My ancestor, Mary Bowden, was born February 20, 1730 in Westmoreland County, 
and was identified as Mulatto. She was indentured out to George Washington's 
family at the age of seven. When Mary had a child, her child was also 
indentured to the Washingtons, at birth. As far as I know Mary did not chose 
the Washingtons at the age of seven. In fact she ran away several times from 
the Washington Plantation. The Indentures of the females were 30 years, and 
for the males 20 years. Two other ancestors were indentured out at about 12 
& 14, by the courts. There was no mention that they chose the people who 
held their indentures.

My question is, If they were cho0sing who to be indentured to why woulld the 
courts have to be involved?

Anita
>From: Katharine Harbury <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history         
>      <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Indian servants/slaves
>Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 09:02:14 -0400
>
>Since a number of you are interested in the subject of Indian servants
>vs. Indian slaves in the 17th-century, it might prove helpful for you to
>look at this following link.  Indians at that time chose who would be
>the master of their child who would serve a number of years, and the
>chosen master could not transfer the child to any other master.  This
>link covers not only this topic but also other issues:
>
>http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/jame1/moretti-langholtz/
>chap10a.htm
>

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