The Atlantic Proletariat”U.S. Labor and Work - 201Week 2P.docx

The “Atlantic Proletariat”
U.S. Labor and Work - 201
Week 2
Prof. Brucher
What does “Proletariat” mean?
From the Latin proletarius: a person having no wealth or
property and only served the state by producing offspring.
By the mid-17th century “proletarian” and “proletariat” were
used in English to describe common workers.
Today, these terms are used to describe the working class in
broad terms.
Why call it the“Atlantic Proletariat”?
Social historians argue that a wide-ranging group of workers
provided the labor necessary for colonial expansion in the
Atlantic economy of the Americas from the time of contact
between European, African, and Native American Peoples.
Who were the Atlantic Proletariat?
Indentured Servants
Slaves
Dispossessed commoners
Transported felons
Religious radicals

Urban laborers
Soldiers
Sailors
Pirates
Native Americans
Why focus on workers?
Of course, we can look at other factors when studying the
Atlantic economy:
Technological advancement and knowledge driving exploration
(better sailing ships, navigation methods, etc.).
Agricultural advancement (cultivating crops).
Political developments fuelling expansion and trade (see
textbook chapter 1!).
Religious motivations (Spanish, Portuguese, and French
Catholic missionaries, English religious dissenters, etc.).
Why focus on workers?
Ordinary workers did the labor that was essential to the rise of
the Atlantic economy from the 16th through 19th centuries,
which in turn fueled the growth of the modern global economy.
At the same time, many members of the Atlantic Proletariat
tried to resist or adapt to conditions that were often brutal,
violent, and inhumane.
Processes that help create the Atlantic Proletariat
Expropriation: The seizure of common property used by the
many (ordinary people) and put in the hands of the few
(governments/kingdoms, colonial corporations). Examples:

Spanish conquistadors seizing lands in the Caribbean, Mexico,
Central America, and South America to create enconmiendas
controlled by wealthy Spanish landlords under the Spanish
crown.
Wealthy lords enclosing the commons (shared agricultural lands
used by poor communities) in Great Britain.
English corporations like the Virginia Company that set up
agricultural colonies on the east coast, claiming property for
themselves and the English crown.
Processes that help create the Atlantic Proletariat
Exploitation: The act of mistreating someone to benefit from
their labor. The work involved in expropriation was
particularly exploitative:
Encomiendas: Native Americans forced to work for the Spanish
landlords, clearing land and harvesting crops. African slaves
later imported to the Spanish colonies.
Enclosing the commons: Poor people kicked people off the land,
forcing them to become tenant farmers, move to the cities for
work, or become indentured servants in America. Poor people
also imprisoned and forced to work; many sent to work as
sailors or to work in the Americas.
The Virginia company and other colonial corporations: pushed
Native Americans off of the land (violently), forced indentured
servants and later African slaves to work under brutal
conditions.
Native Americans

Prior to contact with Columbus and other Europeans, there were
as many as 15 to 20 million Native Americans in Mexico and
anywhere from 1 to 18 million (5 million is a good estimate)
north of Mexico in the present day U.S. and Canada.
Societies ranged from the highly organized city-states and
empires (Aztecs) to small family-based communities, including
the Lenape in the NJ/NY/PA/DE area (“Delaware” peoples).
Lenape
Traded with Dutch colonies in NY/NJ and English colonies in
PA.
Conflicts with the colonists: Dutch West Indian Company
director Willem Kieft led an attack against Weckquaesgeek and
Tappan villages, killing 120 Native Americans.
In the ensuing “Kieft’s War” of 1643-145, hundreds of colonists
were killed by the Lenape and their allies; over 1,000 Lenape
were killed by Dutch and English forces.
After a century of wars and conflicts, disease, and encroaching
European settlements, most Lenape were forced to leave NY,
NJ, and PA after the Treaty of Easton was signed in 1758.
Lenape place names remain throughout the area: Weehawken,
Mahwah, Metuchen, Raritan, Piscataway…
Pirates: “Life Under the Jolly Roger”
Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard, 1718
Introduction and Course Requirements
Week 1

U.S. Labor and Work Before the End of Reconstruction
37:575:201
Prof. Will Brucher
Martin Luther King, Jr., January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963
March on Behalf of Striking Memphis Sanitation Workers,
March 28, 1968
4
Coretta Scott King and the Public Hospital Workers Strike,
Charleston, South Carolina, 1969
5
“The Other America” speech, April 14, 1967
Some questions…
What is “work?”
Why should we study the history of work?

6
… and some more questions
What was work like in the past?
What work did people do in the 1600s? In the 1700s? The
1800s? Who did the work?
How did work change?
Did working people have any say in how work changed?
7
In this class we will:
Study the important themes of the history of work in the
Americas from the initial contact of European, Native America,
and African peoples to the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction,
ca. 1492 – 1877
8
In this class we will:
Look at the political history of work
Look at the economic history of work
9

… and most importantly:
We will look at the social and cultural histories of work and
those who did it!
What were the experiences of ordinary people?
10
Edward Teach, commonly called Blackboard, was the best-
known pirate captain of
the Atlantic world during the early 18th century. Pursued by the
Royal Navy, Teach
was finally caught and executed in 1718.
REFLECTIONS
For centuries, as merchant ships plied the high seas, pirates
lurked
somewhere nearby to prey upon them. Usually murderous and
cruel,
such maritime brigands have seldom been completely lawless.
In-
deed, throughout history, and regardless of national origin, most
free-
hooters have avoided anarchy; in some cases, they fashioned

their
own ethical codes as well as special notions of authority.
Between
1716 and 1726, the brief heyday of Anglo-American piracy,
thou-
sands of men sailed under the Jolly Roger. Drawing upon 18th-
cen-
tury British archives, including the court records of sailors
captured
and tried for piracy, historian Marcus Rediker describes the
unusual
society of these "desperate Rogues" who not only dreamed of
wealth
and revenge but also claimed a certain fraternity and justice.
Writing to the Board of Trade in 1724, Governor Alexander
Spotswood of
Virginia lamented his lack of "some safe opportunity to get
home" to
London. He insisted that he would travel only in a well-armed
man-of-war.
"Your Lordships will easily conceive my Meaning when you
reflect on
the Vigorous part I've acted to suppress Pirates: and if those
barbarous
Wretches can be moved to cut off the Nose & Ears of a Master
for but
correcting his own Sailors, what inhuman treatment must I
expect, should
I fall within their power, who have been markt as the principle
object of
their vengeance, for cutting off their arch Pirate Thatch
[Edward Teach,
also known as Blackboard], with all his grand Designs, &
making so many

of their Fraternity to swing in the open air of Virginia."
Spotswood knew these pirates well. He had authorized the
expedition
that returned to Virginia claiming Blackboard's head as a
trophy. He knew
that pirates had a fondness for revenge, that they often punished
captured
ship captains for "correcting" their crews, and that a kind of
"fraternity"
prevailed among them. He had good reason to fear them.
Anglo-American pirates created a crisis for the Empire with
their
relentless attacks upon merchants' property and international
commerce
WQ SUMMER 1988
155
PIRATES
between 1716 and 1726. Accordingly, these freebooters occupy
a grand
position in the long, grim history of robbery at sea. Their
numbers, near
5,000, were extraordinary, and their plundering in the Atlantic
and else-
where was exceptional in both volume and value.
Piracy represented crime on a massive scale. It was a way of
life
voluntarily chosen, for the most part, by large numbers of men

who di-
rectly challenged the harsh ways of the maritime society from
which they
excepted themselves. Beneath the Jolly Roger, "the banner of
King
Death," a new social world took shape once pirates had, as one
of them put
it, "the choice in themselves."
Going on the Account
From records that describe the activities of pirate ships, and
from
reports or projections of crew sizes, it appears that 1,800 to
2,400 Anglo-
American pirates prowled the seas between 1716 and 1718,
1,500 to
2,000 between 1719 and 1722, and 1,000 to 1,500, declining to
fewer
than 200, between 1 7 2 3 and 1726. In the only estimate we
have from the
other side of the law, a band of pirates in 1716 claimed that "30
Company
of them," or roughly 2,400 men, plied the oceans of the globe.
In all, some
4,500 to 5,500 men went, a s they called it, "upon the account."
T h e
pirates' chief scourge, Britain's Royal Navy, employed an
average of only
13,000 men in any given year between 1716 and 1726.
These sea robbers preyed upon the most lucrative trade and, like
their predecessors, sought bases for their depredations in the
Caribbean
Sea and the Indian Ocean. T h e Bahama Islands, undefended
and ungov-

e m e d by the crown, began in 1716 to attract pirates by the
hundreds. By
1718 a torrent of complaints had moved George I to commission
Governor
Woodes Rogers to lead an expedition to bring the islands under
control.
Rogers's efforts largely succeeded, and the pirates dispersed to
the unpeo-
pled inlets of the Carolmas and t o Africa. They had frequented
African
shores as early a s 1691; by 1718, Madagascar served a s both
an entrepot
for booty and a place for temporary settlement. At the mouth of
the Sierra
Leone River on Africa's west coast, pirates stopped off for
"whoring and
drinking" and to unload goods.
Theaters of operations for pirates shifted, however, according to
the
deployments of the Royal Navy. Pirates favored the Caribbean's
small,
unsettled cays and shallow waters, which proved hard to
negotiate for the
men-of-war that gave chase. But generally, as one pirate noted,
these
Marcus Rediker, 36, is associate professor of history at
Georgetown Univer-
sity. Born in Owensboro, Kentucky, he received a B.A. from
Virginia Com-
monwealth University (1976), and a n M.A. (1978) and a Ph.D.
(1982) from
the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Between the
Devil and the
Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-

American Maritime
World, 1700-1750, from which this essay is drawn. Copyright
@ 1987 Cam-
bridge University Press. Reprinted with permission.
WQ SUMMER 1988
The notorious women pirates Mary Read and A n n e Bonny
proved to be as
bold as any of Calico Jack Rackam's crew. By "pleading their
bellies" @reg-
nancy) a t their trials i n 1721, they both managed to dodge the
gallows.
rovers were "dispers't into several parts of the World." Sea
robbers
sought and usually found bases near major trade routes, as
distant as
possible from the powers of the state.
Almost all the pirates had earlier labored as merchant seamen,
Royal
Navy sailors, or privateenmen.* The vast majority came from
captured
merchantmen as volunteers, for reasons suggested by Dr.
Samuel John-
son's observation that "no man will be a sailor who has
contrivance enough
to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in jail with
the chance
of being drowned. . . A man in jail has more room, better food,
and com-
monly better company."

Dr. Johnson had a point. Service aboard ship did not differ
essentially
from incarceration in a jail. Life was harsh in both places.
During the early
18th century, disease, accidents, and death were commonplace
aboard
ships; natural disasters threatened incessantly, rations were
often meager,
and discipline was brutal, even murderous on occasion.
Peacetime wages
were low; there were fraud and irregularities in the distribution
of pay.
British merchant seamen also had to face the constant risk of
impressment
by the Royal Navy, whose commanders sought recruits on land
and sea.
*Privateers were privately owned armed vessels licensed by
governments in time of war to capture the
merchant ships of an enemy. Proceeds were distributed among
king, investors, ship's officers, and seamen.
Privateering was abolished by the Declaration of Paris in 1856.
WQ SUMMER 1988
157
PIRATES
Some pirates had served in the fleet, where conditions aboard
ship
were no less harsh. Food supplies often ran short, pay was low,
mortality
was high, discipline severe, and desertion consequently chronic.
As one

officer reported, the Royal Navy had trouble fighting pirates
because the
king's ships were "so much disabled by sickness, death, and
desertion of
their seamen."
Pirates who had served on privateering vessels knew well that
such
employment was far less onerous than that on merchant or naval
ships.
Food was usually more plentiful, the pay higher, and the work
shifts gener-
ally shorter. Even so, owing to rigid discipline and other
grievances, muti-
nies were not uncommon. During Woodes Rogers's successful
privateering
expedition against the Spanish (1708-ll), one Peter Clark was
thrown
into irons for wishing himself "aboard a Pirate" and saying that
"he should
be glad that an Enemy, who could over-power us, was a-long-
side of us."
Most men became pirates when their merchant vessels were cap-
tured. Colonel Benjamin B e m e t wrote to the Council of
Trade and Planta-
tions in 1718, setting forth his worries about freebooters in the
West
Indies: "I fear they will soon multiply for so many are willing to
joyn with
them when taken." The seizure of a merchant ship was usually
followed by
a moment of great drama. The pirate captain asked the
assembled seamen
of the captured vessel who among them would serve under the
Jolly

Roger, and frequently several stepped forward. Far fewer
pirates began a s
mutineers who had collectively seized control of a merchant
vessel. But
piracy was not an option open to landlubbers, since sea robbers,
Daniel
Defoe observed, "entertain'd so contemptible a Notion of
Landmen."
Rank Hath No Privileges
Ages a r e known for 117 pirates active between 1716 and
1726. The
range was 1 7 to 50 years, the mean 27.4, and the median 27;
the 20-24
and 25-29 age categories had the highest concentrations, with
39 and 37
men, respectively. Three in five were 2 5 or older. The age
distribution
was almost identical to that of the British merchant service a s
a whole,
suggesting that piracy held roughly equal attraction for sailors
of all ages.
Though evidence is sketchy, most pirates seem not to have been
bound to land and home by familial ties or obligations. Wives
and children
were rarely mentioned in the records of trials of pirates, and
pirate ves-
sels, to forestall desertion, often would "take no Married Man."
Almost
without exception, pirates, like the larger body of seafaring
men, came
from the lowest social classes in Britain and its American
colonies. They
were, as a royal official observed, "desperate Rogues" who

could see little
hope in life ashore.
Yet contemporaries who claimed that pirates had "no regular
com-
mand among them" mistook a different social order-different
from the
hierarchy aboard merchant, naval, and privateering vessels-for
disorder.
This arrangement was conceived by the pirates themselves.
Their hall-
WQ SUMMER 1988
PIRATES
mark was a rough, improvised egalitarianism that placed
authority in the
collective hands of the crew.
A striking uniformity of rules and customs prevailed aboard
pirate
ships, each of which functioned under the terms of written
"articles"-a
compact drawn up a t the beginning of a voyage or upon
election of a new
captain, and agreed to by the crew. Under these articles, crews
allocated
authority, distributed plunder, and enforced discipline. In
effect, these ar-
rangements made the captain the creature of his crew.
Favoring someone both bold of temper and skilled in
navigation, the

sailors elected their captain. They gave him few privileges. He
"or any
other Officer is allowed no more [food] than another man, nay,
the Captain
cannot keep his Cabbin to himself." Wilharn Snelgrave, a
merchant captain
seized by pirates, noted with displeasure that the crew slept on
the ship
wherever they pleased, "the Captain himself not being allowed a
Bed."
Distributing Plunder
The crew granted the captain unquestioned authority "in
fighting,
chasing, or being chased," but "in all other Matters whatsoever"
he was
"governed by a Majority." As the majority chose, so did it
depose. Cap-
tains were ousted from their positions for cowardice, cruelty, or
refusing
"to take and plunder English Vessels." One captain incurred the
class-
conscious wrath of his crew for being too "Gentlemen-like."
Occasionally,
a despotic captain was summarily executed. As pirate Francis
Kennedy
explained, most sea robbers, "having suffered formerly from the
ill-treat-
ment of their officers, provided carefully against any such evil"
once they
arranged their own command.
To prevent the misuse of authority, pirates delegated
countervailing
powers to the quartermaster, who was elected to represent and

protect
"the Interest of the Crew." The quartermaster, who was not
considered
an officer in the merchant service, was elevated to a position of
trust and
authority. His tasks were to adjudicate minor disputes, to
distribute food
and money, and, in some instances, to lead the attacks on prize
vessels. He
served a s a "civil Magistrate" and dispensed necessaries "with
an Equality
to them all," carefully guarding against the galling and divisive
use of
privilege and preferment that characterized the distribution of
the necessi-
ties of life in other maritime occupations. This dual authority
was a distinc-
tive feature of pirate vessels.
The decisions that had the greatest bearing on the welfare of the
crew were generally reserved t o the council, the highest
authority on the
pirate ship. Pirates drew upon an ancient custom, largely
forgotten by the
18th century, under which the master consulted his entire crew
in making
crucial decisions. The council determined such matters as where
the best
prizes could be taken and how any dissension was to be
resolved. Some
crews resorted frequently to the council, "carrying every thing
by a major-
ity of votes"; others set up the council as a court. The decisions
made by
WQ SUMMER 1988

159
this body were sacrosanct, and even the boldest captain dared
not chal-
lenge a council's mandate.
The distribution of plunder was regulated explicitly by the
ship's arti-
cles, which allocated booty according to skills and duties.
Abolishing the
wage relation, pirates turned to a share system to allocate their
take.
Captain and quartermaster each received from one and one-half
to two
shares; gunners, boatswains, mates, carpenters, and doctors, one
and one-
quarter to one and one-half; all others got one share each. The
pay system
represented a radical departure from the highly unequal
allocation of pay in
the merchant service, Royal Navy, or privateering. Indeed, the
pirates
devised perhaps one of the most egalitarian plans for the
disposition of
resources to be found anywhere in the early 18th century.
But not all booty was dispensed this way. A portion went into a
"common fund" to provide for the men who sustained lasting
injury. The
loss of eyesight or any appendage merited special
compensation. This rudi-
mentary welfare system served to guard against debilities
caused by acci-

dents, to protect skills, to enhance recruitment, and to promote
loyalty
within the group.
The articles also regulated discipline aboard ship, though
"discipline"
is perhaps a misnomer for a system of rules that left large
ranges of
A pirate is hanged at Execu-
tion Dock i n Wapping, Lon-
don. British authorities
hoped that such public hang-
ings i n the city's largest sea-
faring neighborhood would
discourage any would-be
buccaneers.
WQ SUMMER 1988
160
PIRATES
behavior uncontrolled. Less arbitrary than that of the merchant
service
and less codified than that of the Royal Navy, discipline among
pirates
always depended on a collective sense of transgression. Many
misdeeds
were accorded "what Punishment the Captain and Majority of
the Com-
pany shall think fit," and it is noteworthy that pirates did not
often resort

to the whip.
Three major methods of discipline were employed, all
conditioned by
the fact that pirate ships were crowded; an average crew
numbered near
8 0 on a 250-ton vessel. T h e articles of Bartholomew
Roberta's ship re-
vealed one tactic for maintaining order: "No striking one
another on board,
but every Man's Quarrels to be ended on Shore at Sword and
Pistol." By
taking such conflicts off the ship (and symbolically off the sea),
this practice
was designed to promote harmony in the crowded quarters
below decks.
Regulating Conflict
The ideal of harmony was also enforced through the decision to
make
a crew member the "Governor of an Island." Men who were
incorrigibly
disruptive or who transgressed important rules were simply
marooned.
For defrauding his mates by taking more than a proper share of
plunder,
for malingering during battle, for keeping secrets from the crew,
or for
stealing, a pirate risked being deposited "where he was sure to
encounter
Hardships."
The ultimate sanction was execution. This penalty was imposed
for
bringing on board "a Boy or a Woman" or for meddling with a

"prudent
Woman" on a prize ship, but was most commonly invoked to
punish a
captain who abused his authority. Some crews attempted to
avoid disciplin-
ary problems by taking as a recruit "no Body against their
Wills." By the
same logic, they would keep no unwilling person.
Yet for all the efforts to limit authority and to maintain
harmony,
conflict could not always be contained. Occasionally upon
election of a new
captain, men who favored other leadership drew up new articles,
took
another ship, and sailed away from their former mates. But the
very pro-
cess by which new crews were established helped to ensure a
social unifor-
mity and, as we shall see, a sense of fraternity among pirates.
One important mechanism in this continuity can be seen by
charting
the connections among pirate crews. The diagram on the
following page,
arranged according to vessel captaincy, demonstrates that by
splintering,
by sailing in consorts, or by other associations, roughly 3,600
pirates-
more than 7 0 percent of all those active between 1716 and
1726-fit into
two main lines of genealogical descent.
Captain Benjamin Hornigold and the pirate rendezvous in the
Baha-
mas stood a t the origin of an intricate lineage that ended with

the hanging
of John Phillips's crew in June 1724. The second line, spawned
in the
chance meeting of the lately mutinous crews of George Lowther
and Ed-
ward Low in 1722, culminated in the British government's
capture, trial,
WQ SUMMER 1988
PIRATES
Connections among Anglo-American pirate crews, 1714-26.
[Key to symbols-(-)
direct descent: crew division became of dispute, overcrowding,
or election of a new
captain; (=) sailed in consort; (- - -) other connection: common
crew members,
contact without sailing together; 6) used the Bahama Islands as
rendezvous.]
and executions of William Fly and his men in July 1726. It was
primarily
within and through this network that the social organization of
the pirate
ship took on its significance, transmitting and preserving
customs and
meanings and helping to structure and perpetuate the pirates'
social world.
Pirates constructed their own world in defiance of the one they
left
behind, particularly the maritime system of authority. At a trial
in Boston

WQ SUMMER 1988
162
PIRATES
in 1718, merchant captain Thomas Checkley told of the capture
of his ship
by pirates who "pretended" he said, "to be Robin Hoods Men."
Historian
Eric Hobsbawm has defined such "social banditry" a s a
universal and
virtually unchanging phenomenon, an "endemic peasant protest
against
oppression and poverty: a cry for vengeance on the rich and the
oppres-
sors." Its goal is "a traditional world in which men are justly
dealt with, not
a new and perfect world"; Hobsbawm calls its advocates
"revolutionary
traditionalists." Pirates, of course, were not peasants, but they
fit
Hobsbawm's formulation in every other respect. Of special
importance was
their "cry for vengeance."
In his letter to the Board of Trade in 1724, Virginia's Governor
Spotswood told no more than the simple truth when he
expressed his fear
of pirate reprisals, for the very names of pirate ships made the
same
threat. Edward Teach, whom Spotswood's men captured and
killed, called

his vessel Queen Anne's Revenge; other notorious craft were
Stede Bon-
net's Revenge and John Cole's New York Revenge's Revenge.
The fore-
most target of vengeance was the merchant captain, a man "past
all re-
straint," who often made life miserable for his crew. Spotswood
noted how
pirates avenged the captain's past "correcting" of his sailors.
Beasts of Prey
Upon seizing a merchantman, pirates often administered the
"Distri-
bution of Justice," "enquiring into the Manner of the
Commander's Behav-
iour to their Men, and those, against whom Complaint was
made" were
'whipp'd and pickled." Many captured captains were
"barbarously used,"
and some were summarily executed. The punishment of captains
was not
indiscriminate: A captain who had been "an honest Fellow that
never
abused any Sailors" was often rewarded by pirates. To pirates,
revenge
was simply justice; punishment was meted out to barbarous
captains, a s
befitted the captains' crimes.
Freebooters who fell into the hands of the British government
were
treated severely. The official view of piracy was outlined in
1718 by Vice-
Admiralty Judge Nicholas Trott in his charge to the jury in the
trial of

Stede Bonnet and 33 members of his crew at Charleston, South
Carolina.
Declaring that "the Sea was given by God for the use of Men,
and is
subject to Dominion and Property, a s well a s the Land," Trott
observed of
the accused that "the Law of Nations never granted to them a
Power to
change the Right of Property." Pirates on trial were denied
benefits of
clergy, were "called Hostis H u m a n i Generis, with whom
neither Faith
nor Oath" were t o be kept, and were regarded a s "Brutes, and
Beasts of
Prey." Turning from the jury to the accused, Trott circumspectly
sur-
mised that "no further Good or Benefit can be expected from
you but by
the Example of your Deaths."
T h e insistence on obtaining this final benefit locked royal
officials and
pirates into a war of reciprocal terror. Just as the authorities
offered boun-
WQ SUMMER 1988
PIRATES
ties for the capture of pirates, so did pirates "offer any price"
for certain
officials. T h e American Weekly Mercury reported that, in
Virginia in
1720, one of six pirates facing the gallows "called for a Bottle

of Wine, and
taking a Glass of it, he Drank Damnation to the Governour and
Confusion
to the Colony, which the rest pledged." Not to be outdone,
Governor
Spotswood thought it "necessary for the greater Terrour to hang
up four
of them in Chains."
At the Charleston trial over which Trott presided, Richard
Alien,
attorney general of South Carolina, told the jury that "pirates
prey upon all
Mankind, their own Species and Fellow-Creatures without
Distinction of
Nations or Religions." Alien was right in claiming that pirates
did not
respect nationality in their plunders, but he was wrong in
claiming that
they did not respect any of their "Fellow-Creatures." Pirates did
not prey
on one another.
On the contrary, they showed a recurrent willingness to join
forces a t
sea and in port. In April 1719, when Howell Davis sailed into
the Sierra
Leone River, the pirates captained by Thomas Cocklyn were
wary until
they saw on the approaching ship "her Black Flag"; then
"immediately
they were easy in their minds, and a little time after," the crews
"saluted
one another with their Cannon." Other crews exchanged similar
greetings
and, hke Davis and Cocklyn who combined their forces, often

invoked an
unwritten code of hospitality to forge spontaneous alliances.
Skull and Bones
Without a doubt, one of the strongest indicators of solidarity
was the
absence of discord among different pirate crews. To some
extent, this was
even a transnational matter: French, Dutch, Spanish, and Anglo-
American
pirates usually cooperated peaceably, only occasionally getting
into conflict.
Anglo-American crews consistently refused to attack one
another.
In no way was the pirate sense of fraternity, which Governor
Spotswood and others noted, better shown than in the threats
and acts of
revenge taken by pirates. Theirs was truly a case of hanging
together or
being hanged separately. In April 1717, the pirate ship Whidah
was
wrecked near Boston. Most of its crew perished; the survivors
were jailed.
In July, Thomas Fox, a Boston ship captain, was taken by other
pirates
who "Questioned him whether anything was done to the Pyrates
in Boston
Goall," promising "that if the Prisoners Suffered they would
Kill every
Body they took belonging to New England." Shortly after this
incident,
Teach's crew captured a merchant vessel and, "because she
belonged to
Boston, [Teach] alledging the People of Boston had hanged

some of the
Pirates, so burnt her." Teach declared that all Boston ships
deserved a
similar fate.
In January 1724, Lieutenant Governor Charles Hope of Bermuda
wrote to the Board of Trade that he found it difficult to procure
trial
evidence against pirates because residents "feared that this very
execution
W Q SUMMER 1988
164
PIRATES
wou'd make our vessels fare the worse for it, when they
happen'd to fall
into pirate hands." The threats of revenge were sometimes
effective.
Pirates also affirmed their unity symbolically. Certainly the
best-
known symbol of piracy is the flag, the Jolly Roger. Less known
is the fact
that the flag was very widely used. No fewer, and probably a
great many
more, than 2,500 men sailed under this banner alone. The Jolly
Roger was
described a s a "black Ensign, in the Middle of which is a large
white
Skeleton with a Dart in one hand striking a bleeding Heart, and
in the

other an Hour Glass." Although there was considerable variation
in par-
ticulars among these flags, there was also a general uniformity
of chosen
images. The flag's background was black, adorned with white
representa-
tional figures. The most common symbol was the human skull,
or "death's
head," sometimes isolated but more frequently the most
prominent fea-
ture of an entire skeleton. Other recurring items were a weapon-
cutlass,
sword, or dart-and an hour glass.
Cleansing the Seas
The flag was intended to ternfy the pirate's prey, but its
interlocking
symbols-death, violence, limited time-simultaneously pointed to
mean-
ingful parts of the seaman's experience and eloquently bespoke
the pirates'
own consciousness of themselves as preyed upon in return.
The self-righteousness of many Anglo-American pirates was
strongly
linked to their vision of a world-traditional, mythical, or
utopianÃ‘Ui
which men are justly dealt with," as described by Hobsbawm.
Indeed,
some authorities, including the British Commissioners for Trade
and Plan-
tations, feared that pirates might "set up a sort of
Commonwealth" in
uninhabited regions, since "no Power in those Parts of the
World could

have been able to dispute it with them."
But piracy never took national shape, and indeed, by 1726, it
had been
effectively suppressed by vigorous governmental action.
Circumstantial
factors such a s the remobihzation of the Royal Navy cannot
account fully
for its demise. The number of men in the fleet increased from
6,298 in
1 7 2 5 t o 16,872 in 1726 and again to 20,697 in 1727, which
had some
bearing on the declining number of sea robbers. Yet some
20,000 sailors
had been in the navy in 1719 and 1720, years when pirates were
numer-
ous. Seafaring wages only occasionally rose above 3 0 shillings
per month
between 1713 and the mid-1730s. The conditions of life at sea
did not
change appreciably until Britain went to war with Spain in
1739.
The royal pardons offered to pirates in 1717 and 1718 failed t o
rid
the sea of robbers. Since the pardons specified that only crimes
committed
at certain times and in particular regions would be forgiven,
many pirates
saw enormous latitude for official trickery and refused to
surrender. The
offer of amnesty having failed, royal officials intensified the
naval campaign
against piracy-with great and gruesome effect. Corpses dangled
in chains
in British ports around the world "as a Spectacle for the

Warning of oth-
WQ SUMMER 1988
PIRATES
ers." No fewer than 400, and probably 500 to 600, Anglo-
American pi-
rates were executed between 1716 and 1726. Parliament also
passed laws
that crirninalized all contact with pirates. Anyone known to
"truck, barter,
exchange" with pirates, furnish them with stores, or even
consult with
them might be punished with death.
The campaign to cleanse the seas was supported by clergymen,
royal
officials, and publicists who variously sought, through sermons,
proclama-
tions, pamphlets, and the newspapers, to create an image of the
pirate that
would justify his extermination. Especially among seamen and
dealers in
stolen cargo, piracy had always depended in some measure on
the rumors
and tales of its successes. Not surprisingly, in 1722 and 1723,
after a spate
of well-publicized hangings and a burst of propaganda, the
pirate population
began to decline. By 1726, only a handful of the fraternity
remained.
The Anglo-American pirates themselves unwittingly took a hand

in
their own destruction. From the outset, theirs had been a fragile
existence.
They produced nothing and had no secure place in the economic
order.
They had no nation, no home; they were widely dispersed; their
cornrnu-
nity had virtually no geographic boundaries. Try as they might,
they were
unable to create reliable ways of replenishing their ranks or
mobilizing
their collective strength. These deficiencies made them, in the
long run,
relatively easy prey.
Although the heyday of the Anglo-American pirates soon
passed, it
remains a remarkable historical phenomenon. For a brief time, a
sizeable
number of desperate men lived beyond the church, beyond the
family, and
beyond disciplined labor. Using the sea to distance themselves
from the
powers of the state, they made a society in which poor men in
canvas
jackets and tarred breeches had "the choice in themselves."
WQ SUMMER 1988
166
Citation:
Transcription from McCord, David J., ed. The Statutes at Large

of South Carolina. Vol. 7, Containing the Acts Relating
to Charleston, Courts, Slaves, and Rivers. Columbia, SC: A.S.
Johnston, 1840, p. 397.
NO. 670
AN ACT FOR THE BETTER ORDERING AND GOVERNING
NEGROES AND OTHER SLAVES
IN THIS PROVINCE
WHEREAS, in his Majesty’s plantations in America, slavery
has been introduced
and allowed, and the people commonly called Negroes, Indians,
mulattoes and mustizoes,
have been deemed absolute slaves, and the subjects of property
in the hands of the
particular persons, the extend of whose power over such slaves
ought to be settled and
limited by positive laws, so that the slave may be kept in due
subjection and obedience,
and the owners and other persons having the care and
government of slaves may be
restrained from exercising too great rigour and cruelty over
them, and that the public
peace and order of this Province may be preserved: We pray
your most sacred Majesty
that it may be enacted,
I. And be it enacted, by the honorable William Bull, Esquire,
Lieutenant
Governor and Commander-in-chief, by and with the advice and
consent of his Majesty’s
honorable Council, and the Commons House of Assembly of
this Province, and by the
authority of the same, That all Negroes and Indians, (free

Indians in amity with this
government, and degrees, mulattoes, and mustizoes, who are
now free, excepted,)
mulattoes or mustizoes who now are, or shall hereafter be, in
this Province, and all their
issue and offspring, born or to be born, shall be, and they are
hereby declared to be, and
remain forever hereafter, absolute slaves, and shall follow the
condition of the mother,
and shall be deemed, held, taken, reputed and adjudged in law,
to be chattels personal, in
the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors,
administrators, and assigns,
to all intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever; provided
always, that if any Negro,
Indian, mulatto or mustizo, shall claim his or her freedom, it
shall and may be lawful for
such Negro, Indian, mulatto or mustizo, or any person or
persons whatsoever, on his or
her behalf, to apply to the justices of his Majesty’s court of
common pleas, by petition or
motion, either during the sitting of the said court, or before any
of the justices of the same
court, at any time in the vacation; and by the said court, or any
of the justices thereof,
shall, and they are hereby fully impowered to, admit any person
so applying to be
guardian for any Negro, Indian, mulatto or mustizo , claiming
his, her or their freedom;
and such guardians shall be enabled, entitled and capable in
law, to bring an action of
trespass in the nature of ravishment of ward, against any person
who shall claim property
in, or who shall be in possession of, any such Negro, Indian,
mulatto or mustizo; and the
defendant shall and may plead the general issue on such action

brought, and the special
matter may and shall be given in evidence, and upon a general
of special verdict found,
judgment shall be given according to the very right of the cause,
without having any
regard to any defect in the proceedings, either in form or
substance; and if judgment
shall be given for the plaintiff, a special entry shall be made,
declaring that the ward of
the plaintiff is free, and the jury shall assess damages which the
plaintiff’s ward hath
sustained, and the court shall give judgment and award
execution, against the defendant
for such damage, with full costs of suit; but in case judgment
shall be given for the
defendant, the said court is hereby fully impowered to inflict
such corporal punishment,
not extending to life or limb, on the ward of the plaintiff, as
they, in their discretion, shall
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think fit; provided always, that in any action or suit to be
brought in pursuance of the
direction of this Act, the burthen of the proof shall lay on the
plaintiff, and it shall be
always presumed that every Negro, Indian, mulatto, and
mustizo, is a slave, unless the
contrary can be made appear, the Indians in amity with this
government excepted, in
which case the burthen of the proof shall lye on the defendant;
provided also, that nothing
in this Act shall be construed to hinder or restrain any other
court of law or equity in this
Province, from determining the property of slaves, or their right
to freedom, which now
have cognizance or jurisdiction of the same, when the same
shall happen to come in
judgment before such courts, or any of them always taking this
Act for their direction
therein.
II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in
every action or
suit to be brought by any such guardian as aforesaid, appointed
pursuant to the direction
of this Act, the defendant shall recognizance, with one or more
sufficient sureties, to the
plaintiff, in such a sum as the said court of common please shall
direct, with condition
that the sum as the said court of common pleas shall direct, with
condition that he shall
produce the ward of the plaintiff at all times when required by
the said court, and that
whilst such action or suit shall be depending and undetermined,
the ward of the plaintiff
shall not be eloined, abused or misused.

III. And for the better keeping slaves in due order and
subjection, Be it further
enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no person whatsoever
shall permit or suffer any
slave under his or their care or management, and who lives or is
employed in
Charlestown, or any other town in this Province, to go out of
the limits of the said town,
or any such slave who lives in the country, to go out of the
plantation to which such slave
belongs, or in which plantation such slave is usually employed,
without a letter
superscribed and directed, or a ticket in the words following:
Permit this slave to be absent from Charlestown, (or any other
town, or if he lives
in the country, from Mr. ________ plantation, _______ parish,)
for ________ days or
hours; dated the _______ day of _______.
Or, to that purpose or effect; which ticket shall be signed by
the master or other
person having the care or charge of such slave, or by some other
[person] by his or their
order, directions and consent; and every slave who shall be
found out of Charlestown, or
any other town (if such slave lives or is usually employed
there,) or out of the plantation
to which such slave belongs, or in which [such] slave is usually
employed, or if such
slave lives in the country, without such letter or ticket as
aforesaid, or without a white
person in his company, shall be punished with whipping on the
bare back, not exceeding
twenty lashes.

IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if
any person shall
presume to give a ticket or license to any slave who is the
property or under the care of
charge of another, without the consent or against the will of the
owner or other person
having charge of such slave, shall forfeit to the owner the sum
of twenty pounds, current
money.
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V. And it shall be further enacted by the authority aforesaid,
That if any slave
who shall be out of the house or plantation where such slave
shall live, or shall be usually
employed, or without some whiter person in company with such
slave, shall refuse to
submit or undergo the examination of any white person, it shall
be lawful for any such
white person to pursue, apprehend, and moderately correct such
slave; and if any such
slave shall assault and stricke such white person, such slave
may be lawfully killed.
VI. Provided always, and be it further enacted by the authority
aforesaid, That if
any Negro or other slave, who shall be employed in the lawful
business or service of his
master, owner, overseer, or other person having charge of such
slave, shall be beaten,
bruised, maimed or disabled by any person or persons not
having sufficient cause or
lawful authority for so doing, (of which cause the justices of the
peace, respectively, may
judge,) every person and persons so offending, shall, for every
such offence, forfeit and
pay the sum of forty shillings, current money, over and besides
the damages hereinafter
mentioned, to the use of the poor of that parish in which such
offence shall be committed:
And if such slave or slaves shall be maimed or disabled by such
beating, from performing
his or her work, such person and persons so offending, shall
also forfeit and pay to the
owner or owners of such slaves, the sum of fifteen shillings,

current money, per diem, for
every day of his lost time, and also the charge of the cure of
such slave; and if the said
damages, in whole, shall not exceed the sum of twenty pounds,
current money, the same
shall , upon lawful proof thereof made, be recoverable before
any one of his Majesty’s
justices of the peace, in the save way and manner as debts are
recoverable by the Act for
the trial of small and mean causes; and such justices before
whom the same shall be
recovered, shall have power to commit the offender or offenders
to goal, if he, se or they
shall produce no goods of which the said penalty and damages
may be levied, there to
remain without bail, until such penalty and damages shall be
paid; any law statute, usage
or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding.
VII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That
it shall and may be
lawful for every justice assigned to keep the peace in this
Province, within his respective
county and jurisdiction, upon his own knowledge or view, or
upon information received
upon oath, eithe4r to go in person, or by warrant or warrants
directed to any constable or
other proper person, to command to their assistance any number
of persons as they shall
see convenient, to disperse any assembly or meeting of slaves
which may disturb the
peace or endanger the safety of his Majesty’s subjects, and to
search all suspected places
for arms, ammunition or stolen goods, and to apprehend and
secure all such slaves as

they shall suspect to be guilty of any crimes or offences
whatsoever, and to bring them to
speedy trial, according to the directions of this Act; and in case
any constable or other
person shall refuse to obey or execute any of the warrants of
precepts of such justices, or
any of them, within their several limits and precincts, or shall
refuse to assist the said
justices or constables, of any of them, when commanded or
required, such person or
persons shall forfeit and pay the sum of five pounds, current
money, to be recovered by a
warrant under the hand and seal of any other justice of the
peace, in the same way and
manner as is directed by the Act of the trial of small and mean
causes.
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by the prosecutors; for whipping or other corporal punishments
not extending to life, the
sum of twenty shillings; and for any punishment extending to
life, the sum of five pounds
current money; and such other charges for keeping and
maintaining such slaves, as are
allowed to the warden of the work house in Charlestown, for
keeping and maintaining
such slaves, committed to his custody; for the levying of which
charges against the
prosecutor, the justice or justices are hereby empowered to
issue their warrant. And that
no delay may happen in causing execution to be done upon such
offending slave or
slaves, the constable who shall be directed to cause execution to
be done, shall be, and is
hereby, empowered to press one or more slave or slaves, in or
near the place where such
whipping or corporal punishment shall be inflicted, to whip or
inflict such other corporal
punishment upon the offender or offenders; and such slave or
slave so pressed, shall be
obedient to and observe the orders and direction of the
constable in and about the
premises, upon pain of being punished by the said constable, by
whipping on the bare
back, not exceeding twenty lashes, which punishment the said
constable is hereby
authorized and empowered to inflict; and the constable shall, if

he presses a Negro, pay
the said Negro five shillings out of his fee for doing the said
execution.
XXII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That
if any person in
this Province shall, on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday,
employ any slave in any
work or labour, (works of absolute necessity and the necessary
occasions of the family
one excepted,) every person in such case offending, shall forfeit
the sum of five pounds,
current money, for every slave they shall so work or labour.
XXIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,
That it shall not be
lawful for any slave, unless in the presence of some white
person, to carry or make sue of
fire arms, or any offensive weapons whatsoever, unless such
Negro or slave shall have a
ticket or license, in writing, from his master, mistress or
overseer, to hunt and kill game,
cattle, or mischievous birds, or beasts of prey, and that such
license be renewed once
every month, or unless there be some whit person of the ago of
sixteen years or upwards,
in the company of such slave, when he is hunting or shooting or
that such slave be
actually carrying his master’s arms to or from his master’s
plantation, by a special ticket
for that purpose, or unless such slave be found in the day time
actually keeping off rice
birds, or other birds, within the plantation to which such slave

belongs, lodging the same
gun at night within the dwelling house of his master, mistress or
white overseer; and
provided also, that no Negro or other slave shall have liberty to
carry any gun, cutlass,
pistol or other weapon, abroad from home, at any time between
Saturday evening after
sun-set, and Monday morning before sun-rise, notwithstanding a
license or ticket for so
doing. And in case any person shall find any slave using or
carrying fire arms, or other
offensive weapons, contrary to the true intention of this Act,
every such person may
lawfully seize and take away such fire arms or offensive
weapons. But before the
property of such goods shall be vested in the person who shall
seize the same, such
person shall, within forty-eight hours next after such seizure, go
before the next justice of
the peace, and shall make oath of the manner of the taking; and
if such justice of the
peace, after such oath shall be made, or if, upon any other
examination, he shall be
satisfied that the said fire arms or other offensive weapons shall
have been seized
according to the direction and agreeable to the true intent and
meaning of this Act, the
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said justice shall, by certificate under his hand and seal, declare
them forfeited, and that
the property is lawfully vested in the person who seized the
same: Provided always, that
no such certificate shall be granted by any justice of the peace,
until the owner or owners
of such fire arms of other offensive weapons so to be seized as
aforesaid, or the overseer
or overseers who shall or may have the charge of such slave or
slaves from whom such
fire arms or other offensive weapons shall be taken or seized,
shall be duly summoned, to
show cause, if any such they have, why the same should not be
condemned as forfeited,
or until forty-eight hours after the service of such summons, and
oath made of the service
of such summons before the said justice.
XXIV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,
That if any slave
shall presume to strike any white person, such slave, upon trial
and conviction before the
justice or justices and freeholders, aforesaid, according to the
directions of this Act, shall,
for the first and second offence, suffer such punishment as the
said justice and
freeholders, or such of them as are empowered to try such
offence, shall in their
discretion, think fit, not extending to life or limb; and for the

third offence, shall suffer
death. But in case any such slave shall grievously wound, maim
or bruise any white
person, though it by only the first offence, such slave shall
suffer death. Provided
always, that such striking, wounding, maiming or bruising, not
be done by the command,
and in the defense of, the person or property of the owner or
other person having the care
and government of such slave, in which case the slave shall be
wholly excused, and the
owner or other person having the care and government of such
slave shall be answerable,
as far as by law he ought.
XXV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That
it shall and may
be lawful for every person in this Province, to take, apprehend
and secure any runaway or
fugitive slave, and they are hereby directed and required to send
such slave to the master
or other person having the care or government of such slave, if
the person taking up or
securing such slave knows, or can, without difficulty, be
informed, to whom such slave
shall belong; but if not known or discovered, then such slave
shall be sent, carried or
delivered into the custody of the warden of the work-house in
Charlestown; and the
master or other person who has the care or government of such
slave, shall pay for the
taking up of such slave, whether by a free person or slave, the
sum of twenty shillings,
current money; and the warden of the work-house, upon receipt

of every fugitive or
runaway slave, is hereby directed and required to keep such
slave in safe custody until
such slave shall be lawfully discharged, and shall, as soon as
conveniently it may be,
publish, in the weekly gazette, such slave, with the best
descriptions he shall be able to
give, first carefully viewing and examining such slave, naked to
the waist, for any mark
or brand, which he shall also publish to the intent the owner or
other person who shall
have the care and charge of such slave, may come to the
knowledge that such slave is in
custody. And if such slave shall make escape through the
negligence of the warden of
the work-house, and cannot be taken within three months, the
said warden of the work-
house shall answer to the owner for the value of such slave, or
the damage which the
owner shall sustain by reason of such escape, as the cause shall
happen.
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sized and forfeited, and shall be sued for and recovered before
any one justice assigned to
keep the peace in Charlestown, and shall be applied and
disposed of, one half to him or
them who shall seize, inform and sue for the same, and the other
half to the
commissioners of the poor of the parish of St. Philips,
Charlestown; and moreover, that
the said justice shall order every slave who shall be convicted
of such offence, to be
publicly whipped on the bare back, not exceeding twenty lashes;
provided always that it
shall and may be lawful for any slave who lives or is usually
employed in Charlestown,
after such license and ticket as hereinafter is directed shall be
obtained, to buy or sell
fruit, fish and garden stuff, and to be employed as porters,
carters or fishermen, and to
purchase anything for the use of their masters, owners or other
person who shall have the
charge and government of such slave, in open market, under
such regulations as are or
shall be appointed by law concerning the market of
Charlestown, or in any open shop
kept by a white person.
XXI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That
no slave or slaves
whatsoever, belonging to Charlestown, shall be permitted to buy
any thing to sell again,
or to sell any thing upon their own account, in Charlestown; and
it shall and may be
lawful for any person or persons whosoever to seize and take

away all and all manner of
goods, wares or merchanize, that shall be found in the
possession of any such slave or
slaves in Charlestown, which they have bought to sell again, or
which they shall offer to
sale upon their own accounts, in Charlestown, one half of which
shall be to the use of the
poor of the said parish, and the other to the informer, and shall
be adjudged and
condemned by any justice of the peace in the said parish.
XXII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That
if any keeper of a
tavern or punch house, or retailer of strong liquors, shall give,
sell utter or deliver to any
slave, any beer, ale, cider, wine, run, brandy, or other spirituous
liquors, or strong liquor
whatsoever, without the license or consent of the owner, or such
other person who shall
have the care or government of such slave, ever person so
offending shall forfeit the sum
of five pounds, current money, for the first offence, and for the
second offence, ten
pounds; and shall be bound in recognizance in the sum of one
hundred pounds, current
money, with one or more sufficient sureties, before any of the
justices of the court of
general sessions, not to offend in the like kind, and to be of
good behaviour, for one year;
and for want of such sufficient sureties, to be committed to
prison without bail or
mainprize, for any term not exceeding three months.

XXXIII. And whereas, several owners of slaves do suffer their
slaves to go and
work where they please, upon conditions of paying to their
owners certain sums of
money agreed upon between the owner and the slave; which
practice has occasioned such
slaves to pilfer and steal, to raise money for their owners, as
well as to maintain
themselves in drunkenness and evil courses; for prevention for
which practices for the
future, Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no owner,
master or mistress of any
slave, after the passing of this Act, shall permit or suffer any of
his, her or their slaves to
go and work out of their respective houses of families, without
a ticket in writing, under
pain of forfeiting the sum of ten pounds, current money, for
every such offence, to be
paid the one half to the church-wardens of the parish, for the
use of the poor of the parish
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in which the offence is committed, and the other half to him or

them that will inform and
sue for the same, to be recovered in the same way as debts are
by the Act for the trail of
small and mean causes. And every person employing any slave
without a ticket from the
owner of such slave, shall forfeit to the informer five pounds,
current money, for each
day he so employees such slave, over and above the wages
agreed to be paid such slave
for his work; provided that the said penalty of five pounds per
diem, shall not extend to
any person whose property in such slave is disputable; and
provided, that nothing herein
contained shall hinder any person or persons from hiring out by
the year, week, or day, or
any other time, any Negroes or slaves, to be under the care and
direction of his or their
owner, master or employer, and that the master is to receive the
whole of the earnings of
such slave or slaves, and that the employer have a certificate or
note, in writing, of the
time or terms of such slave’s employment, from the owner,
attorney or overseer of every
such slave, severally and respectively.
XXXIV. And whereas, several owners of slaves have permitted
them to keep
canoes, and to breed and raise horses, neat cattle and hogs, and
to traffic and barter in
several parts of this Province, for the particular and peculiar
benefit of such slaves, by
which means they have not only and opportunity of receiving
and concealing stolen
goods, but to plot and confederate together, and form

conspiracies dangerous to the peace
and safety of the whole Province; Be it therefore enacted by the
authority aforesaid, That
it shall not be lawful for any slave so to buy, sell, trade, traffic,
deal, or barter for any
goods or commodities, (except as before excepted,) nor shall
any slave be permitted to
keep any boat, perriauger or canoe, or to raise and breed, for the
use and benefit of such
slave, any horses, mares, neat cattle, sheep or hogs, under pain
of forfeiting all the goods
and commodities which shall be so bought, sold traded,
trafficked, dealt or bartered for,
by any slave, and of all the boats, perriaugers, or canoes, cattle,
sheep or hogs, which any
slave shall keep, raise or breed for the peculiar use, benefit and
profit of such slave; and it
shall and may be lawful for any person of persons whatsoever,
to seize and take away
from any slave, all such goods, commodities, boats perriaugers,
canoes, horses, mares,
neat cattle, sheep or hogs, and to deliver the same into the
hands of any one of his
Majesty’s justices of the peace, nearest to the place where the
seizure shall be made; and
such justice shall take the oath of such person who shall make
any such seizure,
concerning the manner of seizing and taking the same, and if
the said justice shall be
satisfied that such seizure hath been made according to the
directions of this Act, he shall
pronounce and declare the goods so seized, to be forfeited, and
shall order the same to be
sold at public outcry; and the monies arising by such sale shall
be disposed of and applied
as is hereinafter directed; provided, that if any goods shall be

seized which come to the
possession of any slave by theft, finding or otherwise, without
the knowledge, privity,
consent or connivance of the person who have a right to the
property or lawful custody of
any such goods, all such goods shall be restored, on such
person’s making an oath before
any justice as aforesaid, who is hereby impowered to administer
such oath, to the effect
or in the following words:
“I, A B, do sincerely swear, that I have a just and lawful right
or title to certain
goods seized and taken by C D, out of the possession of a slave
named --; and I do
sincerely swear and declare, that I did not, directly or
indirectly, permit or suffer the said
slave, or any other slave whatsoever, to use, keep or employ the
said goods for the use,
chris
Highlight
Citation:
Johnston, 1840, p. 397.
committed on slaves, because no white person may be present to
give evidence to the
same, unless some method be provided for the better discovery

of such offences; and as
slaves are under the government, so they ought to be under the
protection, of masters and
managers of plantations; Be it therefore further enacted by the
authority aforesaid, That if
any slave shall suffer in live, limb or member, or shall be
maimed, beaten or abused,
contrary to the directions and true intent and meaning of this
Act, when no white person
shall be present, or being present, shall neglect or refuse to give
evidence, or be examined
upon oath, concerning the same, in every such case, the owner
or other person who shall
have the care and government of such slave, and in whose
possession or power such slave
shall be, shall be deemed, taken, reputed and adjudged to be
guilty or such offence, and
shall be proceeded against accordingly, without further proof,
unless such owner or other
person as aforesaid, can make the contrary appear by good and
sufficient evidence, or
shall be his own oath, clear and exculpate himself; which oath,
every court where such
offence shall be tried, is hereby empowered to administer, and
to acquit the offender
accordingly, if clear proof of the offence be now made by two
witnesses at least; any law,
usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.
XL. And whereas, many of the slaves in this Province wear
clothes much above
the condition of slaves, for the procuring whereof they use
sinister and evil methods: For
the prevention, therefore, of such practices for the future, Be it

enacted by the authority
aforesaid, That no owner or proprietor of any Negro slave, or
other slave, (except livery
men and boys,) shall permit or suffer such Negro or other slave,
to have or wear any sort
of apparel whatsoever, finer, other, or greater value than Negro
cloth, duffels, kerseys,
osnabrigs, blue linen, check linen or coarse garlix, or calicoes,
checked cottons, or Scotch
plaids, under the pain of forfeiting all and every such apparel
and garment, that any
person shall permit or suffer his Negro or other slave to have or
wear, finer, other or of
greater value than Negro cloth, duffels, coarse kerseys,
osnabrigs, blue linen, check linen
or coarse garlix or calicoes, checked cottons or Scotch plaids,
as aforesaid; and all and
every constable and other persons are hereby authorized,
empowered, and required, when
as often as they shall find any such Negro slave, or other slave,
having or wearing any
sort of garment or apparel whatsoever, finer, other or of greater
value than Negro cloth,
duffels, coarse kerseys, osnabrigs, blue linen, check linen, or
coarse garlix, or calicoes,
checked cottons or Scottish plaids, as aforesaid, to seize and
take away the same, to his or
their own use, benefit and behoof; any law, usage or custom to
the contrary
notwithstanding. Provided always, that if any owner of any
such slave or slaves, shall
think the garment or apparel of his said slave not liable to
forfeiture, or to be taken away
by virtue of this Act, he may not apply to any neighboring
justice of the peace, who is
hereby authorized and empowered to determine any difference

or dispute that shall
happen thereupon, according to the true intent and meaning of
this Act.
XLI. And whereas, an ill custom has prevailed in this Province,
of firing guns in
the night time; for the prevention thereof for the future, Be it
enacted by the authority
aforesaid, That if any person shall fire or shoot off any gun or
pistol in the night time,
after dark and before day-light, without necessity, every such
person shall forfeit the sum
of forty shillings, current money, for each gun so fired as
aforesaid, to be recovered by
warrant from any one justice of the peace for the county where
the offence is committed,
chris
Highlight
Citation:
Johnston, 1840, p. 397.
according to the direction of the Act for the trial of small and
mean causes, and shall be
paid to the church-wardens for the parish where the offence
shall be committed, for the

use of the poor of the said parish.
XLII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That
no slave or slaves
shall be permitted to rent or hire any house, room, store or
plantation, on his or her own
account, or to be used or occupied by any slave or slaves; and
any person or persons who
shall let or hire and house, room, store or plantation, to any
slave or slaves, or to any free
person, to be occupied by any slave or slave, every such person
so offending shall forfeit
and pay to the informer the sum of twenty pounds, current
money, to be recovered as in
the Act for the trial of small and mean causes.
XLIII. And whereas, it may be attended with ill consequences
to permit a great
number of slaves to travel together in the high roads without
some white person in
company with them; Be it therefore enacted by the authority
aforesaid, That no men
slaves exceeding seen in number, shall hereafter be permitted to
travel together in any
high road in this Province, without some white person with
them; and it shall and may be
lawful for any person or persons, who shall see any men slaves
exceeding seven in
number, without some white person with them as aforesaid,
traveling or assembled
together in any high road, to apprehend all and every such
slaves, and shall and may whip

them, not exceeding twenty lashes on the bare back.
XLIV. And whereas, many owners of slaves, and others who
have the care,
management and overseeing of slaves, so confine them so
closely to hard labor, that they
have not sufficient time for natural rest; Be it therefore enacted
by the authority
aforesaid, That if any owner of slaves, or other person who shall
have the care,
management or overseeing of any slaves, shall work or put to
labor any such slave or
slaves, more than fifteen hours in for and twenty hours, from
the twenty-fifth day of
March to the twenty-fifth day of September, or more than
fourteen hours in for and
twenty hours, from the twenty-fifth day of September to the
twenty-fifth day of March,
every such person shall forfeit any sum not exceeding twenty
pounds, nor under five
pounds, current money, for every time he, she or they shall
offend herein, at the
discretion of the justice before whom such complaint shall be
made.
XLV. And whereas, the having of slaves taught to write, or
suffering them to be
employed in writing, may be attended with great
inconveniences; Be it therefore enacted
by the authority aforesaid, That all and every person and
persons whatsoever, who shall
hereinafter teach or cause any slave or slaves to be taught, to

write, or shall use or employ
any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing whatsoever,
hereafter taught to write,
every such person and persons, shall, for every such offense,
forfeit the sum of one
hundred pounds current money.
XLVI. And whereas, plantations settled with slaves without any
white person
thereon, may be harbours for runaways and fugitive slaves; Be
it therefore enacted by the
authority aforesaid, That no person or persons hereafter shall
keep any slaves on any
plantation or settlement, without having a white person on such
plantation or settlement,
chris
Highlight
U.S. Labor and Work Before the End of Reconstruction
37:575:201:06
Paper Assignment 1
Prof. Brucher
The British colonization of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas,
and Georgia in the 1600s was marked by an extensive demand
for agricultural labor. As the assigned class readings show,
planters shifted from using indentured servants for much of the
1600s to African slaves by the late 1600s and early 1700s. What
factors contributed to the development of indentured servitude
and slavery as labor systems? Why did the transition from
indentured servitude to slavery occur?

Write a 4 to 5 page, double-spaced paper in 12-point font that
addresses the questions posed above. Be sure to base your
claims on the assigned readings, documents, and other materials
covered in class. These include chapters 1 and 2 of the
textbook and the “Evolution of slavery documents” and “South
Carolina slave codes excerpts” in the Week 3 folder in
resources section on Sakai.
Your paper should follow standard grammar, punctuation, and
citation methods (APA, MLA, or Chicago). Citation guides are
in the resources folder on Sakai.
The first draft of the paper is due at the start of class on Week
3, February 2.

The Atlantic Proletariat”U.S. Labor and Work - 201Week 2P.docx

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