Guide to the Indenture for a miller apprenticeship for Hugh Ogden in Loudoun County, Virginia, March 17, 1815

Indenture for a miller apprenticeship for Hugh Ogden in Loudoun County, Virginia, C0360

Historical Note

Indentured servitude was a common practice in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries in the United States. There were a number of reasons why individuals entered into an indenture, some being the prohibitive cost of passage to the Americas, or the lack of an economic head start in life. Indentured servitude is generally defined as "a contract by which an apprentice was bound to serve a master, who undertook to teach him a trade, or by which someone bound himself to service in return for money or passage to the colonies. Indentured servitude in Virginia was a kind of temporary slavery. While still serving their time, servants were under the total authority of their masters and they could be bought and sold like slaves. They 'took up their indentures' when they became free" (Monticello.org, 2018.) Adults generally served 4 - 7 years as an indentured servant, while children would serve longer. During most of the 17th century, indentured servants were the main source of agricultural labor in the U.S. Some indentured servants were treated well and fairly, leaving their indenture with property and a skilled trade, but many others were treated no better than enslaved individuals. Indentures could be extended for a variety of reasons, including breaking the law or the servant getting pregnant. Eventually, the popularity of identured servitude waned as the the profitability of using the labor of enslaved peoples increased.

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Scope and Content

Indenture for a miller apprenticeship for Hugh Ogden in Loudoun County, Virginia, created on March 17, 1815. The indenture states that Hugh Ogden, an orphan born circa 1800 in England, will be apprenticed to Peter Bernenderfer, a Loudoun County miller, for seven years. The indenture seemingly proved fruitful for Ogden, as he went on to marry Bernenderfer's daughter, Catherine, and later settled in Massillon, Ohio, working as a miller himself until he died in 1847.

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Arrangement

This is a single item collection.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from Indenture for a miller apprenticeship for Hugh Ogden in Loudoun County, Virginia must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

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Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center also holds many other collections on historic Virginia, including the Randolph H. Lytton Historic Virginia collection.

The Special Collections Research Center also holds the Contract transferring temporary service of indentured servant Peyton Cook.

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Index Terms

Geographical Names:

Subjects:

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Administrative Information

Alternative Form Available

A digitized version of this document can be found here: Indenture for a miller apprenticeship for Hugh Ogden in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Preferred Citation

Indenture for a miller apprenticeship for Hugh Ogden in Loudoun County, Virginia, C0360, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Purchased from Peter Luke Antiques, Ephemera, Old and Rare Books on March 1, 2013.

Processing Information

Reprocessing completed by Amanda Brent in June 2019. EAD markup completed by Amanda Brent in June 2019. This collection used to be a part of the Virginia historical documents collection, C0034.

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Bibliography

"History of Loudoun County." Loudoun County. https://www.loudoun.gov/174/History (accessed June 24, 2019).

"Hugh Ogden." https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39405076/hugh-ogden (accessed June 24, 2019).

"Hugh Ogden." https://www.geni.com/people/Hugh-Ogden/6000000048940240672 (accessed June 24, 2019).

"Indentured Servants." Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/indentured-servants (accessed June 27, 2019).

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