Unfree labor was a common occurrence in America in eighteenth century with many abandoned and destitute children under the care of overseers of poverty stricken families being the primary victims. In the past children labor was imminent in Western Europe and United States 1 . There was high concentration of children in particular jobs taking up various occupations in different sectors. Most of them were forcefully recruited for labor 2
The thesis of the paper is about a comparative study about children pauper apprenticeship in Northern America in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In the first institute, children paupers were auctioned to the lowest bidders or bound to their parents’ creditors for a long period of time until majority. Similarly, in the second institute, a child pauper would work for a master who was obligated to pass his art and mystery skills of a particular trade to the child. In the third institution, the benefits of pauper apprentices were similar to the ones accorded to immigrant servants which could be cash at the end of term, land, livestock, or payment 3
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Human capital acquisition and compensation started as a measure to keep the children away from poverty but eventually evolved to a method of human-capital transmission. In Massachusetts for example, colonial laws advocated for the masters to provide education to their charges and more so enable the children to read and study scripture. Later, reading and writing was advocated for boys, but only reading for girls. Nevertheless, masters who were insufficiently educating their children would be fined and lose custody of their apprentices.
Additionally, freedom due could have been proposed to safeguard the welfare of the apprentices thus off poor rolls. Therefore, this was a reasonable concern because at the end of the specified term, the apprentice could claim settlement in the place where one was bound and not necessarily where the master lived. The paper identifies Rhodes Island and Boston for its survey of colonial economic history, with an aim to study the relationship between the masters, overseers, and the pauper apprenticeships. The law at that time had not recognized the right of children as they were just bystanders in contract formation. Consequently, many of them did not have their parents or guardians present during the process of contract formation. The masters and the overseers were obligated to directly engage in contracting terms.
The paper uses primary source of data by carrying out statistical analysis using a sample of children who had experienced several types of misfortunes from their overseers. The sample had orphans, abandoned kids, and those children born out of wedlock. Further, the paper has also adapted secondary source of data by recognizing the works of other scholars who proposed theories accounting for the freedom dues clauses in bound labor engagements. From these theories, the paper gets testable hypothesis using productivity and freedom dues variables. Comparatively, the paper has also borrowed from other journals as secondary sources of data and also used experimental results as primary sources of data.
Bibliography
Humphries, Jane. "Child labor: lessons from the historical experience of today's industrial economies." The World Bank Economic Review 17, no. 2 (2003): 175-196.
Levene, Alysa. "Parish apprenticeship and the old poor law in London." The Economic history review 63, no. 4 (2010): 915-941.
Murray, John E., and Ruth Wallis Herndon. "Markets for Children in Early America: A Political Economy of Pauper Apprenticeship." The Journal of Economic History 62, no. 2 (2002): 356-382.
1 Levene, Alysa. "Parish apprenticeship and the old poor law in London." The Economic history review 63, no. 4 (2010): 915-941.
2 Humphries, Jane. "Child labor: lessons from the historical experience of today's industrial economies." The World Bank Economic Review 17, no. 2 (2003): 175-196.
3 Murray, John E., and Ruth Wallis Herndon. "Markets for Children in Early America: A Political Economy of Pauper Apprenticeship." The Journal of Economic History 62, no. 2 (2002): 356-382.
