Glossary

Immigrant Servants Database

Glossary

agent: a person acting for a principal or employer and whose misfeasance allowed a third party to sue the principal, as opposed to *factors. These individuals recruited indentured servants and redemptioners; they set-up recruitment centers in port towns and also ventured inland to market towns to spread propaganda and convince individuals to emigrate to America as servants; agents commonly sold or assigned their rights to these servants to labor-starved American colonists; many American colonists also made trips back to the British Isles to recruit their own servants
agricultural servant: in England, young single men who lived in rural areas commonly contracted to serve farmers for one-year periods; this time served as agricultural training and certain aspects of the practice evolved into indentured servitude in Colonial America
agricultural laborer: in England, after men completed several years as *agricultural servants, married, and established their households, they became known as agricultural laborers (or labourers in British English)
Anglican: another term for *Church of England
apprentice: individuals who contracted to serve a master for a specified number of years in order to learn a trade; in contrast to *immigrant servants who also served masters, but usually not with the intent of learning a new trade; aspects of this practice evolved into indentured servitude in Colonial America
British Isles: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales
calendar change: in 1752, the British calendar underwent changes that occurred at varying times in Christian Europe following a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582; the first day of the year was moved from March 25 to January 1 and 13 days were dropped from the calendar; during the transition period between 1582 and 1752, it is common to see two years listed in American and British documents referring to the months of January, February, and March, i.e. January 1750/1751; archaic names of months included 7ber (September), 8ber (October), 9ber (November), and 10ber or Xber (December), which contain vestiges of the ancient order of months from the pre-1752 Julian Calendar
Catholic: state church of Ireland
Church of England: state church of England and Wales (called the Church in Wales in the latter country)
convict servant: criminals in the British Isles who accepted exile accompanied by a mandatory labor term (usually seven or fourteen years in length) as an alternative to being executed or confined in British and Irish gaols; these individuals were transported by the government to the American colonies between 1615 and 1776, and between 1787 and 1868, the government shipped them to Australia; numbers sent to America increased after 1707; most convicts sent to Colonial America were between the ages of 20 and 30, their crimes varied from stealing insignificant amounts of goods or money, to rape and murder
contract: also called an *indenture, wherein emigrants agreed to work as servants without compensation for a fixed term, typically four or five years, in order to finance their passage from Europe to the New World
domestic servant: man or woman who worked for hire in a person’s home; in contrast to *indentured servants who did not receive compensation for their labor
emigrant: a person leaving his or her country of residence with the intent of settling in a new nation
exile: individual expelled from his or her native country by the government for opposing political views; often included *political rebels
factors: men who traded in their own name, possessed the goods, and usually did not reveal the names of the people for whom they were acting, as opposed to an *agent
free black: African-Americans in Antebellum America that acquired their freedom; many British and Irish female servants illegally bore mulatto children to enslaved men of African descent that became free during the Colonial Period
freedom dues: payment of articles of clothing, food, and sometimes land by masters or colonial governments to *immigrant servants upon the termination of their labor terms; these payments differed by colony and time period; *convict servants did not receive freedom dues
gaol: British-English term for jail or prison
gazette: colonial newspaper
Germany: the nation of Germany did not exist until 1871; before that date, modern-day Germany was divided into autonomous states, kingdoms, and principalities, such as Bayern (Bavaria) and Preussen (Prussia)
Great Britain: term used to describe England, Scotland, and Wales as a single entity from 1707 forward
headright: grant of land to individuals responsible for transporting immigrants to Colonial America, usually consisted of 50 acres; these grants of land motivated investors to transport immigrants to the New World
hired servant: servant who received wages for his or her labor; had power to select his or her own master and specify the amount of time to serve, in contrast to *convict servants, *indentured servants, and *redemptioners who lacked these abilities; hired servants were not necessarily immigrants, though many *immigrant servants, after acquiring their freedom, hired themselves out in this manner
Home Counties: region encompassing and surrounding Greater London, including Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex, and Surrey
immigrant: a person arriving in a new country with the intent to settle
immigrant servant: generic term used to describe all immigrants who came to America as servants, including *convict servants, *indentured servants, and *redemptioners
imported servant: contemporary term for *immigrant servant
indented servant: contemporary term for *indentured servant
indenture: *contract between a master or factor and his or her *immigrant servant specifying the length of time required to serve in order to pay for transatlantic passage
indentured servant: (1) European who could not afford passage to America who sold themselves to merchants and seamen in exchange for transporation to the colonies; these emigrants agreed to work without compensation for a fixed term, typically four or five years; (2) this term also describes unfree laborers in other parts of the world, at different times, such as Africans sent to Jamaica in the nineteenth century, and Indians exported to South Africa during the same period
Indian servant: Native American employed by European colonists as a *servant
King’s Passengers: contemporary term for *convict servants
labor term: period agreed by contract between *immigrant servants and their *masters during which servants labored without wages in order to finance transatlantic voyages; adult *indentured servants commonly contracted to serve for four or five years; *convicts on average served labor terms of seven or fourteen years
maid servant: in Colonial America, this term often designated a female *indentured servant; in England, this term applied to an unmarried female servant
mariner: see *seaman
master: (1) individual who owned the labor of an *immigrant servant for a contracted number of year; (2) individual who trained *apprentices; (3) individual who owned African *slaves
merchant: merchants often purchased immigrant servants in Europe and when the servants arrived in the New World, assigned (or sold) their contracts to colonists
mistress: a female *master
mulatto: offspring of union between black African Americans and Native Americans or Europeans
my man: contemporary term for *indentured servant
Nonconformist: religion that did not belong to the state church, such as Baptists, Methodists, and Puritans in England
political rebel: person whose political views were in opposition to the rulers of the nation; these individuals were often transported to America as punishment for their opinions
Presbyterian: the official religion of Scotland; also widespread in what is now Northern Ireland due to the influx of Scottish immigrants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Protestant: religion that rejects the authority of the Roman Catholic Church
redemptioner: an individual who traveled from Europe to America without paying a fare and upon arrival in the New World was required to “redeem” him or herself by collecting funds from relatives or friends; if the funds could not be obtained, the person was sold into indentured servitude
rogue: a scoundrel considered incorrigible
runaway servant: *immigrant servants often ran away from their masters in the attempt to escape their full *labor terms; if they were apprehended, they were usually punished by receiving additional time to serve
seaman: person employed in maritime trades; often acted as recruiting agents to *immigrant servants, also known as a *mariner
servant: this term has several meanings, (1) any person who served a *master, (2) an *immigrant servant, (3) term used by religious groups, such as Baptists in Antebellum America, to describe their African-American *slaves
settlement: in 1598, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the first settlement laws were passed in England. A person’s place of legal settlement was where a person was legally entitled to receive funds from the poor law, should he or she become disabled, unemployed, etc. During the sixteenth century, specific requirements were identified, which allowed individuals to gain legal settlement, such as living in a parish for one year, completing an apprenticeship, etc. When an individual wished to move to a new village or town, he or she received a settlement certificate from local magistrates to present to officials in the new place of residence. In America, the practice did not have a very great affect; however, somewhat similarly, freed *immigrant servants carried their indentures to prove that the had acquired their freedom, enabling them to move from place to place. Without this proof of freedom, he or she could have been incarcerated as a *runaway servant
seven-year servant: contemporary term for a transported *convict servant
ship captain: captains of ships often purchased *immigrant servants in Europe and upon arrival in the New World, assigned (or sold) their *contracts to colonists
slave: term commonly applied to black African-Americans held in bondage; however, it was also used to describe *Indian servants and white *immigrant servants who were in bondage
soul driver: individual in Colonial America who purchased *immigrant servants in bulk, and transported them inland in chains, to be sold in frontier settlements
spirit: individual who kidnapped impoverished children and youths in Europe and forced them to emigrate to the New World as *servants
transported felon: another term for a transported *convict servant
vagabond: a scoundrel considered incorrigible
vagrant: wandering individuals found guilty of offences such as begging
West Country: region in England where many *immigrant servants originated, encompassed Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire
white slave: another term for *immigrant servant
Source for “agent” and “factor:”: David Hancock, Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 124, quoting Malachy Postlethwayt, The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce: Translated from the French of the Celebrated Monsieur Savary (London: John & Paul Knapton, 1751).