Richard H Phillips

White Slave Children in Colonial America Richard H Phillips

This work is a supplement to a trilogy of history books documenting the enslavement of more than 5,000 white children in colonial Maryland and Virginia. They were taken, against their will and without their families' knowledge, from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Massachusetts, beginning in 1659. Arriving without indenture, that is without a written contract, they were brought to county courts to be sentenced to servitude for a term of years according to age brackets established by law - the younger the child, the longer the sentence. In the trilogy Mr. Phillips identified these children by name, and listed their ages and the dates of their court appearances. He searched all available birth and baptismal records and, where possible, cross-checked them with marriage and death records to identify the parents of 1,400 of these children. He also examined all available shipping records to identify 170 white slave ships and, if possible, the names of the captains who commanded them. This Supplement adds extensive information from newly discovered records, including those in Pennsylvania.