Book of Ryans - The American Experience
Indentured Servants
I would not live in Ireland now, for she's a fallen land,
And the tyrant's heels is on her neck, with her reeking blood-stained hand.
There's not a foot of Irish ground, but's trodden down by slaves,
Who die unwept, and then are flung, like dogs, into their graves.
J. Andrews, Printer 38 Chatham St., N.Y.
Indentured servitude allowed unemployed European men and women a method to pay their transport to the new world, so that they could find work. Of the 370,000 18th century English emigrants settling in the western hemisphere, 155,000 emigrated to the mainland colonies, the majority of which were indentured servants. The poverty-stricken Irish peasant sold himself to an indentured servant broker, or ship captain, in return for passage to either Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, or other ports which sought indentured slaves. According to Bernard Bailyn, half of all indentured servants and two-fifths of all the English immigrants went to Maryland.[1] Maryland was the ideal place for Irish Catholics as it was the only colony to legislate religious toleration. Upon arrival at a colonial port, they were sold at public auction for a period ranging from two to four years. After serving the predetermined time, the indentured servant could receive new clothes, tools or other items to help them in their search for permanent employment.
Because of the economic conditions in Ireland, it is likely that most Irishmen came to the colonies as indentured servants; however, the total number of men and women sold under indentured terms will never be known because many ship records are incomplete or missing. Examining ship records of this period, several Ryans voluntarily entered as indentured servants from England:[2]
Edward Ryan, age 21, sailed on the ship `Charming
Nancy' to Philadelphia, 1774.
George Ryan, age 15, Laborer, sailed on the ship
`Royal Charlotte' to Dominica Maryland, indentured
for four years, 1775.
Because earlier spellings of Ryan varied among the descendants of 'Riain', William Reane may have been the first recorded Ryan to settle in the north American colonies. Archives have recorded that he arrived in "1660, Oct 12,"[3] and Goldham recorded that he “was bound to Thomas Fines to serve three years in Virginia.”[4] The surnames, Reane and Mulreane, were modified by William Petty a few years earlier in 1656 to Ryan as an attempt to standardize the surnames of Ireland, and it was likely that many Reanes retained the original spelling even in 1660. William Reane's entry into colonial America was only four years after Petty changed the spelling in the Down Survey, so the liklihood that he was of Irish origin is very high. Significantly this meant that the first Ryan may have been on American soil approximately 40 years after the first colony in Jamestown had been decimated by an Indian attack.
The early records do not paint an idyllic picture of the indentured servant's general working and living conditions. Colonial newspapers frequently advertised the "elopement" of an indentured servant from his or her master. One early news clip, in 1738, showed a sample announcement frequently seen in newspapers, such as this one from "New York's First Newspaper":
Peter Ryan (an Irishman), age c. 20 - runaway from Moses Vernon, of Providence, near Chester in Chester Co., Pa. (6,12,38)[5]
To suggest that only non-Irish mistreated their indentured servants would be an understatement. Men of Irish heritage also had difficulties holding onto their indentured laborers. One set of advertisements was placed by Cornelius Ryan announcing the sudden departures of two of his servants, one in 1766 and another seven years later in 1773. From the casual reader's interpretation it would not be an underestimate to say that he was a difficult master; however, the years between these two runaway events suggest another reason for their spirited leave. It's true that servants ran from their masters because of extreme cruelty, but in some cases it was because the master was unwilling to give the indentured servants his freedom. As the normal term for servitude was seven years, it would appear that McMullen and Mathew left because Ryan may not have recognized that their indentured terms had expired. A common complaint among indentured servants was that their masters were unwilling to release them from their working debt; consequently, they felt that their only escape was to run away from their master.[6]
Michael M'Mullen, Irish servant, skinner and breeches-maker, age 28 - runaway Dec 1 from Cornelius Ryan, living opposite the coffeehouse in NYC (12"8/1766)
Durkin, Mathew, native of Ireland, apprentice weaver, age c. 15 - runaway Sept 28 from Cornelius Ryan (10/4,1/73)
The newspapers tended to portray the early indentured servant as an illiterate creature predisposed to laziness. These bondservants arrived in America to work as apprentices because it was the only means they had available to make their way to the new world. A few of the early indentured servants hid their educational backgrounds for fear that it would affect their chance of obtaining an apprentice position. Because some of the indentured servants could not speak English, this supported the commonly held view that they were uneducated; and consequently, the average American whom mostly came from English stock continued to view the Irishmen with the same disdain that their forefathers had in England. One advertisement printed in the 18th century informed the reader that a specific runaway could be easily fooled, but taken in its full context it acknowledges the racial attitutes Protestant America had against 'dim-witted' Catholics:
"One ad for a runaway bondservant, Thomas Ryan, said that he could easily be identified if caught because he did not speak English, only Irish, but could be tricked into speaking French, Latin or Greek."[7]
Deportation
In the county of Limerick, near the town of Ramshorn,
My own native country wherein I was born,
But to some foreign country I was sent for a slave,
Since in my own country I could not behave.
The Irish Transport
'Farewell to Old England', Anderson
It had been estimated that nearly 60,000 prisoners were sent to America to serve time in unpaid labor often serving alongside indentured servants. Transporting undesirables from English soil had long been practiced by England; and after Cromwell's defeat of the Irish forces in 1652, Cromwell and his Puritans used banishment, as one of its means, to send Irishmen to Europe. Later they used deportation to send unwanted sects, mostly Quakers, from England's soil, also.
Exportation of the criminal element from English prisons occurred quite early in American history. Just as England used Australia during the early 19th century to contain its inmate population, colonial North America was regarded as a frontier outpost perfect for the resettlement of criminals and political enemies. Because of a labor shortage in the colonies, governmental officials issued requests to send prisoners and other undesirables. One such request came from Virginia's Governor Dale who actively petitioned English authorities to send him "all offenders out of the common Gaols condemned to die."[8] By 1775 thousands of convicts had been transported to America, with the majority being sent to Virginia and Maryland. As the colonies matured, opposition groups began to challenge this wholesale criminal export in the colonial councils; however, England ignored these isolated verbal attacks and continued to send its criminals to relieve the overcrowded conditions of its prisons regardless of the protests made by the colonial assemblies.
England legislated a new set of penal laws in 1718 called `An Act for the further preventing Robbery, Burglary, and other Felons, etc'. This parliamentary act was to have been modified numerous times to amend additional misbehaviors punishable by death or deportation, and in its final form allowed felons to be sent to the American colonies. Banishment could be decreed for contraventions such as murder, treason, stealing in excess of five pounds, or any other 100 minor and major infractions listed under this act. The act was particularly ominous to the Irish as anyone suspected of revolutionary leanings could be transported, and this act was used multiple times to convict and transport men and women during the 18th century. In analyzing records that still exist, a high percentage of the Irish convicts were transported to America for treason. Records, such as the `Old Baily Sessions Papers for the City of London and the County of Middlesex', reveal much about the social attitutes of the English continent, and the offenders, among which several several Ryans are listed, also reveal how attitudes of crime versus its punishment has changed over the years. The following prisoners were deported for various criminal activities from Newgate prison between 1728 and 1764:[9]
Passenger Destination Ship Captain Departure
Jeremiah Ryan Maryland Patapscoe 3-17,1729/30
John Ryan Virginia Smith 3-27.1731
Thomas Ryan Maryland Patapscoe 5-17,1736
The shipment of criminals was a lucrative business for many ship captains, and while they originally agreed to transport the felons at an agreed upon rate, they later contracted with the government to transport them at no charge. It didn't take too long for the ship captain to realize that their human cargo could be sold to merchants as indentured laborers, consequently they transported them "free of charge" to the English government. They sold them once they arrived in the colonies, and their price depended upon the length of the prison term, the age of the prisoner, and the skills the prisoner possessed. According to the `Journals of the House of Commons 1779', males sold for 18 pounds, females about 9 pounds, specialized crafts could provide up to 25 pounds, and the aged usually had to be given away sometimes with an incentive paid by the ship's captain.
Southeast USA
One of the states that attracted a large number of Irish immigrants was North Carolina. Within a few years of their arrival, they became involved in politics which was remarkable because most Irish immigrants came from rural backgrounds. La Vern J. Rippley wrote that unlike the Germans who came to America, "The Irish were urban and skilled in the arts of politics."[10] One could debate the 'urban' experience the Irish brought with them considering that formal urban settlements were not established until after the Viking invasion; and even then the Celts traditionally avoided settlement life. Yet they assimilated rapidly in colonial government, as their experience in North Carolina reflected, and here they held high political offices such as the attorney-general, governor, members of the judicial system including the State Supreme Court, and even as members of the provincial assembly. In the early 1700 records it named several members of the provincial assembly with Gaelic surnames including Ryan, Keenan, Murphy and other men with Irish surnames.[11]
Irish immigration was further expanded in the South when Irish land speculators, John Read and George Galpin, sold land patents to Irish-born immigrants near the Georgia border settlements. These land grants were handled through relatives in Ireland, and over a period of two years several hundred Irishmen entered into contracts with Galpin and Read. Because of their success, other speculators began offering similar land deals, and within five years financiers were responsible for importing 600 Irish immigrants to the South. Their success in attracting Irish settlers upset the Dublin parliament, and consequently they issued restrictions regarding land speculation which made it difficult for speculators to achieve profits. It was also Dublin's purpose to halt the surge of Protestant Irish immigrants who were leaving Ireland which made the Ascendancy vulnerable to Catholic demands.
The flow of Irish immigrants to the American South was shut off, yet in time the original Irish settlers became prominently influential in Southern culture. It is not surprising that Margaret Mitchell in her highly acclaimed novel 'Gone with the Wind' chose two venerable southern families of Irish descent as the main characters of her story; and equally unsurprising was her selection of the name 'Tara' for the O'Hara plantation as it was the ancient home for the high-kings of Ireland. As time progressed their importance in southern life increased, and by 1830 they constituted a sizable portion of the deep South's population. After the Irish parliament restricted the immigrant flow, the Southern plantations had to seek other cheap labor sources, so it began to import large numbers of African slaves to fill these jobs. As the South grew, it attracted few Irish laborers because, aside from farm work, there were limited job opportunities which the unskilled Irish could perform. Once industrialization began to flourish in the Southern cities, industrialists pursued untraditional commercial ventures which created employment opportunities in the nonagricultural sector; and this renewed demand for unskiled labor brought another wave of Irish immigrants into the urban South, particularly because most slaves were working at agrarian tasks. Using the 1830 Alabama census, a deep South state, the surname of Ryan appears prominently. It is possible that these Ryans originated from a one or two common American ancestors.[12]
Surname Name County
Ryan Berry Shelby
Harris Morgan
Henry Morgan
Jason Greene
Jesse Marengo
John Greene
John, Jr. Morgan
John, Sr. Morgan
Joseph Greene
Thomas Morgan
Zachary Greene