The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-01-28
THE REDEMPTIoNERs.
Contract Labor In Pennsylvania Before
the Revolution.

age reader to be new thing in.the United
States, invented by grasping corporations to
enable them to keep the wages of working
men at the lowest point. 1t is really re-
vival in new form of an old custom which
dates back to the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century. From the year 100 until
until 1920, when the system had fallen into
disuse, thousands of people were brought
to this country annually and sold for term
ri tas years as servants to pay the cost of theil
passage Redenpsssioners they were called
and the ports of New York ana d''11salladei
phia were the chief centres of this traffic,
although it was not unknown in the South
ern and New England colonies The
great bulk of these redemptioners came
from Germany, England and Ireland The
business was profitable one to the ship
owners, and was organized and, carried on
upon an extensive scale.
The redemptioners were of two classes.
The first were called indentured servants
and bound themselves for term of years
to the shipmaster in advance of taking
passage. The other class were called "free
willers, who agreed to pay certain sum for
passage and board and allow themselves to
be sold on arrival to the person who would
pay the cost of passage for the smallest term
of service. The usual term of the inden-
tured servants if adults was three years.
The business became in time so extensive
that the servant market was glutted and
the "free will contract was encouraged by
shipmasters, as it enabled them to dispose
of their human wares more readily. A
buyer who would not be willing to pay the
ten or twelve pounds asked for passage
for three years service might be induced
to do it for five or six.
The armies of Louis XIV devastated the
Palatinate in 1858, destroying towns and
villages without mercy and reducing the
peasantry to the verge of starvation. They
were obliged to scatter themselves through
the Low Countries and elsewhere. At
this time the emigration of Germans to
Pennsylvania to avoid religious persecution
was very active, and it is probable that the
bringing over of a few of these refugees as
indentured servants by the well-to-do Ger
mans suggested to the thrifty shipowners
the idea of making business Of transport
ing these poor victims of war to land
where they could at least get bread and
butter Their condition at home was pitt
able They had nothing with which to
pay passage to another country but their
services. And it is not to be wondered at
that when the shipmasters sent out we'll
dressed agents offering these poor people
passage to country where war was un-
known, in consideration of few years of
service, that the offer was accepted. These
agents were called Newlanders and went
about from place to place picturing the de-
lights and advantages of America in vivid
colors. They promised these poor people
humane treatment on the passage aud re-
munerative employment when their terms
of service had expired. Stimulated by
these representations the business soon be-
came an extensive one, employing many
ships. Rotterdam was the chief port of
departure, the vessels usually touching at
Cowes, Plymouth or other English ports to
take on board such passengers as their busy
agents in England and ireland had been
able to secure,
Human greed then, as now, led to the
grossest abuses of a system that was brutal
enough at best. The shipowners engaging
In this traffic soon began to employ every
possible device for crowding their vessels,
regardless of the comfort or health of their
passengers. The fastest sailing vessels
were used for the transportation of passen-
gers, all the luggage and effects of the re-
.
demptioners being left behind to come by
other slower sailing vessels Fhe result was
that the poor mortals were slowed on board
Ike herrings In boxes, without proper food
or necessary change of raiment. Ship
fever broke out among them and they died
by the hundreds. Over 1000 died in one
year on the passage, or at Philadelphia af-
ter arriving. Henry Keppele, first presi-
dent ofthc German Society formed in 1864,
came to Philadelphia in 1873 in the ship
Charming Molly. He records in his diary
that of 312! freights on board, each child
under FIVE years being called half freight,
$50 died on the passage.
At first sight it would appear that the
shipowners would be heavy lossers by such
astounding mortality. But they had sys-
tenn compelling every member of the family
to sign contract making each responsible
for the passage money of all the others.
If half the family died on the passage, the
living were sold for enough to pay the pas
sage of the dead. Another abuse was that
of selling husband and wife and children
separately. Still another was that of plum
dering the chests and baggage of the re-
demptioners. The shipmasters we're not
compelled to give bills of lading, and as the
baggage followed the passengers in other
ships the latter were often sold and scatter
ed through the country, never seeing their
chests again. Even if they were fortunate
enough to secure them after a while, the
lids were not unfrequently pried open and
everything of value stolen. Extra charges
were added to the price originally agreed
upon for transportation, sometimes doubling
the original sum, thus increasing the term
of service in proportion to this unjust in
crease of the cost of passage.