If the whole cargo of such persons were the property of a merchant who owned or had chartered the ship in which they were transported, the captain sailed to those parts of the Colony where the merchant’s factors resided.[1] If the vessel was without special consignments, it seems to have been the habit of the planters residing in the neighborhood of the place where she came to anchor, to got on board, and make purchases of servants if they formed a part of the cargo. The most prominent citizens slid not disdain to buy in person in this manner.[2]
In assigning servants to the planters, the merchant, or the shipmaster acting as the merchant’s attorney, could only dispose of the terms designated in their indentures, which in general had been drawn either at the beginning or at the end of the voyage.[3] In the absence of any documentary agreement, they could only be sold for the period laid down by the custom of Virginia. In some cases, a person who had come over to the Colony with a view to settling there permanently, if his impressions were favorable, hired out his laborers for a certain length of time while he inquired into the general conditions prevailing in the country. The only remuneration allowed for their use under these circumstances was their bare support and
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1664-1672, pp. 549, 550, Va. State Library; Records of Middlesex County, original vol. 1680-1694, orders Aug. 7, 1693.
- ↑ Records of Lancaster County, original vol. 1680-1686, April 8, 1684; Records of Middlesex County, original vol. 1680-1694, orders March 2, 1684; Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1656-1666, p. 232; Records of York County, vol. 1657-1662, p. 338, Va. State Library.
- ↑ The following reference to the manner in which the servants kept their indenture papers on the ocean voyage is found in the Records of Henrico County, vol. 1688-1697, pp. 262, 263: “After the ships arrived in the Capes . . . several of them (servants) talked of securing their indentures, the men would sowe them in the waistband of their breeches, and this Bridget said she would sowe hers in her stomacher.”
