Pt. 1: CHILDREN IN THE COLONIZING PROCESS
A.
SOUTHERN COLONIES
Child
colonists of Portugal, 1609
Hugh Lee to Thomas Wilson from
This
report is from an English diplomatic correspondent on
Here departed hence on Sunday last being the 22[nd] hereof, five carracks laden with merchandizes for the
East Indies who carried in the place of soldiers many children and youths from
the age of 10 years upwards, to the number of 1500 persons and upwards as the
common report goeth here; their policy is given out
to be in sending such youth, that in few years they will be able to perform
good service and so much the better in regard their bodies will be well
acquainted with the climates of. those countries,
which were no evil course to be followed in
Transportation
of poor children from
Transportation
of idle and needy children from crowded
1.
The Virginia Company requests the mayor, aldermen, and council of the City of
Susan
M. Kingsbury, ed., The Records of the
Virginia Company of
The Treasurer, Council, and Company of Virginia
assembled in their great and general Court the 17th of November 1619 have taken
into consideration the continual great forwardness of his honorable City in
advancing the plantation of Virginia and particularly in furnishing out one
hundred children this last year, which by the goodness of God there safely
arrived (save such as died in the way), and are well pleased we doubt not for
their benefit, for which your bountiful assistance, we in the name of the whole
plantation do yield unto you due and deserved thanks.
And
forasmuch as we have now resolved to send this next spring very large supplies
for the strength and increasing of the Colony. . . and
find that the sending of those children to be apprentices hath been very
grateful to the people: we pray your Lordship and the rest in pursuit of your
former so pious actions to renew your like favors and furnish us again with one
hundred more for the next spring. Our desire is that we may have them of twelve
years old and upward with allowance of three pounds apiece for their
transportation and forty shillings apiece for their apparel as was formerly
granted. They shall be apprentices the boys till they come to twenty-one years
of age the girls till the like age or till they be married, and afterwards they
shall be placed as tenants upon the public land with best conditions where they
shall have houses with stock of corn and cattle to begin with, and afterward
the moiety of all increase and profit whatsoever. And so we leave this motion
to your honorable and grave consideration.
2.
The Company requests authority to coerce children of
Sir
Edwin Sandys to Sir Robert Naunton,
principal secretary of James I, Jan. 28, 1620, in Va. Co. Records, III
(1933), 259.
Right
Honorable:
Being unable to give my personal attendance upon
the Lords, I have presumed to address my suit in these few lines unto your
Honor. The City of London have by act of their Common Council, appointed one
hundred children out of their superfluous multitude to be transported to
Virginia; there to be bound apprentices for certain years, and afterward with
very beneficial conditions for the children. And have granted moreover a levy
of five hundred pounds among themselves for the appareling of those children, and
toward their charges of transportation. Now it falleth
out that among those children, sundry being ill disposed, and fitter for any
remote place than for this City, declare their unwillingness to go to Virginia,
of whom the City is especially desirious to be
disburdened, and in Virginia under severe masters they may be brought to
goodness. But this City wanting authority to deliver, and the Virginia Company
to transport, these persons against their wills, the burden is laid upon me, by
humble suit unto the Lords to procure higher authority for the warranting
thereof. May it please your Honor therefore, to vouchsafe unto us of the
Company here, and to the whole plantation in Virginia, that noble favor, as to
be a means unto their Lordships out of their accustomed goodness, and by their
higher authority, to discharge both the City and our Company of this
difficulty, as their Lordships and your Honors in your wisdom shall find most
expedient. For whose health and prosperity our Company will always pray. . .
3. The Privy Council grants the Virginia Company
authority to coerce children, 1620
Great
Britain, Privy Council, Acts of the Privy Council of England, 1619-1621
(London, 1930), p. 118.
January
31, 1620.
Whereas we are informed that the City of London
hath, by an act of the Common Council, appointed one hundred children, out of
the multitudes that swarm in that place, to be sent to Virginia, there to be
bound apprentices for certain years with very beneficial conditions for them
afterwards, and have moreover yielded to a levy of five hundred pounds for the
appareling of those children and towards the charge of their transportation;
wherein, as the City deserveth thanks and
commendations for redeeming so many poor souls from misery and ruin and putting
them in a condition of use and service to the State; so forasmuch as
information is likewise made that among that number there are divers unwilling
to be carried thither and that it is conceived that both the City wanteth authority to deliver and the Virginia Company to
receive and carry out these persons against their wills, we have thought meet,
for the better furtherance of so good a work, hereby to authorize and require
as well such of the City as take charge of that service as the Virginia
Company, or any of them, to deliver, receive, and transport into Virginia all
and every the foresaid children as shall be most expedient. And if any of them
shall be found obstinate to resist or otherwise to disobey such directions as
shall be given in this behalf, we do likewise hereby authorize such as shall
have the charge of this service to imprison, punish, and dispose any of those
children, upon any disorder by them or any of them committed, as cause shall
require, and so to ship them out for Virginia with as much expedition as may
stand with conveniency. For which this shall be unto
all persons whom the same may any way concern a sufficient warrant.
John
Donne praises the Virginia Company plantation, 1622
John
Donne, "Sermon CLVI Preached to the Virginia Company, 1622," Works,
1621-1631, ed. Henry Alford (London, 1839), VI, 232-233.
John
Donne (1572-1631), dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, expounded Virginia's
"great uses" just when the colonists were suffering from disease and
an Indian massacre, and the Company was verging on bankruptcy.
…God
says to you, No kingdom, not ease, not abundance; nay nothing at all yet; the
plantation shall not discharge the charges, not defray itself yet; but yet
already, now at first, it shall conduce to great uses. It shall redeem many a
wretch from the jaws of death, from the hands of the executioner, upon whom,
perchance a small fault or perchance a first fault, or perchance a fault
heartily and sincerely repented, perchance no fault, but malice, had otherwise
cast a present, and ignominious death. It shall sweep your streets, and wash
your doors, from idle persons, and the children of idle persons, and employ
them: and truly, if the whole country were but such a Bridewell,
to force idle persons to work, it had a good use. But it is already, not only a
spleen, to drain the ill humours of the body, but a
liver, to breed good blood; already the employment breeds mariners; already the
place gives essays, nay freights of merchantable commodities; already it is a
mark for the envy, and for the ambition of our enemies; I speak but of our
doctrinal, not national enemies; as they are papists, they are sorry we have
this country; I and surely, twenty lectures in matter of controversy, do not so
much vex them, as one ship that goes, and strengthens that plantation. Neither
can I recommend it to you by any better rhetoric, than their malice. They would
gladly have it, and therefore let us be glad to hold it.
Children
and youth "spirited" from England to America, 1638-1668
1.
Memorial of the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, London, to the Privy Council,
ca. 1638
PRO,
SP 16/408, no. 117.
The
Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen humbly represent to their Lordships that
usually for the supply of soldiers into divers parts, and sending of men to the
several plantations beyond seas, without lawful press, certain persons called
spirits, do inveigle and by lewd subtilties entice
away youth, against the consent either of their parents, friends, or masters;
whereby of times great tumults and uproars are raised within the city, to the
breach of the peace, and the hazard of men's lives, which being of dangerous
consequence, that their Lordships will be pleased to take it into consideration
and to direct some course for the suppressing of them, either by proclamation
or otherwise as so their Lordships in their wisdom shall be thought requisite.
2.
Recognizances taken before Thomas Swalow
esq. J.P., of William Graves and Godfrey Vale
Greater
London Record Office, Middlesex Sessions Rolls, MJ/SR 1165/54; hereafter cited
as MSR.
May
4, 1657.
That
the said Sarah Sharp shall personally appear at the next Session of the Peace
to be holden for the County of Middlesex then and
there to answer all such matters that shall be objected against her by Katheren Wall, for violently assaulting her, tearing her by
the hair of the head, and biting of the arm, as also for that she is a common
taker up of children into ships and a setter to betray young men and maidens to
be conveyed into ships, and as it hath been proved upon oath before me, that
she confessed to one Mr. Guy that she hath at this time four persons aboard a
ship whereof one is a child about eleven years of age, all to be transported to
foreign parts as the Barbadoes and Virginia. And in
the meantime she is to be of good behavior, and not to depart the Court without
license.
3.
Recognizances taken before Thomas Swalow
esq. J.P., of Richard Wills and William Ritch and
William Stone all of Stepney
MSR,
MJ/SR 1236/170.
August
6, 1661.
That
the said William Stone shall personally appear at the next Sessions of the
Peace to be held for the County of Middlesex then and there to answer all such
matters as on his Majesty's behalf shall be objected against him by Edward Baylay, Nathanel Smyth, and
Frances Creech, for that he by flattering and great promises made unto George
Creech and Thomas Riddle, did so obtain this desire, as that he got them to
yield and go with him to a ship, where he left them to be transported to Virginia,
the one being an apprentice, and the other without the consent of his parents,
to their great loss and grief. And in the meantime, he is to be of good
behavior and not to depart the Court without license.
4.
Petition of the Mayor of Bristol to Charles II, July 16, 1662
PRO,
SP 29/57, no. 71, p. 195.
The
humble petition of the Mayor of Bristol humbly sheweth
that your petitioner having the honor to serve your Majesty as Mayor of the
City of Bristol, has thought it not the least part of his duty to represent
unto your Majesty that in the administration of his office, many things have
occurred, which he humbly conceives, may not be unworthy your Majesty's notice,
and which if not redressed may prove very prejudicial to your service and
government. Amongst which it is a common practice for persons who repair to the
said City, from all parts, to be transported for servants unto your Majesty's
plantation beyond the seas, some of which prove to be husbands that upon
discontent and humor have foresaken their wives and
children, and thereby exposed them to misery or parish mercy. . . wives out of
a peevish passion have abandoned their husbands and houses; children and
apprentices that run away from their parents and masters, and oftentimes unwary
and credulous persons, have been tempted and betrayed on shipboard by
man-stealers, commonly called spirits, and many also which have been pursued by
hue and cries, either for robberies, burglaries or breaking prison, do thereby
escape the prosecution of law and justice to all which inconveniences your
petitioner according to his ability hath given check, and remedy, but finds
that all his endeavors do come short of curing the disease from the want of
lawful powers to countenance and warrant him therein.
May it therefore please your Majesty for the
future prevention and redress of those mischiefs,
with the consequences that attend them, and that your Majesty may have an
account of your subjects from time to time, to grant your petitioner power,
either by letters patent, under your great seal of England, or otherwise as so
your Majesty shall seem meet, for the examining of all masters of ships
belonging unto the port of Bristol, bound for your Majesty's plantations, of
and concerning such servants and passengers as they have on board, and also
that the said servants and passengers, themselves from whence they came,
whether they be free and at their own disposal, with power likewise to stop all
such passengers who cannot give a fair account of themselves, and also for the
keeping of a register, by himself, or a sufficient person, to be appointed by
and under your petitioner of all passengers bound for those plantations, and of
all such other matters from time to time as may concern your service.
5. Lady Yarborough to Joseph Williamson, under
secretary of state
PRO,
SP 29/109, no. 23.
ca.
1664.
I
am ashamed to give you this trouble. It is to beg a very great favor from you
which is this: A poor boy that I had a care of about a fortnight ago was taken
away by spirits, they call them, which they say convey them to ships, and from
thence to New England or Barbadoes. So my humble
request to you is that you will be so [kind] to procure this bearer, whose
apprentice he was, a warrant to search in all the ships that go out for such a
boy, in which you will do a great charity and forever oblige your most humble
servant
Yarborough
6. Petition of merchants, planters, and masters
of ships trading to the plantations to the King, July 12, 1664
PRO,
CO 1/15, no. 31, p. 16.
To the King's most excellent Majesty, the humble
petition of divers merchants, planters and masters of ships in the behalf of
themselves and others of your Majesty's loyal subjects trading to your
Majesty's plantations in America.
Sheweth that whereas it is generally believed that
there is a wicked custom to seduce or spirit away young people, to go as
servants to your Majesty's plantations, that yet your petitioners are so far
from that practice or knowledge that they abominate the very thought thereof. However,
this gives the opportunity to many evil-minded people to enlist themselves
voluntarily to go the said voyage; and having received money, clothes, diet and
other conveniencies from your petitioners, and coming
to be cleared at Gravesend, or in the Downs, or put into some other ports, they
pretend they were betrayed or carried away without their consents, not only to
the scandal and great vexation of your petitioners and others [of] your
Majesty's good subjects, but oftentimes to the loss of their charge on the said
evil persons, and retarding if not the absolute hindering of their voyage, to
the great discouragement of your petitioners and obstruction of that so
important trade.
Wherefore
your petitioners, having a most dutiful sense of your Majesty's gracious
indulgence to trade in general and particularly to your said plantations, and
desiring. . . to carry on the improvement and interest thereof (which is of so
great advantage and benefit to this kingdom), but being discouraged by the
abusive practice of the said evil-minded people, and of the scandal, trouble,
loss, and other ill consequences that attend it, do in all humility supplicate
your Majesty (in consideration of the premises) to appoint and commission some
person residing in or near the city, under your great seal, before whom such
persons as desire to go to the said plantations may declare that they go
voluntary without compulsion, or any deceitful or sinister practice whatsoever,
who may also enter the names, age, quality, place of birth, and last residence
of the said parties so desiring to go to the said plantations. And these will
not only be a means to prevent the betraying and spiriting away of people, but
the certificate under the hand and seal of the said officer will be a sufficient
testimony of the fair and open dealing of the respective merchants, planters,
and masters of ships in their behalf, and also full authority to transport the
said persons, so voluntarily listing themselves for the said voyage, without
the disturbance or interruption of any of your Majesty's officers at land or
sea, they submitting to the established customs and paying the duty of the
ports.[1
7.
Referral of the petition of merchants, planters, and masters of ships by
Charles II to Sir Heneage Finch, the
attorney-general, with the latter's recommendations
PRO,
CO 1/15, no. 31, p. 17.
July
12, 1664.
His
Majesty is graciously pleased to refer this petition to Master Attorney and
Master Solicitor General, or either of them, to consider what may be done by
law and what may be convenient to be done in this case; also to call some of
the petitioners before them, if they think fit, and to hear what they can say
in the business. And then to make report of all to his Majesty who will
thereupon declare his further pleasure.
July
18, 1664.
May
it please your Majesty:
1.
I have called some of the petitioners before me and do find upon examination
that the mischiefs complained of in the petition are
very frequent, there being scarce any voyage to the plantations but some
persons are carried away against their wills or pretend to be so after they
have contracted with the merchants and so run away.
2.
A registry of passengers to the plantations, who go by contract with the
merchant would be a proper remedy.
3.
Your Majesty may by law erect such an office with a small fee annexed, but it
will never be effectually executed without Act of Parliament imposing a fee
sufficient to recompense the pains.
8.
George C. [torn away] to Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, April [?], 1668
PRO,
CO 1/22, no. 56.
I
have inquired after the child that was lost, and have spoken with the parents.
His name was John Brookes. The last night he was after much trouble and charge
freed again, and he relates that there are divers other children in the ship
crying, that were enticed away from their parents, that are kept and detained
in the ship. The name of the ship is the Seven Brothers and as I hear bound for
Virginia; and she is now fallen down to Gravesend, and, if a speedy course be
not taken to stop her she will be gone. I heard of two other ships in the river
that are at the same work, although the parents of the children see their
children in the ship, yet without money they will not let them have them. The
woman and child will wait on you, where you approach and when to give you this
relation and 'tis believed there are divers people and others carried away that
are strangers come from other parts, so that it were good to get the ships
searched, and to see who are against their wills carried away. Pray you move it
in the House to have a law to make it death.[1b] I am confident your mercy to
these innocent children will ground a blessing on yourself your own. Pray let
not your great affairs put this good work out of your head to stop the ships
and discharge the children.
Your
most humble servant
George
Colonial
legislation to encourage immigration
1.
The headright system in Maryland, 1636
Proclamation
in Council of Cecelius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, in W.
H. Browne, ed., Archives of Maryland, III (Baltimore, 1885), 47;
hereafter cited as Md. Archives.
…These
are, therefore, to will and authorise you, that
presently upon receipt hereof, you make or cause to be made under our Great
Seal of that our said province, unto every first adventuror,
for every five men aged between sixteen and fifty years, which such adventuror did bring into our said province to inhabit and
plant there in the year of our Lord 1633, and unto his heirs forever, a grant
of 2000 acres of land of English measure, for the yearly rent of 400 lbs.
weight of good wheat; and to every adventuror which
in that year did bring a less number then five men into that our said province
of the ages aforesaid to inhabit and plant there, and unto his heirs forever, a
grant of 100 acres of land (of like measure) for himself and 100 acres more for
his wife (if he brought any), and for and in respect of every servant, and
fifty acres for every child under the age of sixteen years for the rent of 10
lbs. of wheat, yearly for every fifty acres. . .
2.
Carolina promises land to freemen and their families, 1664
Robert
Horne, "A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina. . ." [1666]
in William L. Saunders, ed., The Colonial
Records
of North Carolina,
I
(Raleigh, 1886), 155-156; hereafter cited as No. Car. Records.
Every
free man and free woman that transport themselves and servants by the 25th of
March next, being 1667, shall have for himself, wife, children, and
men-servants, for each, one hundred acres of land for him and his heirs
forever, and for every woman-servant and slave fifty acres, paying at most 1/2
d. per acre per annum, in lieu of all demands, to the lords proprietors:
Provided always that every man be armed with a good musket, full bore, ten
pounds of powder, and twenty pounds of bullet, and six months' provision for
all, to serve them whilst they raise provision in that country.
3.
"An Act for the Encouragement of the Importation of White Servants,"
South Carolina, 1698
Thomas
Cooper, ed., Statutes at Large of South Carolina, II (Columbia, 1837),
153- 154.
Whereas,
the great number of Negroes which of late have been imported into this Colony
may endanger the safety thereof if speedy care be not taken and encouragement
given for the importation of white servants, Be it enacted. . . that every
merchant, owner or master of any ship or vessel, or any other person not
intending to settle and plant here, which shall bring any white male servants,
Irish only excepted, into Ashley river, above sixteen years of age and under
forty, and the same shall deliver to the Receiver General, shall receive and be
paid by the said Receiver. . . the sum of thirteen pounds for every servant so
delivered, and for every boy of twelve years and under sixteen, imported and
delivered to the Receiver as aforesaid, the sum of twelve pounds, as aforesaid;
Provided, that every servant, as aforesaid, hath not less than four years to
serve from and after the day of his arrival in Ashley River, and every boy
aforesaid, not less than seven years. And if any person shall deliver to the
Receiver aforesaid, any servant or boy, as aforesaid, which hath less time to
serve than the respective times before appointed, the Receiver shall pay such
person proportionably to the rates and times
aforesaid, for so long time as such servant or boy hath to serve.
. .
. . .
Every
owner of every plantation to which doth belong six men Negro slaves above
sixteen years old, shall take from the Receiver one servant, when it shall
happen to be his lot to have one, and shall within three months pay the said
Receiver so much money for the said servant as the Receiver gave to the person
from whom he received the same; and the owner of every plantation to which doth
belong twelve Negro men, as aforesaid, shall when it shall be his lot, take two
servants as aforesaid; and every master of every plantation proportionably.
. .
4.
Georgia Trustees offer assistance to needy settlers, 1735
"Rules
for the year 1735," in Francis Moore, A Voyage to Georgia Begun in the
Year 1735 (London, 1744), in Collections of the Georgia Historical
Society, I (1840), 80-81, 83-84.
The
Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia, in America, ordered a new town
to be built in that colony, and an embarkation to be made for that purpose.
They were pleased to appoint me to be keeper of the stores.
The
following rules were given for the embarkation, viz.:
. .
. . .
…To
every person of the age of 12 years and upwards, the following [annual]
allowance . . .: 260 lbs. of beef or pork; 104 lbs. of rice; 104 lbs. of Indian
com or peas; 104 lbs. of flour; 52 quarts of molasses for brewing beer; 16 lbs.
of cheese; 12 lbs. of butter; 8 oz. of spice; 12 lbs. of sugar; 4 gallons of
vinegar; 24 lbs. of salt; 6 quarts of lamp oil; half lb. of spun cotton; 121bs.
of soap.
For
every person above the age of seven, and under the age of twelve, half the said
allowance, being esteemed half a head.
And
for every person above the age of two, and under the age of seven, one third of
said allowance, being esteemed one third of a head.
The
trustees pay their passage from England to Georgia; and in the voyage they will
have in every week four beef days, two pork days, and one fish day.
. .
. . .
[Assistance
is limited to]
1.
Such as are in decayed circumstances, and thereby disabled from following any
business in England; and who, if in debt, must have leave from their creditors
to go.
2. Such as have numerous families of children,
if assisted by their respective parishes and recommended by the minister,
churchwardens and overseers thereof.
The
Trustees do expect to have a good character of the said persons given; because
no drunkards, or other notoriously vicious persons will be taken.
And
for the better enabling the said persons to build the new town, and clear their
lands, the Trustees will give leave to every freeholder to take over with him
one male servant, or apprentice of the age of eighteen years and upwards, to be
bound for not less than four years; and will, by way of loan to such
freeholder, advance the charges of passage for such servant or apprentice, and
of furnishing him with…clothing and provision.
. .
. . .
And
to each man servant, and the heirs male of his body forever, after the
expiration of his service, upon a certificate from his master of his having
served well, will be granted twenty acres of land, under such rents and
agreements as shall have been then last granted to any other men-servants in
like circumstances.
Children
in the African slave trade
1.
Agents of the Royal African Company object to the purchase of young children,
1681, 1683
Elizabeth
Donnan, ed., Documents Illustrative of the History
of the Slave Trade to America (New York, 1965), I, 275, 289.
Henry
Carpenter and Robert Helmes to the Royal African
Company, 1681:
On
the 3rd instant in the evening, Captain Cope in the George and Betty arrived
in this road with 415 Negroes, most women, amongst which [were] about forty
children under the ages of eight years to our best judgment, which we told him
was contrary to his charter party, who answered that they could not buy so many
men and women without [also taking] that number of children, but we believe
something else in it which we hope in little time to discover...
Edwin
Stede and Stephen Gascoigne to the Royal African
Company, 1683:
And
about one third part of those he did bring were very small, most of them no
better than sucking children, nay many of them did suck their mothers that were
on board. . . some of [the] mothers we believe died on board of ship, and the
most part of those small ones [were] not worth above £5 per head. We told Agent
White we wondered to see so many small children brought by him, for that they
were not worth their freight, to which he replied they cost not much, and the
ship as good bring them as nothing, she being paid by the month. . .
2.
African family reunited on slave ship
John
Barbot, "A Description of the Coasts of
North and South Guinea. . . [1682]," in Documents of the Slave Trade, I,
306- 307.
I
also remember that I once, among my several runs along that coast, happened to
have aboard a whole family, man, wife, three young boys, and a girl, bought
here one after another at several places; and cannot but observe here what
mighty satisfaction those poor creatures expressed to be so come together
again, though in bondage. For several days successively they could not forbear
shedding tears of joy, and continually embracing and caressing one another;
which moving me to compassion, I ordered they should be better treated aboard
than commonly we can afford to do it, where there are four or five hundred in a
ship. And at Martinico, I sold them all together to a
considerable planter, at a cheaper rate than I might have expected had they
been disposed of severally, being informed of that gentleman's good nature, and
having taken his word that he would use that family as well as their
circumstances would permit, and settle them in some part by themselves.
3.
Childstealing on the coast of Africa
Thomas
Clarkson, "Essay on the Efficiency of Regulation or Abolition
[1789]," in Documents of the Slave Trade, II, 571-572.
Inquiring
today of a Negro lad, how he came into the situation of a slave, he informed me
that he had been stolen from his parents in the interior country above Cape
Rouge; that the inhabitants of the shore usually came up in bodies for this
purpose, and that they unfortunately met with him, and brought him to Goree in company with others, whom they had taken in the
same manner. . .
Since
our arrival here, the king of Barbasin has twice sent
out his military to attack his own villages in the night. They have been very
unsuccessful, having taken but three children. They had no better fortune last
night, having brought in but one girl.
4.
Prices offered for Negro boys and girls, Virginia, 1683
William
Fitzhugh to Mr. Jackson, February 11, 1682/83, in Documents of the Slave
Trade, IV, 57.
I will deal with them. . . under the
condition and at these ages and prices following, to say—to give 3000 lbs.
tobacco for every Negro boy or girl, that shall be between the ages of seven
and eleven years old; to give 4000 lbs. tobacco for every youth or girl that
shall be between the age of eleven to fifteen and to give 5000 lbs. tobacco for
every young man or woman that shall be above fifteen years of age and not
exceed twenty-four.