The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-10-27
States Early Redemptioners

come to the colonies or came of their
own free will. They were poor people,
for the most part, who wanted to bet
ter their condition, but had no money
with which to come to the new coun-
try. +:
They therefore signed contract
with the captain of vessel whereby
they agreed to pay for their passage
by hiring out as servants for a term
Of years to anyone willing to pay in
advance the passage money due the
captain.
The redemptioner, until reforms
were brought about in later years, re-
ceived no copy of the contract; it was
not recorded and it was usually writ
ten in language that the servant
could not understand. Violation of
the contract on the part of the SER
want was punished by corporal pun
ishment and Imprisonment. By per-
forming the service according to con-
tract for the time agreed upon the
servant redeemed himself and became
free man.
The redemptioner came first to Vir-
ginia and then to Maryland. The set
tiers owned large tracts of fertile land
that had to be cleared and cultivated.
The great problem was to obtain labor
and the answer to the problem was
the redemptioner.
England in her eagerness to advance
the value Of her colonies sent the pris-
oners of war taken in the instructions
of the Scots and Irish. At one time
a hundred waits were gathered up
from the streets of London and sent
over.
These were in addition to the others
who came over more or less voluntar-
lily. In 1872 the price of a redemp-
toner was $50, or at about the aver
age rate of less than $40 a year for
the servants services. The $50 went
to the captain or owner of the vessel
as passage money.
When the redemptioners reached this
country they were sold to the highest
bidder by the captain or owner of the
ship that brought them over. Under
their contract they were not allowed
to choose their masters nor the kind
of services that best suited them.
Families that came over together
were split up. The father, mother and
children were put up at public sale and
were frequently bought by different
masters living far apart, with the re-
suit that these folk, strangers and in
most cases not speaking the language
of the new country, lost each other
forever.
By many masters, for reasons pre-
viously set forth, the redemptioners
were treated worse than the Negro
slaves. 1t is said that these people in
time made up to a great extent the
class that became known as the "poor
white trash" of the South, and they
were despised alike by master and Ne
gro slave. .
-, Under most masters they lived in
common with the slaves, and as re-
suit some of the female servants inter-
married with the male Negroes. This
became offensive to a certain portion
of society and the result was the worst
piece of legislation ever put on the
Maryland books.
The General Assembly of 1868
passed law that any female white
servant who married Negro slave
had to serve the master of the Negro
man during the Life of her husband
and that the mulatto children born to
her became the slaves of that master
for life.
Far from breaking up the practice
it was enacted to cure, it had the OPP
posite effect, for the owners of female
redemtioners deliberately married
them to their Negro slave men, there
by making the women and their chill
dren their slaves. Previously the chill
dren of free woman, white or Ne
gro, were presumed to be free.
In the spring of 1881 Lord Balti-
more came to visit his province and
brought with him his servant Nellie,
who was redemtioner. When he re-
turned to Europe he sold Nellie for
her unexpired term to a man living
in the province, who, within two
months, married her to- one of his
slave men.
Lord Baltimore heard of it and be-
came so incensed that he secured the