The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-01-29


sion of their masters. This helped the
situation for a while, until some en-
terprising differing servant discovered
that a market existed among the In
dams. It then became necessary to
forbid trading with the Indians.
Moreover, there were servants who
resented the necessity of any toll
whatsoever and who would take I'M
authorized vacations. Most of these
cases were not genuine attempts at
permanent liberty. There was not
that much force back of the situation.
Few of them were anxious to face the
rigors of a fugitive existence in a
wild, new country. These escapades
were more in the nature of joy-rides
or little side trips from which the
servant would return quite blandly
and accept as matter of course the
penalty of ten additional days of SER
vitude for each day of absence. He
should worry. The penalty would be
felt until the end of the term, and
that was still some time off. These
cases became so frequent that severe
penalties were provided for those who
assisted in any way in these little
parties.
There was, for example, the case
of "Michael Hacker, spinster, aged 20,
maidservant of Jane Cockshott, wild
ow, who being sworn did say upon her
oath that upon Wednesday evening
last, this deponent being in her mis-
tress' house in Saint Inigoes, Thomas
White came and asked her whether
she would not see her brother in Vir-
ginia, and she asking him how she
might do so, he told her that he and
Francis Stoure and his wife were to
, go to Virginia in canoe of Mr. Cop
ley's, and she might go with them.
He told her that Francis Stoure was
to borrow the canoe of Mr.. Copley to
carry some corn to John Norton's and
thence would take the canoe away"
The young lady reported the proposed
! joy-ride to the great discomfort of
the tempter, who was tried, convicted
and whipped with thirty stripes, thus
learning the great value Of law en-
forcement and the necessity Of being
more discreet in his choice of girl
friends.
Moral relations among the serv-
ants and between and servants and
masters seem to have been extremity
irregular, particularly after the in
PRODUCTION of Negro slavery. Just as
base coin debases the good, so the
baser form of servitude degraded the
indentured servant. The presence Of
the slaves set the servants on a lower
plane and seems to have robbed them
of much of their self respect. There
were many cases of marriage between
Negro slaves and white indentured
women servants and an even larger
number of more informal unions. In
the hope of checking this evil, it was
enacted that any white woman marry
ing a Negro slave should herself be-
come slave as long as her husband
lived and her children should be slaves
for life. In the case of freer unions
the children were to be slaves until
the age of 81, and the penalty visited
upon the parents involved some de-
gree of added servitude, varying at
different periods.
To deal with the growing laxity a
preventive measure was attempted in
the shape of an order restricting the
movements of servants to a radius of
two miles from the residence of their
masters. This was found both inef-
fective and impractical, and the dis
lance was later extended to ten miles,
and to facilitate enforcement every
one mot sufficiently known" had to
carry passports when travelling out
of his own county.
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Unfortunately, the founders of
Maryland seem to have had at first
great faith in the efficiency of
"snooping." AS in the case of drunk
enness, so also with runaway serv-
ants, rewards were offered to inform
ers. Attempts were made to beguile
even the honest Indian into this trade
with the promise of "match-coats" to
be furnished by the county, the run
away to work out the price of the re-
ward by additional servitude. 1t de-
veloped that the only interested people
red, white or black-were of such
a poor sort that their word could sell
dom be trusted and the custom fell
into desuetude.
There was an early instance of a
public whipping dealing with a run
away servant. In 1888, John Richard
son had run away and aggravated his
fault by taking with him some of his
masters goods. He was recaptured
and brought before the Council for
punishment. There was no law on
| tho suhiaot at tho time Sn thn Conn