The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-01-29
In the Pre>SIaver, Era Don,estcs Were Horny Handed


was strictly limited. Free men were
wanted to create a free state.
While it was necessary for the law
to protect the servant from the abuses
of unworthy masters, the bulk of the
masters needed no law to induce them
to do the decent thing. There was,
for instance, the case of Capt. Robert
Wintour, who discharged of their. OBJ
legation to him for reasons of honor
and without any legal necessity Ed
ward Parker and William Naufin, two
of his servants. Then there was the
case of William Claiborne, the arch
villain of Maryland, who, in a softer
moment, promised to Robert Cooper
"the cow-calf of a certain COW, if she
did bring a cow-calf, in consideration
that he hath been a good servant to
me-"
Most of the servants were without
education, but occasionally cultivat-
ed misfit who had gotten into trouble
at home or who lacked practical abil-
ity to make his own way in the world
would bind himself as a servant in
return for transportation to Mary
land and temporary security. George
Alsop was such a man, having been
brought to Maryland under a four
year indenture to Thomas Stockett, in
Baltimore county. Alsop had left a
series of letters giving some inter-
esting sidelights on social conditions
in Maryland, particularly the condi-
ton of servants. He was very much
impressed with himself and his learn
ing. His style is ostentations and
verbose, but he reveals a great deal
of very valuable history. Among other
things, in speakingof the cordial re-
lations that existed in Maryland be-
tween the Roman Catholics and the
members of the Church of England,
he refers to the latter as protestant
Episcopalians," anticipating by more
than hundred years the official title
given to the Episcopal Church at its
primary convention held in Maryland
in 1889, when it was organized as an
independent national branch of the
Anglican Communion. This letter,
written in 1866, is one of the earliest
documents using this much-disputed
title.
Of the condition of servants in
Maryland, he says: "The four years
I served there were not to me so slav-
ish as two-year servitude of hand
icraft apprenticeship in London. X
Servants here in Maryland of all col
onies have least cause to complain
either from strictness of servitude,
want of provisions and need of ap-
parel." He declared that five and a
half days work per week was the rule
in summer and that for two months
during the hot season three hours rest
at the house is permitted during the
hottest part of the afternoon. Dur
ing the winter months little work was
required save wood cutting and tend
ing fires, after which the servant was
free to while away many hours at
hunting, for every servant was fur
nished with gun, powder and shot.
Servants who were artifcers were
never required to work in the field
and they lived fully as we'll as free
laborers in England.
He wakes facetious and uncouth in
abiding to women servants. He mar
wells because they marry Immediately
upon arrival and states rather broadly
that "some might have maintained
their maiden estate until it moulded
had they not brought it to so easy a
market" Men servants were not as
rule so fortunate in affairs of the
heart, but he opines with a self-con-
scious smirk that those men servants
who are "rhetoricians and skilled in
the art of persuasion" can gain many
| advantages 1OI LhSHlSCANSo 1hhouSh
the wives of their masters.
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He reveals most significant situa-
ton when he says that many servants,
after they had finished their time,
found liberty so difficult that they
longed for bondage again that they
might have someone to take care of
them. He makes the rather profound
comment on those laborers who re-
manned in England, where there were
too many of them, living much too
close together and trying to eak out
a miserable existence as they "catch,
snatch and under value on another"
and endure infinite hardship at home
rather than risk the voyage to Mary
land, where they were needed and
could be happy and prosperous. He
closes with the wish "that the several
poor tradesmen 1 know in London
might live so free from care as 1 did
while l dwelt in the bonds of four
year servitude in Maryland"
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1t would be a pleasure to record
that the MARYLAND servants were so