the consent of masters; imposed penalties on runawa
who challenged their masters, and women who bore illegi
punished those who traded illicitly with servants or conceal
aways. At the same time, the laws also required masters to p
ties of life (food, clothing, shelter) to their servants, prohi
treatment of servants, and allowed servants to take complai
laws were refined and extended later, principally in 1705, w
addressed the issue of sick or disabled servants and the freedo

26. Billings, "Law of Servants and Slaves," passim; Smith, Colonists in Bond
comparison of the laws of servitude and slavery in Virginia, South Carolina, an
Rugemer, "The Development of Mastery and Race in the Comprehensive Sla
Caribbean during the Seventeenth Century," William and Mary Quarterly ,
429-458.

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394 Alan D. Watson

servants at the expiration of the

by custom but now were require
many of the previous injunctions
In North Carolina the principal
from 1715 and 1741, the former
vincial laws, and the latter prob
Carolina. While some of North Ca
been lost, including those govern
presence of servants in the colon
refer to such legislation, which i
boring or secret detention of ser
between free inhabitants and s
Carolina courts adjudged the age
length of their service, indicativ
of the country." Additional laws
prohibited private burials, the la
mistreatment of servants that re
The legislation in 1715 was a re
protect the investment of maste
penalties for running away - dou
mined by the courts to compensa
poral punishment as adjudged by
those who traded illicitly with s
law imposed a two-year extensio
the child was fathered by the ma
would be sold by the churchwar
the proceeds being used by the p
imposed after the two-year extensi
servant by the parish for another t
Though deemed chattel by law,
tection and needs of servants, wh
to the increasing number of serv
much earlier, "cruell masters"
tractive to servants. Again, follo
edents, the law established the cu

27. William Waller Hening, ed., The Statut

vols., 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: The editor
3:400-401, 444-445, 447-459; 5:547-558;
28. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second
trade); 2:337-338, 352-353, 355, 361 (cus
351, 369 (private burials); Hening, Statutes
29. Clark, State Records, 23:62-65.

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 395

contracts - under age sixteen to serve until twenty-two, and ove

years. Servants might expect "Competent" food, clothing, and
ters were prohibited from exceeding the "Bounds of moderati
their servants. At the expiration of their indentures, servants r
masters "freedom dues" - three barrels of Indian corn and two n
valued at five pounds, or, for men, "a good well-fixed Gun" in
clothes.30
Far more comprehensive and detailed was the statute of 1741, which both
upheld the rights of masters to control their chattel and increased safeguards
for the servants. The statute mandated contracts for servants before they were
imported into the colony, replaced indeterminate whippings by a maximum of
twenty-one lashes for assaults on masters and thirty-nine lashes for failing to pay
fines in penal cases, prohibited masters from whipping a servant naked without
approval of a justice of the peace, and forced masters to care for sick or disabled
servants. Punishment for women charged with fornication was reduced to one
year extra service, except when they bore mulatto children, in which case the
penalty remained two years. In all matters servants might appeal to the courts if
they felt aggrieved without initiating any formal process, but "Groundless" com-
plaints occasioned serving double the time lost plus additional time to compen-
sate for any legal fees involved.31
By defining the indentured as property, in essence an investment, the law
endowed masters with the lawful means to chastise disobedient servants and to
obtain redress when deprived of their service. The contentious, pilferers, begetters
of illegitimate children, and runaways merited punitive action, as did those who
harbored servants and engaged in illegal trade with them. While striking one's
master incurred punishment deemed appropriate by the county court in 1715, the
chastisement was limited to a maximum of twenty-one lashes in 1741, far more
lenient than in Virginia, where a servant had a year added to his indenture. Minor
infractions, however, called for judicial restraint. When Alexander McDonald
approached the Cumberland County Court to accuse his servant, apparently a
young boy, of disobedience, the justices ordered the servant to be given "seven
lashes on his bare back with a Hickory Switch."32
Prosecutions of servants for theft, and indeed for any criminal activity, appear
infrequently in the records. After 1741, the penalty for larceny was additional
service, but before that time robbery apparently entailed punishment according
to the determination of the courts. William Doyle, convicted of theft in 1722,
was ordered tied to the end of a cart and whipped thirty-nine times in Edenton

30. Hening, Statutes at Large , 2:117 (quotations); Clark, State Records , 23:62-63.
31. Clark, State Records , 23:191-204. For a summation of the laws relating to servitude, see James Davis,
The Office and Authority of a Justice of Peace . . . (New Bern, N.C.: James Davis, 1774), 310-314.
32. Clark, State Records , 23:62-63, 192; Hening, Statutes at Large, 2:1 18; 3:451; Cumberland County Court
Minutes, April 1772.

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396 Alan D. Watson

and then sent to Bath Town for

his master.33 To stem proclivity
based on Virginia precedent tha
ing a fine on the indentured and
masters three times the value of
might be sold as servants if they
For female servants bearing ch
erty interest in the indentured
compensate for the interruptio
the "Trouble and Expence" of
haps a fifth of the indentured,
to work with males and somet
central problem, according to R
ters' refusals to permit servant
in illicit relations and led to th
rence in the servant ranks." P
high number of illegitimate c
thirty-five (possibly thirty-nine
combe County alone between 17
Moreover, the number of insta
tude seems to have been relativ
sample of General Court and sel
the colonial era from the 1680s
with bearing illegitimate childr
though not extant, apparently
additional year per child, as opp
increased in 1715 to two years p
for mulattoes, matching that o
illegitimate child to one year in
Still, having multiple births an
servitude for women. Eight wom
and six gave birth to mulattoes,

33. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second

126. Statutes reference servant theft of b
apparently a common offense. Clark, Stat
in Early America , 469.
34. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second
Statutes at Large, 2:118-119; 3:451-452.
35. Clark, State Records, 23:159; Chowan
Government and Labor in Early America
272-273; Watson, "Orphanage in Coloni
36. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second
Clark, State Records, 23:64-65, 195. The
Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Cumberland,

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 397

who delivered four white children and one mulatto before she d
records.37 Earlier, in Carteret County, Christian Finney maintai
relationship with a slave of Cary Godbe, as a result of which sh
children in 1736, 1739, and 1743, all the while serving an additi
each child and another five months for the fees in the prosecu
by king's attorney. When Finney applied for her freedom in 1 745,
her to serve additional time since she apparently had delivered
child in the meantime. She then faced sale for two years accord
the vestry of St. John's Parish to raise money for the parish.38
Although servant women no doubt felt pressure from mast
males in the household) to engage in sexual relations, relativel
women accusing their masters of fathering their children hav
were found in the sample above: Hannah Cole, Grace Roberson
Of course there were others, many of whom may have chosen
not to report the birth or to identify the father. Women had
against sexual abuse. Accusations of rape fared poorly in the cou
lina. However, in a modicum of protection for servant women
law did not compel additional service for the masters beyond
contracts, though it did require the sale of the women after the
indentures for an additional two years for the benefit of the loc
Absenteeism constituted the most common legal transgressi
tured, according to Donna J. Spindel in her investigation of c
colonial North Carolina. Life was harsh. A demanding work ro
visions and shelter, and abusive masters led many to opt for fr
away, usually singly, but sometimes with others, including slav
of their indentures. The plight of the Rev. John Urmston, An
in North Carolina, is instructive. In 1714, having lived four y
Urmston complained that three weeks after the recent purchas
man robbed him and ran away. He was the fourth white serva
lost since leaving England. Seven years later, after Urmston
and a servant, the two absconded within ten days. That left th

37. Rowan County Court Minutes, February 1769; May 1772; May 1774. One P
County gave birth to three mulattoes during her servitude. Carteret County C
1770.
38. Carteret County Court Minutes, December 1736; June, September, Decemb
June 1744; December 1745; Vestry Book, St. John's Parish, Beaufort, June 10
Carteret County Records, N.C. State Archives (microfilm).
39. Craven County Court Minutes, January 1713/14 (Cole); Carteret County Co
(Roberson); Bertie County Court Minutes, May 1739 (Royall); Clark, State Recor
Suspect Relations , 107-110. For the transition from economic coercion to sexual e
point of reaching a consensual relationship, see Sharon Block, "Coerced Sex in
1700-1820" (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1995), 70-73; and Block, "Lines
vice: Comparative Sexual Coercion in Early America," in Sex, Love, Race: Crossi
American History, ed. Martha Hodes (New York: New York University Press), 1

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398 Alan D. Watson

Sorry Wretch . . . [who] hath b

of household affairs [is] a Noto
any that can be hired here not
opined that "white servants are
indented for."40
North Carolina, like other colo
owners by minimizing absentee
passes from their masters to t
for more than a day. In fact, s
to charge that servants had be
ers. Among them was Dr. Geor
Virginia, who claimed that Ma
tion also allowed the apprehens
by Allen in 1729 to capture ru
ment officers to seek and retri
compensation for the capture
that some planters punished run
they give sufficient Testimonie
Ultimately, as a deterrent, th
had the simultaneous effect of
edent, which was far more le
Carolina required runaways to
tional time as determined by t
of apprehending the runaway
time lost and damages. A samp
the century preceding the Am
than the "enticed" and "concea
could travel and support them
vants abscond together, includ
in Chowan County. Runaways m
sometimes longer - eight for W
Assessment of time for expense

40. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Seco

271; Dictionary of North Carolina Biogra
Carolina , 73; Smith, Colonists in Bondag
41. Clark, State Records , 23:63, 196-197;
175; Parker et al., Colonial Records [S
(Bailey); 6:38-39, 128-129; 317-318. See
Smith, Colonists in Bondage, 265-266.
42. Clark, State Records, 23:63-64, 197
Court Miscellaneous Papers, Box 192, N
270 (quotation); Smith, Colonists in Bon

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 399

Newbtrn , Jum i 6, 175

ON Tow^i, Tow^i,
ÎVeântfJay two Servent
two Servent Night lait,to Men,
Men, belonging broke belonging out «f to Goal Mr. in John thi*
Mr. John
AlitcbelfoHy of Virginia y viz . Benjamin Bond* a Miller,
aged about 40, of a miotle Stature, much pitted With fho
Sma!l-Pox, of a ruddy Complexion. Paul Pria , a Baker»
aged about 19 or 20, a fmooth-facM wdl looking La d.
they are both in Sailors Habits, and pafs as luch: Thejrj
have been ran away ;fõme Time from Virginia 4 and Wer«
taken up in this Town, and committed to Prifon, about a
Fortnight ago, Whoever delivers the faid Servants to me
in Ntiubem, ihall have Forty Shillings Reward.
Sôuihy JRew, Sheriff.

In 1715, the N.C. General Assembly subjected servants to penalties for running away - double the time lost plus
additional time as determined by the courts to compensate masters for the expense of apprehension- Masters
often offered rewards for apprehending runaway servants. This advertisement was published in the North Carolina
Gazette (New Bern), July 7, 1753.

four-year penalty imposed on Hanah Davis, another runaway of Dr. Allen, for the
"Extraordinary Expence" involved in her apprehension was especially harsh.43
In addition to court records, newspaper advertisements offer another and often
far more revealing picture of servants who departed their service. As Jonathan
Prude has noted, runaway ads provide "arresting" portraits of the lower sort of soci-
ety and convey the importance of the "visual dimension" of life in colonial cul-
ture. In the case of North Carolina, unfortunately, only four news sheets appeared
before the American Revolution, two in New Bern and two in Wilmington, and
extant issues are few. From those papers were culled advertisements for fourteen
runaway servants, supplemented by ads for three North Carolina runaways found
in Virginia papers, which carried a great deal of news relating to northern North
Carolina, given the proximity of the province and commercial links between the
two colonies.44

43. Chowan County Court Minutes, October 1744; Bertie County Court Minutes, August 1735 (McGill);
Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second Senes], 4:407 (Stradford); 6:88 (quotation); Morris, Government and
Labor in Early America, 458-459. Evidencing some sympathy for the servant was the Craven court, when
it ordered William Guess to serve an additional year for running away but directed his master to provide
extra clothing to the servant. Craven County Court Minutes, February 1757. The following counties were
consulted in the sample: Bertie, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, New Hanover, Onslow, Perquimans, Rowan,
and Tryon.
44. Jonathan Prude, "To Look upon the 'Lower Sort': Runaway Ads and the Appearance of Unfree La-
borers in America, 1750-1800," Journal of American History 78 (June 1991): 124-159; Alan D. Watson,
Society in Colonial North Carolina, 108-109; North Carolina Gazette, April 15, 1757; May 5, 1775; Cape -

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400 Alan D. Watson

Advertisements for the North C

sions of Prude, who surveys not o
tices, convicts, soldiers). Most we
23 years of age), and claimed some
higher percentage than that foun
women (smooth face, swarthy, sto
important identifying markers, b
servants' clothing, the most impor
significance of dress in America,
ers (who could readily identify th
of servants to express their own s
only women took garments with
for money and had greater access
utilized as currency.45
Despite the punishments meted o
the exploitation of the indentured
servants be properly bound, and t
indenture. Thus, those who entere
ing to the "custom of the countr
to bring four servant boys to cou
trates. By 1741, however, that re
required to produce contracts upo
servants, often illiterate and cert
tracts might only be modified by
of the courts.46
Magistrates proved willing to ent
the initiation of accusations and th
"Groundless Complaints" incurred
was a servant's complaint deemed
good as the people who enforced
Morris, who asserts that North Ca
plaints as unfounded and ordered
case in Virginia and Maryland. I

Fear Mercury (Wilmington), January 13, S

1738; September 23, 1773 (Purdie and Dixo
45. Prude, "To Look upon the 'Lower Sort,
Cherry Spruill, Women's Life and Work in
and Co., 1972), 134-135; Smith, White Serv
46. Clark, State Records , 23:62; Hening,
Minutes, January 1714/15; Parker et al., Co
Labor in Early America, 400-401; Smith, Col
South Carolina, 72; McCain, County Court in

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 401

in proper form, the North Carolina courts generally upheld its pr

accorded the servant fair treatment.47
Servants sought redress from the courts against fraudulent contra
cruel treatment, insufficient maintenance, failure to obtain freedom
tion of indenture, and refusal of a master to provide freedom due
Parsons in Bertie County claimed that John Blackman illegally det
a servant, Blackman could provide "no Sufficient proof * of her s
the court declared Parsons a free woman. In the same county Fran
cessfully disputed his master's claim that he serve seven years as "
because he had signed a five-year contract when first a servant in V
justices, in a split decision, agreed with James Phillips that he had b
sign an indenture after he arrived in North Carolina from Englan
the man. And in Rowan County, justices found that a second contr
beth Wood, already serving W. T. Cole, one of the county magistr
"Surruptuously Obtained" and invalidated the agreement.48
English law allowed masters to administer moderate correction t
vants, but the Virginia experience, at least in the seventeenth cen
the worst of humanity, leading to legislation to mitigate the plight
though it was meant more to attract potential immigrants than to
indentured. North Carolina records may be less revealing than tho
as also noted by Morris, but abuse occurred, leading to legislation at
as 1707 and reiterated in 1715 to prevent private burials. Moreover
upon the purchase of North Carolina in 1729, instructed its royal
endeavor to obtain a law, if not already done, to prevent masters
from "inhumane Severity" in treating slaves and servants.49
Servants occasionally found themselves among the most callous
masters, one of whom was Dr. George Allen, who practiced law
medicine. But the learned professions masked a violent character.
four years, from 1725 to 1729, Dr. Allen sued Elizabeth Marston, E
keeper, for calling the physician, while in her tavern, a "Cheating
a "Runaway from Virginia," and claiming that he had cursed the k
in turn sued Allen for assault. Two years later Allen was prosecute
ening to shoot Sir Richard Everard, the governor of the provi
resisting arrest. Subsequently, in an unrelated matter, Allen was br
the order of Edmond Porter, admiralty judge, and cited for conte

47. Clark, State Records , 23:194 (quotation); Billings, "Law of Servants and Slaves," 5
ment and Labor in Early America, 498, 501-502; Smith, Colonists in Bondage , 242-246.
48. Bertie County Court Minutes, May 1732 (first quotation); February 1735/36
Craven County Court Minutes, August 1753; Rowan County Court Minutes, Feb
quotation).
49. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second Series], 4:351, 369; 7:603 (quotation); 8:503; Morris, Government
and Labor in Early America, 461, 482-500.

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402 Alan D. Watson

With his knowledge of the legal

the exception of a ten-shilling fine
Unsurprisingly, the servants
including Mary Bailey, Hanah Da
acter. Additionally, the Chowan
complaint of Matilda Sheriff, an
sician to post bond that he woul
months later, Sheriff and Allen
the servant in the custody of the m
both sides, the court concluded
ordered her contract sold at auc
were to be paid to Allen.51
Others suffered similarly, an
Although the charges remained
freed servant Richard Miller fro
that Stanton "hencforth shall be
vants." The Rowan County Cou
indenture because of abusive tre
County Court "Unanimously]"
servant "Extremely 111," and or
hearing evidence from servant a
Wakefield, the Chowan County C
the . . . Serv[an]t well" and to app
needed correction.52
None suffered more than Judith
ter sent by the Society for the P
which he went to North Carolin
Bath Town. His repeated beating
her demise Judith showed severa
and small of the back, where th
fully clothed. Garzia's wife tried
but most knew better. However,
three years later, in 1738, and a g
dict of "ignoramus," a decision, a

50. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Secon

344, 424-425, 453, 457-459, 561-563, 57
51. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second
ary 1731/32; July 1732 (quotation); Fischer
52. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second
July 1755; Onslow County Court Minutes
October 1730 (third quotation).

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 403

a technicality, a frequent end in criminal suits brought against es

men."53
Not all servants found sympathy, however, for some complaints appeared to be
unsubstantiated. After accusing Jane Morgan of beating and abusing her, Eliza-
beth Norcomb recanted and was released, paying costs, which undoubtedly trans-
lated into serving additional time to compensate her mistress. When servant Mary
Coogan complained of physical abuse by her master, the Craven County Court,
after listening to testimony from both sides and examining Coogan, decided that
she had not been improperly treated and ordered her to return to her master. And
in Carteret County, servant Walterman Gibbs alleged that he had been beaten by
his master, James Salter, with "Mitts stocks fire Tongs & back Swords." A witness
testified that he saw Salter strike the servant twice, and another witness reported
that Salter said that he would poison the servant. Despite these accusations, the
court directed Gibbs to return to his master, though it held Salter accountable for
court fees.54

Far exceeding complaints brought to court about abuse were pleas by servants
for recognition of their freedom from masters who refused to acknowledge the
termination of indentures, or tried illegally to extend the period of contractual
service. Circumstances, of course, varied greatly. Bridget Clansey in Onslow
County exemplified servants who appeared in court uncontested in their demand
for freedom. Anne Parsons in Bertie claimed that she was illegally detained by
John Blackman, and when he could give "no Sufficient proof" of her servitude,
the court freed the woman. Thomas Wray in Try on County, jailed on suspicion
of being a runaway servant, was released by the court when no one appeared to
claim him.55
Magistrates on occasion continued a plea to a subsequent court session to give
masters sufficient time to find an indenture or otherwise contradict the claims of
servants, but they invariably favored the indentured. Snade Tedder in Carteret
and William Humphreys in Onslow waited three months for a formal acknowledg-
ment of their freedom. No case took longer than that of Mary Collins in Chowan,
who was so bold as to challenge John Park (Parke, Parks), her master, to produce
his indenture. When he did, she stole it, ran off, and destroyed the document.
After lengthy consideration lasting over two years, the Chowan court declared
that Park had "Voluntarily Delivered up" the indenture and that Collins was
entitled to her freedom.56

53. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second Senes], 11:512, 518-521. For a full account of the abuse and
death of Judith, see Fischer, Suspect Relations, 169-172 (quotation, 171).
54. Perquimans County Court Minutes, January 1704/5; Craven County Court Minutes, December 1746;
Carteret County Court Minutes, December 1742 (quotation); March 1742/3.
55. Onslow County Court Minutes, January 1735/36; Bertie County Court Minutes, May 1732 (quota-
tion); Tryon County Court Minutes, April 1775.
56. Carteret County Court Minutes, March 1735/36; Onslow County Court Minutes, April, July 1736;
Petition of Robert Park, February 5, 1742/43; Deposition of Elizabeth Bartlett, enclosed in Parke v.

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 404 Alan D. Watson

Following petitions for freedom,

force masters to pay freedom due
to a life beyond servitude. Consis
according to "custom" as early as
Carolina law in 1715, following
three barrels of Indian corn and
pounds, an award altered in 1741
"sufficient Suit of wearing Cloth
law, though they often substitute
quite specific about the apparel - a
country cloth, two Osnaburg shir
proclamation money) for former
Although justices usually sympa
tution by masters might be del
obtained an order from the court
mer master, refused to pay, forci
the justices directed the clerk to i
of Simmons. Rachel Smith, servan
the court for her freedom dues i
informed the court in March 1737
in June to order the provost mar
county Moses Arnal sought action
was referred to the next court, co
1753.58
Beyond actionable appearances in court, servants and their lives remain
obscure. Despite the exceptions posed by Thomas Macknight and Alexander
McLeod, most families owned but one or two servants. Scattered among the
small farms in North Carolina, on many of which there was no bound labor at
all, most servants lived intimately with others in their household, sharing family
living quarters, food, and work routines. Representative of the early mixed house-
holds was that of Francis Toms, who in 1694 claimed headrights for ten people,
including two Indians, three blacks, and two white servant women. Servants thus
labored in homes and fields, fell prey to illness, fought and died in the Tuscarora

Collins Summons, July 21, 1744, both in Chowan County Miscellaneous Records, 1685-1744, N.C.
State Archives; Chowan County Court Minutes, January 1743/44; April 1744; July 1745; Fischer, Suspect
Relations , 116 (quotation); McCain, County Court in North Carolina, 90.
57. Perquimans County Court Minutes, [August] 1689; March 1702/3; Mecklenburg County Court Min-
utes, July 1775; Clark, State Records , 23:63, 196 (quotation); Hening, Statutes at Large, 3:451. John Brick-
ell, a contemporary who extolled the advantages of North Carolina to emigrants, overzealously claimed
that freedom dues consisted of a new suit of clothes, a gun, powder, shot, ball, and ten bushels of Indian
corn. Brickell, Natural History of North Carolina, 268.
58. Onslow County Court Minutes, April 1754; Tyrrell County Court Minutes, September, December
1735; March, June 1737; September, December 1752; June 1753.

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 Indentured Servitude in Colonial North Carolina 405

War in the early eighteenth century, and even abetted masters in i

timber and assaulting constables.59
Most servants were young, sometimes unruly, and resorted to i
and drink, much like the general populace, but they hardly pos
an orderly society in North Carolina, as suggested by Kirsten Fisc
number of servant (and free) women may have challenged the pat
chy by their deviant behavior, but there was certainly no deliberat
effort to undermine societal norms. In fact, masters benefited from
servant women for theft, fornication, and running away by the ex
of the indentured. North Carolina legislators sought to protect th
masters, as exemplified by statutes forbidding tavern keepers to ent
without permission of masters. Though tavern keepers rarely suffer
the Chowan County Court in 1737 found that Elizabeth Abell in Ed
"disorderly [Tippling] house" without a license, at which she "Ente
Servants!,]" and ordered her tied to a cart's tail and whipped (thir
of town.60

Bound by their status as chattel, servants enjoyed few civil rights. They
testified in court proceedings and may have voted, at least before 1715, but were
disbarred from holding office and serving on juries. However, the colony imposed
certain civic duties on the male indentured, including working on streets, roads,
and bridges and participating in the militia. Instructions to royal governors
required the executives to report the number of servants capable of militia service.
Gov. Josiah Martin specifically was ordered to ensure that all "Christian" servants
were properly armed, trained, and mustered under competent officers, a mandate
that surely must have been observed in the breach.61
Although numbers are impossible to ascertain, given the broad definition of
"servant" and a dearth of records, European indentured servants no doubt consti-
tuted a significant element of the bonded labor supply in North Carolina before
the American Revolution. Servitude was hardly a "dying institution" in the late
seventeenth century, as claimed by Noeleen Mcllvenna, for English, Irish, and
Scots particularly found their way to North Carolina from the settlement of the
colony to the eve of independence, and possibly in significant numbers, as sug-
gested by the Bertie County tax lists. Most information about servants derives from

59. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second Senes], 5:304-305; 6:25; 7:55; 9:21; Fischer, Suspect Relations , 27,
29; see Tomlins, "Reconsidering Indentured Servitude," 28, for Virginia.
60. Clark, State Records , 23:182-185, 493; Hening, Statutes at Large , 3:400; Chowan County Court Min-
utes, July 1737; Fischer, Suspect Relations , 99-100.
61. Parker et al., Colonial Records [Second Senes J, 3:528; 5:497; 8:515; 9:523-524, 665; Clark, State Records ,
23:139, 245, 518, 596, 760; Craven County Court Minutes, March 1730/31; Alan D. Watson, "Regulation
and Administration of Roads and Bridges in Colonial Eastern North Carolina," North Carolina Historical
Review 45 (October 1968): 400-403, 410; Barth, "Sinke of America," 15 n. 36, 17.

VOLUME XCI • NUMBER 4 • OCTOBER 2014

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406 Alan D. Watson

county court records, which indic

entious and impartial as they soug
the humanity of servants. Still, e
scant. In her survey of crimina
Spindel finds that servants appear
many disputes were resolved by m
successful runaways rendered t
observed, "the vast majority . . . w
cruelty or want, received their fr
evidences from which to tell the s

Dr. Watson is professor of history at

the author of numerous books and arti
African Americans in Early North
First Town in North Carolina.

62. Noeleen Mcllvenna, A Very Mutinous P

Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 20
Carolina , 73 (second quotation); McCain, C
trates Courts in Early North Carolina," Nor
Cobnists in Bondage , 242-251, 269, 278 (th

THE NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL REVIEW

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