Blessings

Today, as I recall the lives of our early ancestors and also the early historic period of our nation, it is with true thankfulness that I feel for having been born into the period of time in which we live.

Jamestown 1607

 Many of us have ancestors who came to Virginia very early…some were even on the very first ships which landed. We believe that we know all about them because of what we’ve read or perhaps been taught in school.  But many times, we are totally ignorant of what our ancestors’ lives were like or even what they endured to even exist.  

After having spent most of my life in research, I feel that perhaps I know how very much each of us have to be grateful for as we go about living our daily lives.  Indeed, few of us realize that even the very poorest person living in the United States today has a better life than most of the Kings and Queens who have ever lived in the entire world.  We all have clean water to drink, heated homes, schools to educate our families, a vehicle to drive, roadways on which to drive that vehicle, hospitals and doctors to help with our health problems and we have the right to practice our own religion without fear of death. 

Today, we know that when we leave our homes our family members will be safe until we return, but this has not always been true.  There are a few facts that I feel we need to look at more closely which concerns a few things that many of our own family members endured in order to build and secure our nation. 

Bibury, England

“The Atlantic Migrations” by Hanson documents the fact that even as late as the 1750’s children were being kidnapped from the streets of London and brought to Virginia to be sold as indentured servants.  Also, there is still another group of folk which we all tend to overlook because many of them are ancestors of many of our very own Early American ancestors…meaning those folk of ours hiding behind those proverbial “brick walls” that we so badly want to come crumbling down.  These folk were called “Redemptioners” and many were the individuals who agreed to sell themselves as “indentured” servants in exchange for their transportation fees and their upkeep for a specific period of time. 

For those of us living in today’s world of technology, it is important that we understand that a great number of able bodied servants [man-power] were needed or required to clear and develop the landgrants which were awarded to Virginia’s settlers, to protect all of those living from Indians, and to accomplish the necessary groundwork for both settlement and the resulting civilization. Without this process landowners would not have prospered and many more individuals would not have survived.

England ca. 1660

Between 1642 and 1664, “The Atlantic Migrations” reported that the population in Virginia grew from 10,000 to 38,000. Or in a twenty-year period of time the population of Virginia grew twenty-eight thousand persons or exploded to fourteen thousand persons per ten-year period which means the population grew more in one ten-year period of time than it had in the previous thirty-five-year period [1607-1642].  Another inducement offered to those unfortunates who were under disfavor of the laws was that “Those who had served the King and taken refuge in Virginia were to be freed from all dangers and punishments whatever.” In addition to those who volunteered to come to the colonies, the Crown authorized transportation of prisoners to either the colonies or to the West Indies as punishment for alleged crimes by which means the government evaded the responsibility of caring for its unfortunate subjects and trying to rehabilitate them.

In 1650, the Council of State ordered that Scot prisoners taken at the Battle of Worchester be deported to America.  The sending of military prisoners was soon extended to rid the mother country of classes which added to social unrest and unemployment.  During the period of 1653 to1656, there were various occasions when authorities were directed to gather up the homeless, idle, or other designated persons and to bargain with merchants to pay their passage to overseas colonies.  From this state of affairs, it was but a small step from luring young people aboard a vessel to enjoy a pleasant day’s outing and then to simply sail away with all aboard.

Scotland

I am so very thankful that I live in a time when my family may remain united.  I am unable to even imagine the horror of never being able to see one of my daughters or grandchildren  who might have been foolish enough to venture outside their home alone or to visit a nearby cousin.

The book, “Without Indentures: Index to White Slave Children on Colonial Court Records [Maryland and Virginia]” which was published by Richard Hayes Phillips in 2013 after many years of dedicated research proves beyond doubt, with actual court records the names of over five thousand children which were kidnapped from Ireland, Scotland, England and also from various parts of  New England.  These children were sold into slavery in both Virginia and Maryland between 1660 to 1720.  English law dated 1659 made it lawful for Justices of the Peace to kidnap children who were seen or discovered begging or even loitering [loafing] and ship them to the plantations [colonies] as servants without indentures.   County Court judges determined the ages of these young people and the younger the child was deemed to be, the longer was his/her sentence.

North American Map ca. 1660

Mr. Phillips' book is important because it sheds new light upon a new class of slaves [white children], which along with convicted laborers, Africans slaves, Native Americans and indentured servants compose a vital part of what became our American society.  To make this more real to all of us, in just the year 1660 in York County, Virginia, there were thirteen [13] white children brought as slaves into that colony.  Not one African nor Native American entered into slavery in that same colony as a slave in that same year. In 1679 there were thirty [30] white children sold as slaves with no African or Native American children being sold during the same period of time in this same Virginia Colony.

The final totals of white children imported into York County, Virginia with the purpose of being sold as slaves from 1658 to 1710 were three hundred eighty-five [385].  In total, there were three hundred eighty-five [385] white children, sixty-nine [69] Negros, and ten [10] Native Americans which entered this one Virginia colony during the same time [Phillips, p. 228].  When these different groups of slaves are added together, there is a total of four hundred and sixty-four children or young persons who were physically removed from their homes with the expectation of never seeing their loved ones again. 

Halloween Celebration with Owl, Mouse and  Moon

As we prepare to celebrate Halloween and to enter into the period of Thanksgiving, let us each reflect upon our many blessings and to be truly thankful for our many blessings.