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To Serve Well and Faithfully : Labor and Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania, 1682-1800
Thousands crossed the Atlantic to labor as bound workers in the Quaker colony. They came with little more than vague promises that servitude would propel them toward a future that would enable them to lead independent lives. What motivated them to take th
206 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1987
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October 14, 2013
I read this book for a grad school class on Transatlantic Migration. I don't think any run of the mill history reader would read this book on their own, though. It is well researched, but belabors some points.
Her basic argument is that indentured servitude went through three phases in Pennsylvania. First, in the mid-1600s, it consisted mostly of people who knew each other and it helped out both parties equally, with the purchaser getting cheap labor and the servant getting a chance at upward mobility. In the late 1600 and early 1700s, that balance shifted, with servants essentially being traded like slaves and having little upward mobility. In the late 1700s, Pennsylvania started to shift towards an industrial, working class economy where artisans and merchants didn't have to spend money to bring servants across the ocean because there was a large pool of cheap labor already here.
Her argument is fairly compelling although there are a few places you get the sense that she is using certain sources too much just because they fit in her thesis. Also, her coverage of the final period is fairly weak. Finally, if you want a proper conclusion, look to another book.
Not bad, for what it is... but definitely focused towards a more specialized crowd.
Her basic argument is that indentured servitude went through three phases in Pennsylvania. First, in the mid-1600s, it consisted mostly of people who knew each other and it helped out both parties equally, with the purchaser getting cheap labor and the servant getting a chance at upward mobility. In the late 1600 and early 1700s, that balance shifted, with servants essentially being traded like slaves and having little upward mobility. In the late 1700s, Pennsylvania started to shift towards an industrial, working class economy where artisans and merchants didn't have to spend money to bring servants across the ocean because there was a large pool of cheap labor already here.
Her argument is fairly compelling although there are a few places you get the sense that she is using certain sources too much just because they fit in her thesis. Also, her coverage of the final period is fairly weak. Finally, if you want a proper conclusion, look to another book.
Not bad, for what it is... but definitely focused towards a more specialized crowd.
May 31, 2019
“To serve well and faithfully:” Labor and indentured servants in Pennsylvania, 1680-1820 is the book born of the doctoral dissertation of Dr. Sharon V. Salinger, Ph. D. written under the direction of well-known leftist historian Gary Nash. In this book, Dr. Salinger traces developments in the labor system of colonial and early national Pennsylvania. Rather than studying wage labor, enslavement, apprenticeship, or indentured servitude alone, she looks at all these types of work relationships in tandem, with a particular focus on indentured servants. The end assertions of the book are not as well-grounded in primary source research, but the main thrust of the argument is persuasive.
In the long run, the book chronicles the breakdown of a system that favored unfree labor which, in some regards comes to be seen almost nostalgically as more mutual, evn as it was unequal, in favor of wage labor and a new employer-employee, capiitaistic and market-driven labor system.
In Chapter 1, “Models of unfree labor,” Dr. Salinger compares enslavement, apprenticeship, and indentured servitude. These descriptions are fairly conventional a few decades since the book appeared. This includes court-ordered apprenticeship for orphaned children and children of the poor, the idea that poor Europeans might agree to sell their labor for a term of years in order to gain entry to the colonies, and slavery.
Chapter 2 considers, to quote its title, “Labor and servants in Early Pennsylvania. Not only does the author use individual stories, she uses a strong data base of time series to demonstrate the limited post-indentured servitude opportunities in late 1600s and early 1700s colonial Pennsylvania. Most did not rise, prosper, and become property owners. She also shows how economic and political turmoil could impact the prospects of indentured servants and former indentured servants rather dramatically.
Chapter 3 traces changes in the pre-Revolutionary war decades of 1700s. Servants no longer were likely to have had any pre-important relationships with prospective masters. The shipping process was not nearly as horrible as the Atlantic slave trade, but there was a high rat of death. The selling of labor contracts upon arrival and other factors also brought to mind the historiography of the slave trade. There were also changes in the ranges of work done by indentured servants and the people more likely to become masters. Rates of running away increased, though male skilled craftsmen were the least likely servants to run away, just the opposite from studies of person running to escape bondage.
Chapter 4 considers the outcomes of indentured servants after their terms of service in the 18th century. The book argues that most former servants did not appear in any historical records due to their inability to advance economically. This includes a lack of taxable property and land ownership. Interestingly, the book here begins to try to measure outcomes by reference to a control group of persons of similar age. However, about 40 % did become recipients of poor relief/public assistance at some points.
In chapter 5, the book traces “The decline of unfree labor.” Slavery & servitude became less important while free workers being paid wages became increasingly the norm.” (p. 137) We learn that the trend moved from servants working for artisans in craft production to working for “merchant-retailers…as unskilled or domestic workers” rather than as “clerks.” (p. 138) while female servants doubled, reaching 40% of the servant population by 1795. Indentured servitude became less available during the American Revolution and never recovered. At the same time, the end of legal slavery led to many formerly enslaved African Americans being bound to very long periods of indentured servitude. By the 1760s, Philadelphia’s artisans were becoming more inclined to hire workers as wage workers for short, uncertain times than to agree to provide for a bound labor force in times of economic uncertainty.
This trend was followed up in an Epilogue titles “The transformation of labor.” Here, were learn of longer-term trends, but these are not as well backed-up in primary source research. By the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, the long-term trend toward free wage labor was evident. For example, a combination of the emergence of manufacturing and market capitalism within master craftsmen destroyed a paternalistic, “moral economy” and common trade identity which would eventually destroy the craft apprenticeship. This trend is similar to that studied in more detail, yet more impressionistically that in a social history manner by W.J. Rorabaugh, The Craft Apprentice From Franklin to the Machine Age in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986, a year after the present book.
The book also seeks to tie the breakdown of craft self-identity and mutuality to the development not only of ownership-worker/labor strife in late 1700s Philadelphia, but also to difference in how these two groups understood and approached the American Revolution.“Throughout the war[,] lower artisans fought for a return of the “moral economy,” whereas upper artisans supported free trade and laissez-faire principals.” (p. 165). Thus, the author concludes, “[t]he conflicts of the 1790s were not sudden eruptions but manifestations of fundamental differences.” (p. 171). The story concludes by looking forward, and arguing that “[a]s the traditional labor system broke down, masters and journeymen struggled against each other Hammer out a new system of relations.” (p. 171).
In the long run, the book chronicles the breakdown of a system that favored unfree labor which, in some regards comes to be seen almost nostalgically as more mutual, evn as it was unequal, in favor of wage labor and a new employer-employee, capiitaistic and market-driven labor system.
In Chapter 1, “Models of unfree labor,” Dr. Salinger compares enslavement, apprenticeship, and indentured servitude. These descriptions are fairly conventional a few decades since the book appeared. This includes court-ordered apprenticeship for orphaned children and children of the poor, the idea that poor Europeans might agree to sell their labor for a term of years in order to gain entry to the colonies, and slavery.
Chapter 2 considers, to quote its title, “Labor and servants in Early Pennsylvania. Not only does the author use individual stories, she uses a strong data base of time series to demonstrate the limited post-indentured servitude opportunities in late 1600s and early 1700s colonial Pennsylvania. Most did not rise, prosper, and become property owners. She also shows how economic and political turmoil could impact the prospects of indentured servants and former indentured servants rather dramatically.
Chapter 3 traces changes in the pre-Revolutionary war decades of 1700s. Servants no longer were likely to have had any pre-important relationships with prospective masters. The shipping process was not nearly as horrible as the Atlantic slave trade, but there was a high rat of death. The selling of labor contracts upon arrival and other factors also brought to mind the historiography of the slave trade. There were also changes in the ranges of work done by indentured servants and the people more likely to become masters. Rates of running away increased, though male skilled craftsmen were the least likely servants to run away, just the opposite from studies of person running to escape bondage.
Chapter 4 considers the outcomes of indentured servants after their terms of service in the 18th century. The book argues that most former servants did not appear in any historical records due to their inability to advance economically. This includes a lack of taxable property and land ownership. Interestingly, the book here begins to try to measure outcomes by reference to a control group of persons of similar age. However, about 40 % did become recipients of poor relief/public assistance at some points.
In chapter 5, the book traces “The decline of unfree labor.” Slavery & servitude became less important while free workers being paid wages became increasingly the norm.” (p. 137) We learn that the trend moved from servants working for artisans in craft production to working for “merchant-retailers…as unskilled or domestic workers” rather than as “clerks.” (p. 138) while female servants doubled, reaching 40% of the servant population by 1795. Indentured servitude became less available during the American Revolution and never recovered. At the same time, the end of legal slavery led to many formerly enslaved African Americans being bound to very long periods of indentured servitude. By the 1760s, Philadelphia’s artisans were becoming more inclined to hire workers as wage workers for short, uncertain times than to agree to provide for a bound labor force in times of economic uncertainty.
This trend was followed up in an Epilogue titles “The transformation of labor.” Here, were learn of longer-term trends, but these are not as well backed-up in primary source research. By the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, the long-term trend toward free wage labor was evident. For example, a combination of the emergence of manufacturing and market capitalism within master craftsmen destroyed a paternalistic, “moral economy” and common trade identity which would eventually destroy the craft apprenticeship. This trend is similar to that studied in more detail, yet more impressionistically that in a social history manner by W.J. Rorabaugh, The Craft Apprentice From Franklin to the Machine Age in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986, a year after the present book.
The book also seeks to tie the breakdown of craft self-identity and mutuality to the development not only of ownership-worker/labor strife in late 1700s Philadelphia, but also to difference in how these two groups understood and approached the American Revolution.“Throughout the war[,] lower artisans fought for a return of the “moral economy,” whereas upper artisans supported free trade and laissez-faire principals.” (p. 165). Thus, the author concludes, “[t]he conflicts of the 1790s were not sudden eruptions but manifestations of fundamental differences.” (p. 171). The story concludes by looking forward, and arguing that “[a]s the traditional labor system broke down, masters and journeymen struggled against each other Hammer out a new system of relations.” (p. 171).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews