Keziah Burgess
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Indentured Servitude in Virginia

8/26/2006

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There were two types of indentured servants in the English Colonies of North America and later in the United States. One was European and the other was African.

European indentured servants were among the first settlers of the English Colonies in Jamestown in 1607! At that time “indentured” meant [Under Contract].

Indenture was a part of English Common Law which was probably borrowed from an ancient custom of tearing, ripping or breaking a contact document into two parts, which, when fitted back together to proved authenticity.

When the first Africans were introduced into Jamestown prior to or at least by 1619, the Africans were treated as “indentured servants”, because there were no colonial laws defining slavery. That all changed in 1641 (Massatuchettes) and 1661 (Virginia). For the most part, after these dates, Africans in the English Colonies never were treated as equals in matters of release from indenture, land ownership, citizenship, etc.

In 1661, Virginia passed their slave law, which stated that: Africans were slaves, and the children of African mothers belonged to her owner, regardless of the status of their father.

European indentured servant women sometimes had children with African fathers. Initially these mulatto children were born “free”, but around 1700, another law was passed which punished white women that had children by African men. Their children were often taken away from their mothers and sold off as “indentured servants” until age 21, under the guise of protecting the county from liability for supporting the “poor”. All the English colonies had similar laws and policies.

BROKENLINK - http://www.curry.edschool.virginia.edu/socialstudies/projects/jvc/unit/econ/msstatemsg.html
 
By 1790 when Keziah was born, bonding was administrated by the “Overseers of the Poor.” Each community had a council of several that would serve at the county level to oversee the circumstances and administration of the poor. Poor people who were residents of the county, could be placed under indenture to another to work for an pay the cost of housing and feeding them.


Children who were from families that could not care for their children or generally, according to the Overseers” not be raised appropriately, could be taken from parents and placed in an indentured situation. When this happened, the family could keep all the labor of the child until released at adulthood. This child was supposed to be clothed, fed and housed. In addition they were supposed to be raised and educated, although the performance if these expectations seem sketchy today.
 
Keziah and her brother James, were placed in families with some respect and were also known in the community. We can only hope she was treated well. Many farmers needed labor. If they had too few children and  could not afford slaves, indenture could be used to satisfy the gap. This was most likely the case for Keziah. However, for reasons unknown, her own son, Armstead was also indentured at the age of  seven  or eight. As a single woman in the early 1800’s she was unable to care for her son, and the cycle continued.

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The Mystery of Keziah Burgess

8/26/2006

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For several decades family genealogists have been stopped in the year 1790 when Keziah Burgess was bonded to Jno Nichols, in Bedford County Kentucky. The mystery continues with another two bondings of a James Burgess, and James McDaniel’s, son of Mary Burgess within a few years of Keziah’s bonding. Researchers have made a connection with Keziah and her three sons again in 1840 in the Kentucky Census, revealing yet another relationship who was also bonded; her son Armstead Burgess in 1817, who was 7 or 8 at the time.   Bonding in the early days was similar to slavery; by 1790 it was used to pay a debt or to raise an orphan. Freedom did come after a period of several years, or when the child reached adulthood. Naturally it can be a devastating experience; one that would surely stay with a person for life.  This website is dedicated to the discovery of Keziah Burgess. Who was she, how did she live and provide for her three sons?  Why was she bonded out and who was her family? This site will take you through the odyssey of that discovery, and in a strange way, remember someone who otherwise was unknown, someone who was undoubtedly at the bottom of the social strata. Yet she and her boys did win their freedom and her family did eventually have a chance at American prosperity.  
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The Armstead Burgess DNA Haplotype-Ancient Roots

8/26/2006

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One of the additional features of genetic DNA testing is an ancient journey into the past. This is called the Haplotype Group. The Haplotype Group is measured in the thousands of years. While the Armstead branch paternal line came through England in the recent past (500 to 100) years. In pre-historical times even before the last ice age 12,000 years ago we had other roots. This is an interesting quote from the
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENEALOGY-DNA/2004-05/1085960546 site by Dennis Garvy. Our Haplotype Group is I1b.

“I1b is the most frequent “I” sub-clade in eastern Europe and the Balkans. Its highest incidence was seen in Croatia (31%) and Bosnia (40%). While I1b is seen at low frequencies in western Europe, it is about the only sub-group of “I” seen east of the Adriatic. I1b is virtually absent among Italians, Germans, French, and Swiss. This may mean that I1b also expanded out from a LGM refugium - but this one located in eastern Europe or the Balkans. The highest diversity of I1b STRs was seen among Bosnians, Croats, Czechs, and Slovaks, and the lowest diversity was seen among the Turks and Moldavians.

The sub-clade I1b2 (M26) is usually seen at very low frequency in western Europe, but occurs at higher frequencies in several isolated spots: Sardinia (41%), Castile (19%), Bearnais (8%) and Basques (6%). The differing distributions of I1b2 and I1b indicate that those two groups probably separated before the LGM. The authors feel that the high concentration of I1b2 in Sardinia may not necessarily mean that the haplogroup originated there. The unusually high Sardinian frequency could also be explained by I1b2 being present among the first humans who colonized that island about 9000 years ago, which was subsequently amplified by genetic drift. The study did not test for P41b, or M161, the mutations that define, respectively,
I1b1 and I1b2a.”

More about the complete “I” group is available at Mr. Garvey’s site.

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    Ron Burgess

    A marketer, writer, and small business consultant. This blog was inspired during my genealogy work and the story of Kehiah Burgess of Kentucky. 

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