THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 19 
894 
White Slaves Within a Century. 
Some Early American Farmers. 
In the examination of some old papers 
which came to me from my father, I 
found one of considerable historical 
value, as relating to the condition of pio¬ 
neer farmers a century or less ago. The 
indenture, only 74 years old, which 
bound an able-bodied man to servitude 
for three years, for a debt of 850, is here 
reproduced for the readers of The Rural : 
THIS INDENTURE 
Witnesseth. That John Moser of his own free will 
and with the consent of Samuel Sehwertly hath bound 
himself Servant to John Beaver, of Chester County, 
I’enna., farmer, for the consideration of Fifty Dollars 
paid to Capt. Dyl for his passage from Amsterdam 
as also for other good causes the said John Moser 
hath bound and put himself Servant to the said John 
Beaver to serve him, his Executors and assigns from 
the day of the date hereof, for and during the full 
term of three years from thence next ensuing. Dur¬ 
ing which term the said Servant his said Master, his 
Executors and Assigns faithfully shall serve, and 
that honestly and obediently In all things, as a good 
and faithful servant ought to do. 
AND the said John Beaver, his Executors and As¬ 
signs, during the said term shall find and provide 
for the said Servant, sufficient Meat, Drink, Apparel, 
Washing and Lodging, and to have six weeks school¬ 
ing during his term of servitude and at the expira¬ 
tion of his term to have two complete suits of clothes, 
one thereof to be new. 
And for the true performance hereof, both of the 
said parties bind themselves firmly unto each other 
by these Presents. In witness whereof they have 
interchangeably set their Hands and Seals. Dated 
the Twenty-ninth day of August, Annoque Domini 
one thousand eight hundred and seventeen. 
Bound Before jno. beaver. 
ANDREW JvEINAN 
Register. 
To all that It may concern that the within named 
John Beaver has compiled according to the within 
Indenture and to my mind and satisfaction, and am 
now willing of my own accord and free will to be set 
free. 
In witness whereof I set my hand and seal this 
29th (date not given.) Johannes moser. 
Witness Present 
CHARLES M. MtTLLIN. 
The Pennsylvania Messenger, of Janu¬ 
ary 18, 1774, contains the following ad¬ 
vertisement : 
GERMANS.—We are now offering fifty Germans just 
arrived to be seen at the Golden Swan, kept by the 
widow Kreider. The lot Includes schoomasters. artis¬ 
ans, peasants, boys and girls of various ages, all to 
serve for payment of passage. 
On April 4, 177(5, the following : 
A young girl and maid servant, strong and healthy, 
no fault. She is not qualified for the service now 
demanded. Five years to serve. 
And in the Pittsburg Gazette of Sep¬ 
tember, 178(5, this : 
To be sold (For ready money only.) A German woman 
servant with three years to serve. Inquire at Mr. 
Ormsby’s In Pittsburg. 
Pennsylvania was in colonial times the 
Mecca of German immigrants. Probably 
as many as 12,000 arrived in a single year. 
Many were so poor that they were unable 
to pay their passage to America, where, 
on their arrival, they were sold by the 
captains of the vessels bringing them 
here, for a term of years, usually three 
or five. This class of persons were 
called Redemptioners, and from them have 
descended some of the most prominent 
people in the State and nation. 
Meelick, in his Story of an Old Farm, 
quotes from 1). von Bulow, who wrote in 
1797 : “ It is easy to sell the farmers, but 
there are often men whom it is not easy 
to dispose of, e. g., officers and scholars. 
I have seen a Russian captain offered for 
sale eight days, and not a bid made. He 
had absolutely no market value. * * * 
After waiting several weeks, he was sold 
at a ridiculously low figure, as a village 
schoolmaster. ” 
At times, parents were compelled to 
sell all or a portion of their children, 
that the passage of the family might be 
paid. These Redemptioners were not all 
poor people. It is believed that some 
owners of vessels secured their cargoes of 
human beings by enticing the victims on 
board by offers of a free passage to Amer¬ 
ica. Others were told that a few months’ 
service would pay the passage. Some 
thought it proper to be servants while 
learning the language and customs of the 
new country. Many had been ruined at 
home by the wars which had been waged 
in Europe over 200 years. Most of these 
Germans were from the neighborhood of 
the Rhine Valley. They were commonly 
called Palatinates, and reached America 
by floating down the current of the great 
river, and then they were shipped at Rot¬ 
terdam. generally calling at some Eng¬ 
lish port on the way to Pennsylvania. 
The voyage sometimes continued for 
six long months, and in some cases half 
the passengers died. Those who sur¬ 
vived the voyage landed sick, broken¬ 
hearted, among strangers of different 
language and customs. They soon, how¬ 
ever, appear to have learned the lessons 
of a life in a new country, and in a very 
short period, to have become a power in 
the land. They prospered, for in 1747, 
Pennsylvania was the most flourishing of 
all the English colonies in America, be¬ 
cause of (according to the Bishop of Exe¬ 
ter) the large number of Germans in the 
colony, then, probably about 120,000 or 
three-fifths of the whole. In 1738 Gov. 
George Thomas wrote : “ This province 
has been for some years the asylum of 
the distressed Protestants of the Palatin¬ 
ate and other parts of Germany, and I 
believe it may be truthfully said that the 
present flourishing condition of it is in a 
great measure owing to the industry of 
these people ; it is not altogether the fer¬ 
tility of the soil, but also the number and 
industry” of the people that make a coun¬ 
try flourish.” 
General Simon Cameron, in his speech 
in Congress on the death of John 
Covode, (a descendant of a Redemp- 
tioner) used these words: “ Scarcely a 
generation had passed away before the 
hired servants began to buy their masters’ 
lands, to many their masters’ daughters, 
and to made good their claim to full 
equality with those whose bondsmen 
they had been. For a time, the Scotch- 
Irish made a sturdy stand for the su¬ 
premacy and superiority which seem to 
be their peculiar inheritance, place them 
where you may. At length the thrift, 
the superior patience and the persever¬ 
ance of the German blood prevailed. 
They bought and still possess the old 
homesteads, and have furnished us with 
an array of distinguished men of whom 
every citizen of our State is justly 
proud.” [dr.] geo. g. groff. 
Somerset Co., Pa. 
The Farmer and His Chances Fifty 
Years Ago. 
PROF. Wx J. BEAL. 
Looking- Back Half a Century. 
The following plain statement of facts 
will doubtless seem commonplace to many 
of the older readers of The Rural New- 
Yorker, especially those who have lived 
in the newer portions of our country, but 
for the benefit of the young it is needful 
to gently remind them occasionally that 
times have changed. As my earliest 
recollection of events pertains to south¬ 
ern Michigan, it will be most natural and 
easiest to state what I have seen, and a 
part of which I was. 
The region, like many others, was 
mainly covered by a heavy growth of 
timber. The pioneer of 50 years ago in 
that neighborhood, to rank well among 
his fellows as a successful, capable farm¬ 
er, must know how to chop down and 
cut up the surplus trees. There was a 
chance to display much skill as well as 
strength in this operation. Every boy, 
of course, must have an ax and learn to 
use it. The brush must be suitably dis¬ 
posed of by piling and firing ; the large, 
black logs of suitable lengths be drawn 
together and rolled into heaps in conveni¬ 
ent places and burned. A lively team of 
stout oxen was the fashion for farming 
in those times. Every well-trained farm¬ 
er’s boy must know how to break steers 
and drive them. Some of the best trees 
of oak or ash or black walnut were cut, 
with a clumsy, slow-cutting cross-cut 
saw, into lengths of eleven feet. An 
ironwood log, about seven inches in di¬ 
ameter and ten inches long, had an iron 
“beetle ring” held on each end by hard 
wood wedges, and a handle was fitted in 
an inch and a half hole in the middle. 
Ironwood wedges were made, about fif¬ 
teen inches long, with heads four inches 
in diameter. A pair of smaller iron 
wedges were also needed. The farmer 
knew how to split the logs into rails, 
where to insert the wedges to make every*never seemed to satisfy grandfather as 
blow count to the best advantage. Thesej well as the sickle, which he used when a 
rails he placed into a zizzag or worm* young man in Massachusetts. Much of 
rail fence, eight or ten rails high, soBthe grain was thrashed by the flail or by 
straight that a rifle ball, if shot.f oxen or horses or young cattle driven 
would hit the ends of the rails at^Jabout the barn floor over the opened 
each corner on one side of the fence., bundles. Fanning mills were early on 
Perhaps a pair of bars made of flat lj|the ground from some source, and crude 
rails, possibly inch and a half boards,^thrashing machines soon followed. The 
were securely set in suitable places to Ylatter did not clean the grain from the 
make an easy entrance or exit to each , chaff, nor carry the straw to the stack. 
A stone boat, home-made of course, of 
lot which would average perhaps 10 or 12 
acres. The bar posts were often held in 
place by “withes” made of the stems 
and branches of blue beech bushes, per¬ 
haps an inch in diameter. Every man 
knew how to put his foot on one end and 
twist the twigs to fit them for use. 
Withes were used to hold up many 
things, even to temporarily hold a wagon 
reach or wagon tire in place. The wagon 
was usually a clumsy and unsymmetrical, 
plain affair and no two were alike, as 
they were made near home by the com¬ 
bined efforts of the farmer, the wagon 
maker or wheel-wright and the black¬ 
smith. The yoke for the team was made 
of sugar maple; a queer staple passing 
up and down the middle, keyed to its 
place and holding a large ring and a 
small one below, for combining a wagon 
tongue, chains, etc. The bows were of 
hickory steamed and bent around a form 
till dry and set, and then held in place by 
a key above one of the two-inch holes of 
the yoke. From a log with a natural 
crook at one end, were split and hewed 
a pair of clumsy sled runners, which 
were shod with ironwood poles, with an 
ironwood or rock elm pole for a tongue. 
Stout hard wood pins held the whole to¬ 
gether, as iron bolts were costly and not 
much in use. 
After the brush and logs had been 
burned, the oxen were hitched by a log 
chain to a stout harrow made of logs put 
together in the form of the letter A. 
Thirteen teeth about an inch and a half 
square were driven through the logs. 
They must be stout enough “ to fetch 
up ” a team without injury, as the roots 
and stumps were numerous. The har¬ 
rowing answered very well without plow¬ 
ing for the first crop of corn, potatoes or 
wheat. The corn and potatoes were hoed 
by hand, possibly some attempt was made 
to use a shovel plow drawn by a single 
“ handy ” ox bearing a kind of single 
yoke holding a rope or chain at each end. 
The rows did not usually run very 
straight, but shied about from the stumps. 
The hoe was stout and clumsy, made at 
the blacksmith’s shop with a big “ eye ” 
or hole in which to insert a stout home¬ 
made handle of ash or hickory. In 
autumn the same tool was ground sharp 
and with a short handle was a “ corn- 
cutter.” The crib was made of rails or 
poles held in place by cross-slats, the 
whole thatched after a fashion with 
stalks, straw or hay ; possibly by 
“ shokes” if it were not convenient to 
get boards at a saw-mill. Our Yankees 
did not understand the art of thatching 
as do the men of Great Britain. 
The best farmers knew pretty well 
how to sow grain and grass seeds by 
hand, how to build a stack of grain, hay 
or straw so that it would turn off the 
water; they knew how to cradle grain 
and rake and bind it; how to set up and 
cap the shocks, and how to build a load 
on the wagon. They knew how to grind, 
hang and whet a scythe, and how to cut 
a nice swath. Usually a boy followed 
two or three mowers to toss the grass to 
aid in the curing. The hay was raked by 
a cheap hand implement into windrows, 
or, if very dry, it was hauled to the stack 
or neatly cocked. Forks had rarely three 
tines and were of awkward shape and 
heavy, and were usually made bv the 
neighboring smith, who, being a jack at 
many trades, did some poor jobs. The 
handle was home-made, and most likely 
a clumsy affair. Cradles and scythes and 
whetstones were made in the East; also 
grindstones and chains, and they were 
costly. The grain-cradle was an innova 
tion, which, although it did good work, 
no very definite plan, served to draw 
stones, wood for short distances, water 
from the spring and do various other 
errands. 
Fifty years ago iron mold-boards were 
used for plows. They were not of the 
best modern shape, and did not perform 
very good work. The wooden mold- 
board was generally going out of use, 
notwithstanding the early prejudice that 
the iron injured the soil in some way. 
To break up the oak-openings, cut big 
roots and turn over the ‘ ‘ grubs ” required 
three to five good yokes of cattle, with a 
stout man to hold the plow—one smart 
enough to look out for his shins, a boy 
or man or two to drive, and an ax was 
kept handy to cut the plow out if it got 
fast. This “breaking-up plow” cannot 
be well described. It was heavy, pretty 
stout and very clumsy, mostly made in 
the neighborhood. Nails were not very 
good and were costly; cheaper and 
better, though, than when grandfather 
and his associates took home, on contract, 
iron rods of the merchants, and made 
nails for them by hand during the long 
winters. Wooden pins were much used 
in holes bored with an auger. 
Work and Pay. —Fifty years ago, 
there was much less division of labor 
among men than there is to-day. As has 
been stated, since the farmer had to turn 
his hand to almost everything, he could 
be expert in but little. We made our 
own sugar and syrup, catching the sap in 
troughs made of short logs split in two 
and dug out with an ax. A slit was cut 
with an ax in the tree, and a wooden 
spout was set in after a gouge had been 
driven below the cut. The sap was car¬ 
ried in a pair of pails held by a basswood 
neck-yoke, and boiled in iron kettles held 
over a fire of green wood by a long pole. 
Every thing was to be done; industry was 
the rule ; tramps were unknown. In 
autumn for one to three months a third 
of the people had fever and ague; the 
sound ones did the very best they could 
to care for the sick and continue to hew 
homes out of the forest. 
Wheat was worth only 40 to (50 cents a 
bushel, and even then it had to be drawn 
1(5 miles over very bad roads, so bad that 
it sometimes took an ox team three or 
four days to make the round trip. Some¬ 
times it was necessary to drive 20 miles 
to get a “ grist ” ground. Freight was 
carried on the great lakes, on canals, on 
clumsy cars run over timbers on which 
was the old iron strap rail, in section 
about three fourths by three inches. Men 
were not rare who believed railroads 
would ruin the country, as they would 
make it impossible for poor men to live 
by “ teaming ” freight. 
By taking advantage of good sleighing, 
sometimes loads of dressed pork were 
taken by team to Monroe, Toledo or De¬ 
troit, a distance of 80 or 100 miles, and 
sold for 82 to 83 per 100 pounds. Taverns 
were numerous all along the State roads, 
and it was astonishing to see how many 
a few small rooms would hold overnight. 
Butter was worth five to ten cents a 
pound, eggs about the same per dozen ; 
cheese was not common, and was usually 
of poor quality and no two were of the 
same grade. A man for eight months in 
the year received 810 per month and 
board, and the hired girl 25 cents to 81 a 
week. 
(To be continued.) 
One cent will mail this paper to your friend 
in any part of the United States, Canada 
or Mexico, after you have read it and written 
your 'name on the comer. 
