The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Indentured Persons Collection 1766-1785
© 2022 University of Chicago Library
| Title: | Indentured Persons Collection |
|---|---|
| Dates: | 1766-1785 |
| Size: | 2.25 linear feet (2 boxes) |
| Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | Contains several documents pertaining to indentured persons (1766-1785), primarily rosters or lists of people immigrating to the United States as "redemptioners" in 1785. The collection also includes a 1766 indenture of apprenticeship for a nine year old boy. |
The collection is open for research.
Original documents, texts, and images represented by digital images linked to this finding aid are subject to U. S. copyright law. It is the user's sole responsibility to secure any necessary copyright permission to reproduce or publish documents, texts, and images from any holders of rights in the original materials.
The University of Chicago Library, in its capacity as owner of the physical property represented by the digital images linked to this finding aid, encourages the use of these materials for educational and scholarly purposes. Any reproduction or publication from these digital images requires that the following credit line be included: Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
The images presented here may include materials reflecting the attitudes, language, and stereotypes of an earlier time period. These materials are presented as historical resources in support of study and research. Inclusion of such materials does not constitute an endorsement of their content by the University of Chicago.
The University of Chicago Library appreciates hearing from anyone who may have information about any of the images in this collection.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Indentured Persons Collection, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
After the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War in September 1783, business owners and merchant traders in the newly established United States looked for ways to start or re-start their businesses and livelihoods after eight years of war. Some merchants engaged in the transport of people as voluntary or semi-voluntary immigrants.
Indentured servitude had been a practice in the American colonies from the time of their earliest settlement by colonists in Jamestown in 1607. In the older form of contracts of indenture, an individual would be committed to work for a specific sponsor for a set period of time in exchange for the passage to the colonies, room, board, clothing, and potentially even training that he or she received. The terms of the indenture and the person(s) holding the indenture were determined before the indentured persons set sail, often with the people holding their indentures. Indentures could be traded, sold, or bought out before their terms were completed.
In the redemptioner system, however, individuals or families who wanted to immigrate to the colonies would commit themselves to a merchant or middleman who would take them over to the colonies on one of their ships, often on the return from a trade voyage. Once they arrived at the destination, the obligation was typically settled in one of three ways: 1) the redemptioners could "cash out" or pay off the expenses of their voyage with cash on hand and could then make their own way free of obligation, 2) their indentures (often simply the expenses accrued during their voyages) could be redeemed by a relative, a correspondent, or an acquaintance upon arrival at their destination, or 3) their indentures could be sold, or even auctioned off, by the shipping merchant or another business contracted to handle the sales or transfers of indentures.
Both systems suffered from abuse. Both the kidnapping of unwilling individuals for indentures and the use of indentured servitude in the colonies as a means of serving penal sentences are documented. The misrepresentation of contracts for redemptioners has also been documented as well as the frequent occurrence of robbery as merchants and their crews sifted through the personal possessions of the passengers. In 1717 the English parliament enacted legislation including a clause requiring an indenture involving a minor to be officiated by a single magistrate in London or two magistrates in any other location. This was intended to protect children from being kidnapped to sell for indentures and also to protect merchants who were transporting legally indentured children from charges of abduction.
An indenture of apprenticeship, otherwise known as an "apprenticeship indenture" was the practice of committing and training children, usually boys around the age of twelve, to a trade in which they could earn a living in their adult lives. The practice was widespread in Great Britain until the Eighteenth-Century when it started to decline, but it was also carried over to the colonies in North America.
Pauper apprenticeships are a specific type of apprenticeship indenture in which a poor or orphaned child is placed with a trade professional by a charity or parish. Pauper apprenticeships continued in Great Britain and the United States after other forms of apprenticeship began to decline.
The documents in this collection cover the period 1766 to 1785. Although acquired by the University Library from diverse sources they have been gathered together as a collection as a matter of convenience.
The collection contains documents for various types of indentured servitude dating from 1766-1785. These include an indenture for apprenticeship for a nine year old boy and several documents for the ship, Favorite, which sailed for Stewart, Nesbitt, & Co out of Philadelphia. In 1785, the date of most of the documents, the Favorite, under Captain Nicholas Vallance, was periodically transporting redemptioners from mainland Europe to America. Also included in this collection is a 1785 list of indentured persons on board the ship, Vigor. The roster for the Vigor is extensive and in some cases includes the vocation or skillset of the individual listed as well as some of the additional fees the individuals accrued in transit. The documents are handwritten in English with the exception of the roster for the Vigor which has a few notations and drafts for messages written in French.
These materials were part of a previous collection “Slavery and Indentured Servitude.”
Slavery in North America Collection
Mariners’ Museum (Newport News, Virginia): Records of Stewart, Nesbitt, and Company
| Box 1 Folder 1 | Letter from C. Bishop to Captain Nicholas Valance [Vallance] on board the ship Favorite [also called the Favourite], concerning the passage of the redemptioners on the Favorite, Corck [Cork], October 10, 1783, autograph letter, signed, 1 page |
| Box 1 Folder 2 | Sales of redemptioners of the Ship Favorite from Amsterdam, September-November, 1785, document, 9 pages.
|
| Box 1 Folder 3 | List of Indentured Servants on board the Vigor, January 30, 1785,document, 32 pages.
|
| Box 1 Folder 4 | Indenture of apprenticeship for Lewis Hewitt to James Averill, Preston, Conn., January 6, 1766, document, signed, 1 page:
|
| Box 2 Folder 1 | Messrs. Vaughan Hamilton & Co. in Account with The Owners of Ship Favorite, [1785] document, 3 pages:
|
| Box 2 Folder 2 | Ship Favorite to Messrs. Vaughan Hamilton & Co. [1785], document, 2 pages:
|
| Box 2 Folder 3 | Account of Germans delivered from the Ship Favorite, August- September 1785, document, 4 pages.
|