xviii Introduction.

One case of a servant involves as the defendant a justice of the Court,
though, so far as the record shows, he was not present in person at the trial.
Thomas Taillor of Dorchester County "bought had & received of ... John
Burnham [a Virginia merchant] one man Negro of the age of sixteen yeares
or thereabouts In consideracon whereof the said Thomas Taillor did assume
upon himselfe & ... did faithfully promise, that he ... for the said Negro
man the Sume of twenty & five pounds lawfull money of England would well &
truely pay....." But he did not pay, and Burnham sued him for £30 sterling.
Taillor pleaded non-assumpsit, and both parties prayed a jury trial. The jury
said Taillor did promise, and awarded Burnham £25 sterling, the sum he said
Taillor had promised to pay. Taillor, who appeared by attorney, did not plead
the liberties and privileges, though his membership on the Court was set forth
in the memorandum (post, 159-160).

Not all the servants whose cases appear in these pages were indented or
indentured: some of them contracted with another person to work for him
for wages. John Blomfield, St. Mary's County innkeeper and attorney, and
once clerk of the Provincial Court, made, signed and sealed a contract for
service with Robert Dowlan, origin unknown. Dowlan agreed to serve Blomfield
"in such imployment as he the said Robert is or should be capable of" from
March 12, 1677/8 until October 31, 1678. For this service Blomfield said he
would provide meat drink washing and lodging, and would also pay Dowlan
three hundred pounds of tobacco a month. To this agreement a most unusual
provision was added. The servant should have the "privilege of a freeman as
to buying bartering and dealing with any person within this Province, any Law
or Act of Assembly to the contrary notwithstanding" (post, 201). The act of
Assembly of 1676 relating to servants and slaves provided that, because servants
had been stealing and selling their master's goods, "noe person whatsoever shall
Trade barter Comerce or any wayes deale with any Servant ..... without
leaue or Lycence first had ..... from Such Servants master mistris or Dame or
Overseer ..... vnder the penalty of two thousand pounds of tobacco" (Archives
II, 526-527). Blomfield was willing to waive this restriction in Dowlan's case,
but he seems to have been slow in paying him the three hundred pounds of
tobacco a month. After seven and a half months of service, Dowlan sued the
innkeeper for 2250 pounds of tobacco, and the latter confessed judgment for
1273 pounds, which the Court, sitting without a jury, awarded the servant
(post, 201-202).

Dowlan was supposed to get for a year's service 3600 pounds of tobacco in
addition to his board and lodging. This was vastly more than most servants
got. For the "man Negro of the age of Sixteen yeares or thereabouts" whom
Justice Thomas Taillor got from John Burnham, he agreed to pay twenty-five
pounds lawful money of England. In another case, Edward Man (or Mann)
received of Thomas Sprigg of Patuxent "two Mulattoes ..... between five or
six years old or thereabouts......." For these two little coloured children so
bound out to him, Man was to deliver a man servant and a woman servant about
sixteen years of age, or two men servants, or four thousand pounds of tobacco.
When Man did nothing, Sprigg sued, and got from the Court the four thousand
pounds plus 560 pounds more for costs (post, 177-178).