John Philip Adams,

 

I'll take the flak as a descendant of a "northerner" who had owned slaves.
But I am also descended from some Quakers who moved from the North Carolina
to Ohio because they didn't believe in slavery.  And, I have proof that at
least one female ancestor came to this country as an indentured servant.

 

I haven't kept up with all the messages, so perhaps I am repeating someone
else's observation, but it wasn't just the slaves who were raped by their
masters.  An act was passed in Virginia December 1662 entitled:

 

Women servants gott whith child by their masters after their time expired to
be sold by the Churchwardens for two years for the good of the parish. 

 

   " WHEREAS by act of Assembly every woman servant having a bastard is to
serve two yeares, and late experiente shew that some dissolute masters have
gotten their maides with child, and yet claime the benefit of their service,
and on the contrary if a woman gott with child by her master should be freed
from that service it might probably induce such loose persons to lay all
their bastards to their masters; it is therefore thought fitt and
accordingly enacted, and be it enacted henceforward that each woman servant
gott with child by her master shall after her time by indenture or custome
is expired be by the churchwardens of the parish where she lived when she
was brought to bed of such bastard, sold for two yeares, and the tobacco to
be imployed by the vestry for the use of the parish." - William Waller
Hening.  The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of
Virginia ....  Volume 2, pg. 167.  

 

Besides being raped, she had to serve an EXTRA two years!  No, it wasn't
fair, but there is a saying, "Even God cannot change the past."  Let's be
grateful that there has been a lot of improvement since the days of
indentures and slavery.

 

Netti 


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