What was the cost of 17th Century Emigration?

Question

My ancestor, John Trueblood, crosses the Atlantic to the Carolinas some time between 1680 and 1684, probably nearer 1684 than earlier.  In his marriage agreement of 1679 he is referred to as a labourer,so he has no formal profession.

Eight years later he is dead, leaving behind four young children.  And yet he is clearly not an indentured servant as he is in the process of receiving a 600 acre land grant and, in his wife's will a few months after his, there is the disposition of a single female slave of child-bearing years.

Does anyone know where I can get reliable sources on Quaker emigration and how much it cost?  To go from unskilled labourer to slave-owning farmer in eight years strikes me as a bit of a leap.

Comments

Passage from England usually started from around 5 pounds at the time.

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Thank you.  That would probably be well within his reach if he inherited money from his grandfather.

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It appears that 8 years is not unusual as many who were transported had to work off a seven year labour indenture

Answer 1

Stephen, check this book if you have not yet: History of Perquimans County by Mrs Watson Winslow which is searchable here https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/13772

This contains many headright land grant transactions for Pasquotank/Perquimans and it may detail how many persons for which he is being "compensated" by that 600 acres. 50 acres per person was typical and this could even include deceased persons in some instances.

Also search this: https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/

Can also search some Virginia records for The Albemarle depending on location and the year involved.

Hope this might help you find some more info.

Comments

Thank you for the links.  I will peruse the book over the weekend.  Perhaps it will give me some clues as to how much it cost to come over to the colonies from England.  As far as I know John was not a rich man.

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The question intrigues me as it is certainly applicable to many of my own ancestors who lived next door to yours in that part of North Carolina or the Albemarle.

"A trip to Virginia cost Frethorne and others like him six months salary and took about 10 weeks. One quarter to one half of new arrivals to Virginia and the Carolinas died within one year due to diseases like dysentery, typhoid, and malaria. Others succumbed to the strain of hard labor in a new climate and a strange place—an adjustment process the English described as “seasoning.” Only 7 percent of indentures claimed the land that they had been promised." From Smithsonian Mag article in 2014.

This was referencing those going 1630 to maybe 1680 it seems. I read in the article some of the bias and beliefs of the author and of course why not an equivalent in today's dollars rather than leaving us to guess or research six months average salary of 17th Century immigrant. Here is an interesting discussion and some actual figures based on the type of labor: https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk/resource/medieval-prices-and-wages/

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That helps, thank you.

I am working on the theory that his grandfather, also John Trueblood, dies in Spring 1683 and leaves him a legacy.  This makes sense as John's two sons are dead (one imprisoned for being a Quaker and dying in gaol, one in the Great Plague of London).  The old man, a prosperous blacksmith, would have had only two grandsons living near him in Lincolnshire, both fellow Quakers.  That might have supplied the funds for passage, funds to get started and a slave or two.  Sadly the older John's will has not survived.

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The other thing to remember is that once he has arrived a great deal of his economic activity would have been based on the barter system. Land transactions (other than headright grants) are usually in currency but much of the rest of the economy is barter from what I have read. I also see many, many land transactions where Person X is the purchaser but Person Y is supplying the currency, it would seem via a barter arrangement between X and Y. If he was a blacksmith like his grandfather he has a much in demand service with which to barter.

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"maybe a slave or two" ... I didn't think Quakers ever owned slaves - or was that something that developed later?

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When Quakers appear in the 1650s they are persecuted pretty intensively in England until 1690 for their antisocial (read anti-authoritarian and pacifist) tendencies.  So immigration begins immediately.  One of the early boom colonies was Barbados, which was based on first indentured labour and then slavery.  Quaker preachers soon start lecturing about treating slaves better and then about freeing them.  In 1750 the Quakers ban members from holding slaves, sixty years before the British ban the trade, eighty years before they outlaw slavery and more than a century before the Americans get their act together.  So the first three generations of Truebloods in North Carolina all owned slaves, detailing them in their wills as they would any other important asset.  It looks distinctly odd from our modern point of view.

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Thanks Stephen! Love how much I learn from WikiTree members!

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Lots of slave ownership among Quakers for an extended time. The northern Quaker groups started to condemn and then forbid slave ownership about 1755 (it varies depending on where) and I believe it was mostly a thing of the past among northern Quakers by 1775. Southern Quaker groups "suggested" the end of slavery by about 1775 but I have found reference in my own Quaker ancestors of slave ownership as late as 1790 (but see next paragraph). You can often read the end of Quaker slave ownership was "date x." That's not supported by facts; it was a gradual process and created great division in the North Carolina Quaker communities, particularly the western ones.

In North Carolina there was a practice among Quakers of basically emancipating the slaves but then keeping them "in trust" (I may be using the wrong technical term, this was to free the slave without running afoul of the Law) while providing them the same education as freemen and they basically lived as freemen. The North Carolina legislature outlawed this  practice sometime after 1775 (do not recall exact year) because a slave was a slave and severe penalties were imposed on this practice.

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In my family there seems to have been a thorough abandonment of the practice after the 1750s ban within Quaker circles.  And by the end of the century the entire tribe is on the move to Indiana to get away from the problem in North Carolina.  Indiana has been Trueblood Central ever since and my grandfather was born there.  Interestingly for people who were so anti-slavery, my great-great-grandfather, William Trueblood, had the vote removed for refusing to fight in the Civil War, refusing to pay for a substitute and refusing to pay the extra taxes levied for the war.

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Into Indiana and Ohio is the standard trek as the Quakers abandoned North Carolina. Several of my family branches did this and ended up operating some of the underground railroad routes from the Carolinas into Indiana, Ohio and further north. Those family names operating part of the underground railroad included Bond, Coffin and a few others (they had all moved from Carolina). Estimates are about 3000 slaves traveled that route of the railroad over time. Two of the houses on the route stand today.

In contrast to that is a non-Quaker ancestor in Ohio who is recorded as "a much wanted man" for bounty jumping having claimed numerous bounties for multiple enlistments for which he never reported. My multi-great grandmother was so embarrassed by him that she never gave his name anywhere and it took several years to track him down (but it was done with the help of a wonderful county historical society in Ohio).

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Stephen, just this morning I came across (in Hinshaw, Blackwater Monthly Meeting) records of the Quakers in Dinwiddie County Virginia freeing large numbers of slaves they held in 1779. It gives the appearance a firm decision had been made or instruction given either locally or at the yearly meeting level.

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As I understand it from the Book of Discipline these are the key dates:

1696 advice against the importation of Negroes

1754 advice against buying any slaves

1758 appointment of a committee of five to visit all Friends who hold slaves and persuade them to set their slaves at liberty

1762 Quarterly and Monthly Meetings are instructed to deal with Friends that still own slaves

1766 the Yearly Meeting declares that Quaker slave-holders who "continue to reject advice of their brethern" should be disowned by their Meeting. Also in the "Queries" of 1766 was the question which asked    whether they use well "the ones who are set free and educate and encourage them in a religious and virtuous life"

So anyone making to 1779 must have been real holdouts!  The will of Amos Trueblood in July 1759 is the last time slaves are mentioned in the Trueblood family documents.  The next will in the 1760s has none.

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Which Yearly Meeting? North Carolina YM? Also have a Bill of Sale 1771 Charleston with slaves itemized but I don' think that Quaker was seen at the Meeting House with great frequency (but also no records of him ever being disciplined).

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I believe so.  At least according to another Trueblood family historian.  I know the Virginia YM doesn't declare absolute expulsion until 1777.  So each colony is clearly acting separately but in the same general trend.

I just checked and apparently it was 1776 not 1766.  Which is an appropriate year for the Quakers to take the final decision.The Americas were going up in flames and the Quakers were quietly getting on with making things better for everyone, not just the rich, white folks.

Answer 2

It’s not really a leap - people got land just for showing up and that’s why they came here.  All most people had to do was find a piece of vacant land and claim it.  The government gave away tens of thousands of acres just to get the land settled.  The Friends first settled in that area of North Carolina in 1672, so he may have been joining relatives who were already there, or at least have been encouraged to move there by other Friends.

Comments

By the standards of the 17th Century, 600 acres of prime river-front land is significant.  It is near the upper end of what others are receiving.  As I understand it, indentured servants are getting 10 acres on obtaining their release.  Hence my interest in where the funds for this are coming from and how much cash they would need to get to the Carolinas.

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There were other grants as large in that area in 1694.  Due to the difficulty of recruitng people to North Carolina, by 1670 they were giving 100 acres to any free man, with additional acres for enslaved people or others connected to that person.  John’s grant is in the names of two men, John and Amos Trueblood.

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It is actually not two men but two children: Amos is 2-3 and John is 4-5 years old.  By the time the grant comes through both John Trueblood Snr and Agnes, his wife, are dead.  Perhaps it was a sympathy vote to the two young orphans.  (It is just as well as they go on to have a lot of children...)

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Your idea as to whether they knew the neighbours to whom the children were later entrusted after their death is interesting.  I am going to do some research as to whether they knew each other before they came to the banks of the Pasquotank.  More work to pursue...