Servant Migration and the Transfer of Culture from the Old World to the New

Marianne S. Wokeck

Servants played a critical role in the lasting success of settlement in the British colonies of North America. Historians have explored the impact of servants as laborers; the varying opportunities for freed men and women in terms of establishing households, improving their status, and increasing their wealth; and the transition from servitude to slavery on the one hand and to wage labor on the other. This essay, which centers mainly on the German settlements in the Middle colonies, raises questions about the influence of servants in shaping American customs and traditions. The system of redeeming the fare for transatlantic passage through a limited time of servitude was critical in the transfer and adaptation of culture. When the system worked properly, these temporary arrangements between masters and servants served both parties well. They provided servants with the necessary orientation and experience before they set out for themselves; they gave masters the labor they needed and also offered their children the kind of socialization that they were familiar with and that reinforced Old World behavior and customs. Once German farmers could count on their own children for work, however, the need for bound servants decreased and as the back counties filled up, subsequent, temporary labor shortages could easily be met by hiring wage workers or cottagers for tasks that exceeded the capabilities of the family.

[WP #96023]