which place they were to remain at anchor at least twenty-four hours, expressly included servants in its provisions,[1] because to permit the bulk of a cargo to be broken, so far as the personal merchandise on board was concerned, was to encourage its being broken in the case of ordinary goods by furnishing the amplest opportunity for this to be done. This Act of Assembly did not include in its scope either the Eastern Shore or York River. It was afterwards repealed on account of the serious inconvenience which it produced. The merchants were strongly opposed to its continuation because it increased the cost of a voyage to Virginia by prolonging the delay in the discharge of a cargo, and the planters objecting to it because they were indirectly compelled to recoup the traders for this additional expense. In all the abortive laws which were afterwards passed to establish ports, servants were required to be landed in these ports along with ordinary merchandise.[2]
When a large proportion of servants on board of a ship arriving in Virginia were consigned under indenture to planters named in the bills of lading,[3] the vessel either proceeded directly to the landings of these planters,[4] or to some general port where it could be conveniently reached by them.[5] Special instructions were given to Berkeley in 1611, that no passengers of this class were to be turned ashore until their masters had been informed of their presence and had been allowed ample time to send for them.[6]
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 246.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 413.
- ↑ An instance of a female servant, consigned to Mr. Thomas Pecke by bill of lading, will be found in the Records of York County, vol. 1657-1662, p. 179, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Rappahannock County, vol. 1656-1664, p. 87, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Life of Thomas Hellier, pp. 10, 11.
- ↑ Instructions to Berkeley, 1642, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. II, p. 286.
