fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007 - Ethical Culture ...

Nathaniel Bacon: Bacon’s Declaration inthe Name of the People July 30, 1676Gottlieb Mittelberger: On the Misfortuneof Indentured Servants (1754)1. For having upon specious pretenses of public works raisedgreat unjust taxes upon the Commonality for the advancementof private favorites and other Sinister ends, but no visibleeffects in any measure adequate, for not having during thislong time of his Government in any measure advanced thishopeful colony either by fortifications Townes or Trade.2. For having abused and rendered contemptible theMagistrates of Justice, by advancing to places of Judicature,scandalous and Ignorant favorites.3. For having wronged his Majesties prerogative and interest,by assuming Monopoly of the Beaver trade, and for having inthat unjust gain betrayed and sold his Majesties Country andthe lives of his loyal subjects to the barbarous heathen.4. For having protected, favored, and Imboldened the Indiansagainst his Majesties loyal subjects, never contriving, requiring,or appointing any due or proper means of satisfaction for theirmany Invasions, robberies, and murders committed upon us....Of this and the aforesaid articles we accuse Sir WilliamBerkeley as guilty of every one of the same, and as one whohas traitorously attempted, violated, and injured his Majestiesinterests here, by a loss of a great part of this his colony and manyof his faithful loyal subjects, by him betrayed in a barbarousand shameful manner exposed to the incursions and murder ofthe heathen, And we further do declare these ensuing personsin this list, to have been wicked and pernicious councellors,aiders, and assisters against the Commonality in these ourcivil commotions. And we do further demand that the SaidSir William Berkeley with all the persons in this list forthwithdelivered up or surrender themselves within four days afterthis notice hereof, or otherwise we declare as forthwith:That in whatsoever place, house, or ship, any of said personsshall reside, be his, or protected, we declare the owner, master,or inhabitor or said place traitors to the people, and the estatesof the aforesaid persons are to be confiscated, and this we theCommons of Virginia do declare, desiring a firm union amongourselves that we may jointly and with one accord defendourselves against the common enemy, and let not the faults ofthe guilty be reproach for the innocent, orthe faults or crimes of our oppressors divide and separate uswho have suffered by their oppressions.— Nathaniel Bacon General by Consent of the PeopleIndentured, or bonded, servants were an important source oflabor in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America. The termgenerally refers to immigrants who, in return for passage fromEurope to America, had bound themselves to work in America for anumber of years, after which time they would become completely free.The practice was closely related to the tradition of apprenticeship, inwhich a youth was assigned to work for a master in a certain tradeand in return was taught the skills of the trade.Convicts were another important source of colonial labor; thousandsof English criminals were sentenced to labor in the colonies for aspecified period, after which time they were freed.Gottlieb Mittelberger came to Pennsylvania from Germany in1750. He returned to Europe four years later. Mittelberger’s ownfortunes were not so bleak as those of his shipmates. Mittelbergerserved as a schoolmaster and organist in Philadelphia for three years.He returned to Germany in 1754. Consider Miittelberger’s plightand reflect upon how indentured servitude reveals a certain classstructure in the colonies. How might such a “set-up” pose problemsfor the landed elite?Both in Rotterdam and in Amsterdam the people are packeddensely, like herrings so to say, in the large sea-vessels. Oneperson receives a place of scarcely 2 feet width and 6 feetlength in the bedstead, while many a ship carries four to sixhundred souls; not to mention the innumerable implements,tools, provisions, water-barrels and other things which likewiseoccupy much space.On account of contrary winds it takes the ships sometimes 2, 3and 4 weeks to make the trip from Holland to England. Butwhen the wind is good, they get there in 8 days or even sooner.Everything is examined there and the custom-duties paid, whenceit comes that the ships ride there 8, 10 to 14 days and even longerat anchor, till they have taken in their full cargoes. During thattime every one is compelled to spend his last remaining moneyand to consume his little stock of provisions which had beenreserved for the sea; so that most passengers, finding themselveson the ocean where they would be in greater need of them, mustgreatly suffer from hunger and want. Many suffer want alreadyon the water between Holland and Old England.When the ships have for the last time weighed their anchorsnear the city of Kaupp [Cowes] in Old England, the real miserybegins with the long voyage. For from there the ships, unlessthey have good wind, must often sail 8, 9, 10 to 12 weeks beforethey reach Philadelphia. But even with the best wind the voyagelasts 7 weeks.21