History of the United States | Page 9

their masters." It would not be unfair to add that
such was their lot in all other colonies. Their fate depended upon the
temper of their masters.
Cruel as was the system in many ways, it gave thousands of people in
the Old World a chance to reach the New--an opportunity to wrestle
with fate for freedom and a home of their own. When their weary years
of servitude were over, if they survived, they might obtain land of their
own or settle as free mechanics in the towns. For many a bondman the
gamble proved to be a losing venture because he found himself unable
to rise out of the state of poverty and dependence into which his
servitude carried him. For thousands, on the contrary, bondage proved
to be a real avenue to freedom and prosperity. Some of the best citizens
of America have the blood of indentured servants in their veins.
=The Transported--Involuntary Servitude.=--In their anxiety to secure
settlers, the companies and proprietors having colonies in America
either resorted to or connived at the practice of kidnapping men,
women, and children from the streets of English cities. In 1680 it was
officially estimated that "ten thousand persons were spirited away" to
America. Many of the victims of the practice were young children, for
the traffic in them was highly profitable. Orphans and dependents were
sometimes disposed of in America by relatives unwilling to support
them. In a single year, 1627, about fifteen hundred children were
shipped to Virginia.
In this gruesome business there lurked many tragedies, and very few
romances. Parents were separated from their children and husbands
from their wives. Hundreds of skilled artisans--carpenters, smiths, and
weavers--utterly disappeared as if swallowed up by death. A few thus
dragged off to the New World to be sold into servitude for a term of
five or seven years later became prosperous and returned home with
fortunes. In one case a young man who was forcibly carried over the
sea lived to make his way back to England and establish his claim to a
peerage.

Akin to the kidnapped, at least in economic position, were convicts
deported to the colonies for life in lieu of fines and imprisonment. The
Americans protested vigorously but ineffectually against this practice.
Indeed, they exaggerated its evils, for many of the "criminals" were
only mild offenders against unduly harsh and cruel laws. A peasant
caught shooting a rabbit on a lord's estate or a luckless servant girl who
purloined a pocket handkerchief was branded as a criminal along with
sturdy thieves and incorrigible rascals. Other transported offenders
were "political criminals"; that is, persons who criticized or opposed
the government. This class included now Irish who revolted against
British rule in Ireland; now Cavaliers who championed the king against
the Puritan revolutionists; Puritans, in turn, dispatched after the
monarchy was restored; and Scotch and English subjects in general
who joined in political uprisings against the king.
=The African Slaves.=--Rivaling in numbers, in the course of time, the
indentured servants and whites carried to America against their will
were the African negroes brought to America and sold into slavery.
When this form of bondage was first introduced into Virginia in 1619,
it was looked upon as a temporary necessity to be discarded with the
increase of the white population. Moreover it does not appear that those
planters who first bought negroes at the auction block intended to
establish a system of permanent bondage. Only by a slow process did
chattel slavery take firm root and become recognized as the leading
source of the labor supply. In 1650, thirty years after the introduction of
slavery, there were only three hundred Africans in Virginia.
The great increase in later years was due in no small measure to the
inordinate zeal for profits that seized slave traders both in Old and in
New England. Finding it relatively easy to secure negroes in Africa,
they crowded the Southern ports with their vessels. The English Royal
African Company sent to America annually between 1713 and 1743
from five to ten thousand slaves. The ship owners of New England
were not far behind their English brethren in pushing this extraordinary
traffic.
As the proportion of the negroes to the free white population steadily

rose, and as whole sections were overrun with slaves and slave traders,
the Southern colonies grew alarmed. In 1710, Virginia sought to curtail
the importation by placing a duty of £5 on each slave. This effort was
futile, for the royal governor promptly vetoed it. From time to time
similar bills were passed, only to meet with royal disapproval. South
Carolina, in 1760, absolutely prohibited importation; but the measure
was killed by the British crown. As late as 1772, Virginia, not daunted
by a century of rebuffs, sent to George III