The Gunpowder river system is the major upland drainage of Baltimore County, and, unlike many slow and low Maryland rivers feeding the Chesapeake Bay from the west, could provide power for primitive industry via water wheel technology.
Based on the description of the men below, who the gunmaker assumes will not use the pistols in self-defense or highway robbery, but to sell for their freedom—quite unlike the criminals of our own day—the question asks of itself, what did these men do to be sentenced to slave labor?
That is not a question that this author can answer. However, I can give the three ultimate sources for slave labor out of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and England:
1. The numerous Enclosure Acts, by which small farmers and other minor land owners had their property confiscated by the upper class and hence became homeless, jobless and penniless.
2. The Vagabond Act of 1572, which made homelessness, joblessness and pennilessness crimes punishable by shipment to the “plantations.”
3. Debt was illegal. Thereby, any credit card holder, mortgage holder, car loan holder, etc., of today, if attempting the same methods of purchasing in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and falling behind by a single payment, would be liable for imprisonment and sale for a number of years of forced labor necessary to repay the debt and also costs of shipment and court fees, etc.
There were over 100 crimes, including theft of food, which were punishable by death in early modern Britain. Crimes such as highway robbery were capital offenses, therefore few violent felons were actually sold as convict labor. Would you buy a murderer or robber to do your wife’s chores? Note that there were charges of unscrupulous ship masters selling dangerous criminals under false pretenses.
Keep in mind, that in Britain and America, debt was a sign of sinfulness and the State and private individuals saw any person in debt as someone of lax morality and possible evil, satanic nature.
Consider, have you ever been late on a debt payment?
If you have, then, if living under the economic conditions of the year of the listing below, you could expect to be sold for a term ranging from 3-7 years, during which your “rights” would be roughly equivalent to the rights enjoyed by your household pet under current law.
August 6, 1752
The Pennsylvania Gazette
Philadelphia, July 31, 1752.
Run away from the subscribers, living in the Forks of Gunpowder, in Baltimore county, Maryland, the 19th instant, the following servants, viz. John Jebb, a convict servant man,
large and well made, about 30 years of age, fresh complexion: Had on when he went away, a new felt hat, grey wig, red coat, and a white fustian frock, flowervest, two or three Holland shirts, ruffled at the bosom, blue cloth breeches, and blue ribbstockings: He is a shoemaker by trade, but understands farming, and was born in Shropshire, in England.
Also Thomas Robinson, a convict servant man, about 30 years of age, he is tall, and of a very dark complexion, with a down look [1]: Had on when he went away, a felt hat, brown wig, blue pea jacket, a check and a white shirt, petticoat trowsers, blue stockings, and a pair of old pumps, and was born in Yorkshire in England.
Likewise Peter Campbell, a convict servant man, well set, 5 feet 4 inches high: Had on when he went away, a brown kersey jacket, with flat metal buttons, yellow leather breeches, a pair of pumps, with steel buckles, castor hat [2], and three pair of grey yarn stockings: He was born in Ireland, but talks good English.
Whoever takes up the said servants, and brings them home to the subscribers, shall have Two Pistoles for each, if taken in Baltimore county; but if taken out of Baltimore county, Three Pistoles; and if out of Maryland, Four Pistoles for each, paid by John Grinef Howard, Daniel Pocock senior, and William Watkins.
N.B. The above mention servants have two guns, and some money, with them, and supposed they will sell their guns, and change their names and cloathing, and pass for labourers or sailors.
Notes
1. A Down look is a term unfamiliar to the postmodern person, who inherits virtually all of his sensibilities from the upper class [merchant and aristocrat] of old who looked down upon others. Modern nomenclature is such that this expression is hard to search online, as we are all petty aristocrats in our own minds, expressing jealous reverence of the political and social elite in our language construction. In the past, through most of history, a person with a down look, was a poor person who knew his lowly place and looked down habitually, rarely lifting an eye to meet the gaze of his better. At many times in history—indeed, through most of it—virtually all people had a down look. This was not so much an act of looking down, but rather a beaten and spiritually broken expression of the countenance, with a downward gaze an aspect of that condition. A residual sense of this survives in such terms as "down and out" and "down in the dumps."
2. A Castor hat was an early type of urban leisure hat akin to the fedora.
"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender." -Proverbs 22:7 (NIV)
"The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." - Proverbs 22:7 (KJV)
FYI. The New International Version (NIV) of the Bible is a translation of the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek into modern English, with the last edition having been published in 2011. The King James Version (KJV) was published in 1607 and translated from the Hebrew and Greek into what we refer to today as Elizabethan English, in other words the English language as it was spoken some 400 years ago in the age of Queen Elisabeth I and playwright William Shakespeare. I recalled your observation that the people who were referred to as "servants" in 16th, 17th and 18th Century America were really "slaves" in our modern understanding of the term. This made the difference in the translation's Proverbs 22:7 more pointed. The whole debt slavery subject just goes to show one how easily a person could lose his freedom in the distant past, and by what a slender thread our own freedom hangs, even today. It puts our nearly 20 trillion dollars of national debt in a new perspective. And that isn't even counting all the state and local public debt and well as the billions of dollars of personal debt in the country, like credit card debt, student debt and home and auto loans. cnbc.com/2014/10/01/new-debt-crisis-fear-subprime-auto-loans.html. One man's debt is another man's asset. That much hasn't changed in the past 400 years, or even the past 4000 years. There are still plenty of "rent" seekers around, always will be. What HAS changed is that the penalties for defaulting on your debt payments are much more lenient and humane than they were in the past. Which of course makes people in 21st Century America more willing to risk going into debt, since there doesn't seem to be much risk of losing your freedom involved. At least for now. That could change drastically when the economic collapse hits.
Interestingly, from the beginning, the people being sold as servants called themselves slaves, as that term was in use by the Barbary pirates, who were trafficking heavily in English, many of them snatched a whole village at a time from under the virgin queen's elevated nose.
Jeremy, thanks for reminding us what debt means—it has ben scrubbed from our minds.
Incidentally, if you could interpret Paul's letter to Philemon according to the most recent translation, I would greatly appreciate it.
You probably know but some may not that there used be individual State maximum interest rates. The Federal government of course did away with this. There also used to be easy bankruptcy that would wipe out unsecured credit card debt. Of course they did away with that also.
I'm actually for max interest and bankruptcy of debts. Not because I have done so but because you shouldn't lend money to this who are likely not to pay. It weakens the whole banking system and when they fail we're supposed to pick up the tab.