ter's letters a
knowledge of the pains of colonial domestic service, but I know among
New England historical collections no other such well of good old
English words and phrases.

The Declaration of Independence did not better the aspect of the servant
question. The _Providence Gazette_ advertised in 1796 that a reward of
five hundred dollars and the "warmest blessings of abused householders"
would be given to any restoring the conditions of the good old times, or
rather what they fancied was

"The constant service of the antique world
When service sweat for duty not for meed."

The notice opens thus:

"Was mislaid or taken away by mistake, soon after the formation of
the abolition society, from the servant girls in this town all
inclination to do any kind of work, and left in lieu thereof an
independent appearance, a strong and continued thirst for high
wages, a gossiping disposition for every sort of amusement, a
leering and hankering after persons of the other sex, a desire of
finery and fashion, a never-ceasing trot after new places, more
advantageous for stealing, with a number of contingent
accomplishments that do not suit the wearers."

President Dwight wrote that the servants of that day were "distinguished
for vice and profligacy;" so the nineteenth century opened no more
promisingly than the eighteenth.

The pious colonists felt that great spiritual, as well as temporal
responsibility rested upon them in regard to their bond-servants. We
find in contemporary letters frequent reference to the souls of the
indentured ones; Englishmen at the old home wrote to the settlers to
remember well their religious, their proselyting duties; and they
faithfully reminded each other of their accountability for souls. For
instance, when a smart young Irishman came over with some Irish hounds,
his consigner besought the New Englanders to remember that it was as
godly to "winne this fellowes soule out of the subtillest snare of
Sathan, Romes pollitick religion, as to winne an Indian soule out of the
Dieuells clawes;" and he urged them to watch the Papist narrowly as to
his carriage in Puritandom, his attitude toward Protestantism. This was
the same religious zeal that led the Boston elders to send missionaries
from New England to convert the heathen of the Established Church in
Virginia.

The moral and religious condition of these servants was truly of great
importa