New York City indentures collection: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids (original) (raw)

1718-1727, 1792-1915, inclusive

10.75 Linear feet (41 volumes and 2 boxes)

Indentures in this collection include contracts binding small children and young people of both sexes to periods of domestic servitude, agricultural labor, or apprenticeship with practitioners of a wide variety of trades and occupations. The collection also consists of foundling records from the Alms House and later the Department of Public Charities as well as deeds of manumission and free papers for African American city residents.

Children in New York from the eighteenth through the twentieth century were often placed under the care of the state because of the sickness, mental illness, or the imprisonment of the parents, or because of the general poverty of the family. Commissioners of the Almshouse oversaw the city's charities concerning the care of "insane, feeble-minded, sick, infirm, and destitute persons" and were supposed to care for children until they could be indentured, adopted, given back to a parent or family member, or until they turned sixteen.

Many children under the state's care were placed in orphan homes or "baby farms." Although it differed with time and in each borough, when a child was found, the child was generally sent to a specific hospital or the city nurse for care. The child was then transferred to a private foundling home or orphan asylum, often one that corresponded to what was perceived as the child's religion. These asylums received public subsidies and relieved the state of the burden of the children. These children placed in orphan homes often faced serious health issues and many times death.

It was also common practice to relieve the city of the burden of caring for children by indenturing them out. Children in New York City had been apprenticed since colonial times as a way to receive training in a particular trade or skill. Although some indentured children were from stable families who wished their child to be indentured, other children apprenticed were under the care of the almshouses or public charities. These indentures were often made under the objection of parents.

Although the conditions of the indentures varied over time, most colonial and post-Revolutionary apprentices were provided with clothing, food, lodging, some schooling, and training in a trade in exchange for a promise not to "commit fornication nor contract matrimony" as well as refrain from "Alehouses, Taverns, or Playhouses" and vices such as cards and dice. At the end of their term, an apprentice was generally given a new set of clothing and a bible. Children were indentured at ages ranging from a few weeks old to their teenage years; boys were apprenticed until they were 21 years old and girls until they were 18 years old. While a boy apprentice was supposed to learn the trade of his master, a girl apprentice was expected to do mostly housekeeping and sewing and functioned as a servant. The children of New York City were apprenticed in New York City as well as to families in New Jersey and places elsewhere in the country.

While some apprentices were well cared for and perhaps even adopted by their masters, other apprentices faced cruel or lazy masters and ended up living the life of a slave. Although the indenture was a legal contract, many were cancelled due to a master's cruel treatment or his unhappiness with the child as well as for an apprentice running away or getting married. The Commissioners of the Almshouse were responsible for disputes between masters and apprentices as well as for the investigation of accusations of mistreatment and violation of agreement. In 1849 laws were passed giving parents the right to break an indenture and resume care of their child.

In 1860, the Department of Public Charities and Correction of the City of New-York took over the functions of the Governors of the Almshouse, and the Commissioner of Public Charities became responsible for the indenturing of children. The agency eventually became the Department of Welfare in 1936. Although an exact date is unclear, children in New York City were apprenticed until the beginning of the twentieth century.

Sources:

Peterson, Arthur Evert and George William Edwards. New York as an Eighteenth Century Municipality. New York: Longmans, Green & Company, 1917.

Romanofsky, Peter. "Saving the Lives of the City's Foundlings" New-York Historical Society Quarterly v. 61 (January/April 1977), 49-68.

Klips, Stephen A., Institutionalizing the Poor : the New York City almshouses, 1825-1860. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1981.

1792-1849 Commissioners of the Alms-House and Bridewell

1850-1860 Governors of the Alms-House

1860-1896 Commissioners of the Public Charities and Corrections

1897-1936 Commissioners of Public Charities

The materials in this collection are organized according to format and then chronologically.

The materials are organized into three series:

1. Series 1: Indentures (1718-1902)
2. Series 2: Foundling Records (1838-1915)
3. Series 3: Free Papers (1803-1814)

This collection includes diverse material related to indentured servants and orphans in New York City. It includes the indentures of boys and girls as well as foundling records and the papers of freed slaves. The majority of the material is indentures outlining the terms of apprenticeship for boys and girls in New York City. Although the colonial indentures do not indicate an age for the apprentice, the post-revolutionary apprentices are mainly children, particularly New York City orphans or children of the poor. Only one girl's indenture from 1807 is an indenture created in exchange for passage to America. The indentures indicate if the agreement was cancelled and often provide a reason for its cancellation. They also record if the apprentice was adopted.

The collection also consists of the records of the foundlings from the Alms House and later the Department of Public Charities. These records describe the infant, record its health, and sometimes recount the circumstances of the child being found or left at the hospital. One volume of the foundling records documents the orphans who were indentured out. The records generally indicate the high number of death among the orphans. The collection also contains the free papers of former slaves. These include documents granting a slave freedom and documents verifying that a particular African American is a free person.

This collection supports research on foundlings and the indentured servitude of children in the late eighteenth to early twentieth century. The free papers provide documentation of manumission and the necessary papers of free blacks.

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Open to qualified researchers.

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to twenty exposures of stable, unbound material per day. (Researchers may not accrue unused copy amounts from previous days.) Researchers on site may print out unlimited copies from microfilm reader-printer machines at per-exposure rates. See guidelines in Reading Room for details.

Permission to quote from this collection in a publication must be requested and granted in writing. Send permission requests, citing the name of the collection from which you wish to quote, to

Library Director
The New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

This collection should be cited as New York City-Indentures, the New-York Historical Society.

Colonial indentures 1718-1727 (also called "Liber 29 of Conveyances") donation by Register's Office of the City, 1905.

Boys' Indentures from 1792-1794 donation by Isaak John Greenwood, date unclear.

Indentures dated 1815-1902 and Foundling Records, donation by the Department of Public Welfare, City of New York, and Department of Hospitals, Welfare Island, 1937.

The provenance of the loose boys' indentures 1801-1811, loose girls' indentures 1807-1814, and the Free Papers is unknown.

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:50:24 -0400.

Language: Description is in English.

This version was derived fromIndentures01mb.xml

New-York Historical Society