Letter 9, 1772-06-05

Letter from Mosley to Mrs. Dunn, his sister, June 5, 1772. Discusses the abuses of indentured servitude and the harsh treatment of an individual known by both Mosley and his sister, who came from England to Maryland under an indenture. Mosley asks his sister to discourage anyone she knows in England from signing on to an indenture in America. Mosley compares indentured servitude to slavery, and also denigrates enslaved individuals.

This folder contains materials related to Jesuit slaveholding.

Mosley likens indentured servitude to slavery, noting that an indentured person “must be publicly sold, for a slave, for the term of years signed in his indenture, which brings him for that term of years on a footing with our Negro slaves….”

Mosley notes that masters are cruel because “they are chiefly accustomed to negroes, a stubborn, dull set of mortals, that do nothing but by driving….”