Re "servants":

There is no way to determine what baggage was attached to the term
"servant" except via close examination of the context and all relevant
particulars. In early America, the slave was often called a "servant,"
while his master--if devout--was a "servant of Christ." Large numbers of
immigrants to America were "servants," some with indentures, some
without. If "servant" still had some negative connotations by the 19th
century, so did "employee"... or for that matter any term for wage
labor, which was no one's goal in life (perpetual dependency). For some
interesting discussions of "servants" and their status in colonial
times, see Richard Morris, Government and Labor in Early America; C. B.
Macpherson, Democratic Theory; and Christopher L. Tomlins, Law, Labor,
and Ideology in the Early American Republic.

Doug Deal
History/SUNY Oswego
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