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Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site

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National Historic Site ( NHS ) and National Historical Park ( NHP ) are designations for officially recognized areas of nationally historic significance in the United States. They are usually owned and managed by the federal government. An NHS usually contains a single historical feature directly associated with its subject, while an NHP is an area that generally extends beyond single properties or buildings to include a mix of historic and later structures and sometimes significant natural features.

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84-585: Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site is a National Historic Site about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of Downtown Boston in Saugus, Massachusetts . It is the site of the first integrated ironworks in North America , founded by John Winthrop the Younger and in operation between 1646 and approximately 1670. It includes the reconstructed blast furnace , forge , rolling mill , shear, slitter and

168-639: A judicial punishment . The practice has been compared to the similar institution of slavery , although there are differences. Historically, in an apprenticeship , an apprentice worked with no pay for a master tradesman to learn a trade . This was often for a fixed length of time, usually seven years or less. Apprenticeship was not the same as indentureship, although many apprentices were tricked into falling into debt and thus having to indenture themselves for years more to pay off such sums. Like any loan , an indenture could be sold. Most masters had to depend on middlemen or ships' masters to recruit and transport

252-610: A better life. An American law passed in 1833 abolished the imprisonment of debtors, which made prosecuting runaway servants more difficult, increasing the risk of indenture contract purchases. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , passed in the wake of the American Civil War , made involuntary indentured servitude illegal in the United States. Through its introduction,

336-633: A complex manufacturing process that could only be done by an industrial enterprise. This process was not available in North America during the early years of English colonization, which meant that all iron goods had to be imported. As it took at least two months to sail to the nearest foundry, iron goods were very expensive. Winthrop believed that because the colonies had a cheap and abundant supply of raw materials, an iron works in Massachusetts could produce goods that could be sold profitably in

420-596: A conceptual framework, whereby both new and existing park units would be examined more holistically for ways to study history such as "creating social movements and institutions," "developing the American economy," and "peopling places." In the 20th century, potential new park units have been recommended not so much on "an orderly, balanced, and comprehensive" preservation of "outstanding examples", as Chief Historian Ronald Lee put it, but on those mandated to be studied by Congress, most of whose requests are recommended against by

504-681: A dispute with Bent, who wanted Robbins to give tours of the excavation site on weekends in addition to his other duties. According to archaeologist and author Donald W. Linebaugh , it was also due in part because of the decision of the FIWA to base the reconstruction of the Iron Works primarily on documentary evidence instead of archaeological evidence. Robbins also clashed with the project's architects, thinking them to be ignorant about and uninterested in archeological data. The Boston architecture firm of Perry, Shaw & Hepburn, Kehoe & Dean , which

588-431: A forge where pig iron was refined into wrought iron and a 500-pound hammer was used to make merchant bars, which were sold to blacksmiths for manufacture into finished products, and a rolling and slitting mill where flat stock that could be used to manufacture nails, bolts, horse shoes, wagon tires, axes, saw blades, and other implements was produced. At the time, it was one of the most technologically advanced iron works in

672-569: A major reception centre for indentured Indians from India who came to work on plantations following the abolition of slavery. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948) declares in Article 4 "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms". More specifically, it is dealt with by article 1(a) of

756-682: A merchant from Salehurst who was familiar with the iron making process, would replace him as manager of the Iron Works. After arriving in Massachusetts, Leader reviewed the previous site survey and looked into some other locations. He selected a location in Lynn, Massachusetts (now part of present-day Saugus) on the Saugus River . The river was navigable for shallow draft vessels and could be dammed to power machinery. The surrounding forests could be used to make charcoal. Bog ore could be mined from nearby ponds, swamps, riverbeds, and bogs. Limestone, which

840-433: A much higher rate than men due to the high population of men already in the colonies. However, women had to prove their status as single and eligible to emigrate, as married women could not leave without their husbands. Many women seeking escape from abusive relationships were willing to take that chance. The Indian Immigration Act of 1883 prevented women from exiting India as widowed or single in order to escape. Arrival in

924-654: A parent's consent. Such differences in social classes would ensure that alliances between the two groups would not lead to revolts towards plantation owners and managers. As well, during periods of mass indentured servitude of Irish peoples in the Caribbean, certain Irish individuals would use enslaved labour to profit financially and climb the ladder of social class. Historians Kristen Block and Jenny Shaw write that: "the Irish - by virtue of their European heritage - gained […] greater social and economic mobility." An example

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1008-759: A park is not itself "historic", but can be called "historical" when it contains historic resources. It is the resources which are historic, not the park. There are 63 national historical parks. Klondike Gold Rush International Historical Park was formally established by the United States and Canada in 1998, the year of the centennial of the gold rush the park commemorates. The park comprises Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Washington and Alaska (above) and Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site in British Columbia. Tens of thousands of prospectors took this trail in hopes of making their fortunes in

1092-783: A piece of the former Iron Works property out of foreclosure for $ 50. In 1941, Rosenberg offered to sell the house to Saugus and the DAR, however neither could meet his asking price. Instead he reached an agreement with the Alumni Association of the Henry Ford Trade School, which intended on moving the building to Henry Ford 's Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan . News of the impending move caused outrage amongst Saugus residents and preservationists who, after extensive discussions, convinced Henry Ford not to acquire

1176-475: A profit. The Iron Works closed around 1670. After the iron works closed, the site fell into disuse and became hidden by underbrush. In 1898, the Lynn Historical Society erected a historical marker near the site which read "The First Iron Works. The first successful iron works in this country established here. Foundry erected in 1643. Joseph Jenckes built a forge here in 1647 and in 1652 made

1260-453: A quarter-ton trip hammer . The facility is powered by seven large waterwheels, some of which are rigged to work in tandem with huge wooden gears connecting them. It has a wharf to load the iron onto ocean-going vessels, as well as a large, restored 17th-century house. During the 17th century, iron was used to manufacture a number of indispensable goods, including nails, horseshoes, cookware, tools, and weapons. The production of iron required

1344-469: Is a former indentured servant in Barbados, Cornelius Bryan, would go on to own land and enslaved people himself, demonstrating the tiers between servant and slave classes. The Indian indenture system was a system of indenture by which two million Indians called coolies were transported to various colonies of European powers to provide labour for the (mainly sugar) plantations. It started from

1428-493: Is best seen here as women were still subjected to the control of the plantation owners as well as their newly assigned 'partner'. Indentured servitude of Irish and other European peoples occurred in seventeenth-century Barbados, and was fundamentally different from enslavement: an enslaved African's body was owned, as were the bodies of their children, while the labour of indentured servants was under contractual ownership of another person. Laws and racial hierarchy would allow for

1512-492: Is not yet owned or formally developed by the National Park Service, but may eventually be owned and established as a national historic site. National historical parks tend to be larger and more complex than national historic sites. In the United States, sites are "historic", while parks are "historical". The NPS explains that a site can be intrinsically historic, while a park is a modern legal invention. As such,

1596-707: The American Colonies between the 1630s and the American Revolution came under indentures . However, while almost half the European immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies were indentured servants, at any one time they were outnumbered by workers who had never been indentured, or whose indenture had expired, and thus free wage labor was the more prevalent for Europeans in the colonies. Indentured people were numerically important mostly in

1680-546: The British Empire , transportation of Indian labour to the island gained pace. By 1838, 25,000 Indian labourers had been transported to Mauritius. After the end of slavery, the West Indian sugar colonies tried the use of emancipated slaves , families from Ireland , Germany and Malta and Portuguese from Madeira . All these efforts failed to satisfy the labour needs of the colonies due to high mortality of

1764-575: The Ellice Islands (subsequently known as Tuvalu ). They became collectively known as " Kanakas ". Indentured labour existed in Papua New Guinea . It remains unknown how many Islanders the trade controversially kidnapped. Whether the system legally recruited Islanders, persuaded, deceived, coerced or forced them to leave their homes and travel by ship to Queensland remains difficult to determine. Official documents and accounts from

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1848-655: The Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown battlefield in Virginia as one of the first new historical areas, and it was renamed a national historical park in 1936. It then established Morristown National Historical Park , the 1779–1780 winter encampment of the Continental Army in New Jersey, on March 2, 1933, as the first NHP: The U.S. House committee noted that the new designation was logical for

1932-542: The Klondike River district of Yukon . Download coordinates as: Indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an " indenture ", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum , as payment for some good or service (e.g. travel), purported eventual compensation, or debt repayment. An indenture may also be imposed involuntarily as

2016-529: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology ), metallurgic experts, specialists from Harvard University 's biological laboratory and botanical museum , and a professional photographer. He also received assistance from collectors and experts, including Smithsonian curator C. Malcolm Watkins , MIT professor Herbert H. Uhlig , and Harvard professor Elso Barghoorn . Robbins abruptly left the Iron Works in 1953. Robbins departure came not long after

2100-675: The National Park Service (NPS). Some federally designated sites are owned by local authorities or privately owned, but are authorized to request assistance from the NPS as affiliated areas. One property is managed by the U.S. Forest Service , Grey Towers National Historic Site . Since October 15, 1966, all historic areas, including NHPs and NHSs, in the NPS are automatically listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). There are also about 90,000 NRHP sites,

2184-735: The New England and Chesapeake Colonies as well as in England itself. In 1641, Winthrop sailed to England to get the capital he needed to fund the enterprise. The Company of Undertakers for the Iron Workes [sic] in New England was founded to finance the project. Winthrop selected a site in Braintree, Massachusetts (now part of present-day Quincy, Massachusetts ) as the location of the first Iron Works . Construction began in 1644 and

2268-594: The Swan River area of Western Australia existed between 1829 and 1832. During the 1860s planters in Australia , Fiji , New Caledonia , and the Samoa Islands , in need of laborers, encouraged a trade in long-term indentured labor called "blackbirding". At the height of the labor trade, more than one-half the adult male population of several of the islands worked abroad. Over a period of 40 years, from

2352-488: The "indentured" and "slaves" to be treated differently, as well as their identities to be defined differently.   Barbados is an example of a colony in which the separation between enslaved Africans and "servants" was codified into law. Distinct legal "acts" were created in 1661 treating each party as a separate group. The British ruling class anxieties over Irish loyalties would lead to harsh policing of Irish servants' movements, for instance, needing "reason" to leave

2436-534: The 1651 Battle of Worcester . King James II acted similarly after the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, and the use of such measures continued into the 18th century. Indentured servants could not marry without the permission of their master, were frequently subject to physical punishment, and did not receive legal favor from the courts. Female indentured servants in particular might be raped and/or sexually abused by their masters. If children were produced

2520-523: The 18th and early 19th centuries, children from the UK were often kidnapped and sold into indentured labor in the American and Caribbean colonies (often without any indentures). Indentured servitude was also used by governments in Britain for captured prisoners of war in rebellions and civil wars. Oliver Cromwell sent into indentured service thousands of prisoners captured in the 1648 Battle of Preston and

2604-539: The 1950s, the Mission 66 program revived historic studies that had lagged during World War II and saw the creation of the National Historic Landmarks program as a method to recognize important sites. From the 1960s to 1990s, the NPS evolved from a thematic framework, in which numerous specific themes and subthemes of American history were expected to each be included in some way in the system, to

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2688-652: The AISI announced that it would no longer pay its annual maintenance subsidy, which left the future of the site uncertain. On April 5, 1968, the Saugus Iron Works was added to the National Park Service system and renamed the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site. The park is open seasonally, spring through fall. National Historical Park As of 2024, there are 63 NHPs and 85 NHSes. Most NHPs and NHSs are managed by

2772-903: The British introduced the Indian indenture system, resulting in a permanent Indian South African presence. On 18 January 1826, the Government of the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion laid down terms for the introduction of Indian labourers to the colony. Each man was required to appear before a magistrate and declare that he was going voluntarily. The contract was for five years with pay of ₹8 (12¢ US) per month and rations provided labourers had been transported from Pondicherry and Karaikal . The first attempt at importing Indian labour into Mauritius , in 1829, ended in failure, but by 1834, with abolition of slavery throughout most of

2856-576: The Caribbean (primarily the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean) before 1840. In 1838, with the abolition of slavery at its onset, the British were in the process of transporting a million Indians out of India and into the Caribbean to take the place of the recently freed Africans (freed in 1833) in indentureship. Women, looking for what they believed would be a better life in the colonies, were specifically sought after and recruited at

2940-546: The First Iron Works Association, to purchase and maintain the property. In 1943 the First Iron Works Association (FIWA) purchased the farmhouse as well as the DAR's piece of the former Iron Works property. Louise E. du Pont Crowninshield , one of the FIWA's directors, approached Quincy Bent , a retired executive of Bethlehem Steel residing in Gloucester, Massachusetts , for money. Although Bent

3024-671: The Interior , but most have been authorized by acts of Congress . In 1937, the first NHS was created in Salem, Massachusetts , in order to preserve and interpret the maritime history of New England and the United States. There is one National Historic Area in the US park system, a unique designation given to the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area . There is one International Historic Site in

3108-467: The Iron Works met with frequent and sometimes fatal accidents. Another source of labor was indentured servants . Indentured servants typically worked at the Iron Works for three to seven years for little or no pay in exchange for their passage to Massachusetts and the provision of food, clothing, housing, and other necessities. Following the Battle of Dunbar in 1650, 60 Scottish prisoners of war were sent to

3192-663: The Iron Works to work as indentured servants. 35 or 37 of the 60 Scots intended for the Iron Works were employed there, while the remainder were sold for between 20 pounds and 30 pounds each to various interests in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. The Scots mostly worked as unskilled laborers, performing tasks like chopping wood. Some learned skills such as making charcoal, blacksmithing and carpentry. Most Scots were able to gain their freedom after seven years and afterwards they remained in Massachusetts or moved to Maine, where they started families and assimilated into Puritan society. In 1650, Leader, who had encountered difficulties with

3276-444: The NPS developed criteria for nationally significant historic sites in the late 1930s, it aimed to identify unique sites that could each tell a broad story and would fit together to cover all aspects of American history. Surveys of sites were guided by themes and chronologies to ensure a diverse and comprehensive selection of those most representative of different eras and geographies, with less political influence over site selection. In

3360-692: The NPS's mandate. In 1935, Congress passed the Historic Sites Act ( Pub. L.   49–666 ), which established that "it is a national policy to preserve for public use historic sites, buildings and objects of national significance for the inspiration and benefit of the people of the United States." This expanded upon the Antiquities Act of 1906, which gave the President the ability to order "the protection of objects of historic and scientific interest." The Historic Sites Act directed

3444-461: The NPS. A 1973 NPS publication outlined policies for administration of historical areas, which were distinct from its natural and recreational areas. This included not only NHSs and NHPs but also national military parks, national battlefields, national battlefield parks, national battlefield sites, national memorials, and some national monuments; at that time there were 178 such areas, and management focused on "maintaining and where necessary restoring

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3528-555: The National Park Service to survey historic sites which may be of national significance, as well as restore and acquire properties. The Historic American Buildings Survey began to document the country's architectural heritage and identify buildings for potential protection. Initially the Secretary of the Interior could designate national historic sites, though this did not include funding for acquition or administration without congressional action. Salem Maritime National Historic Site

3612-517: The US park system, a unique designation given to Saint Croix Island , Maine, on the New Brunswick border. The title, given to the site of the first permanent French settlement in America, recognizes the influence that it has had on both Canada and the United States. The NPS does not distinguish among these designations in terms of their preservation or management policies. The following site

3696-475: The Undertakers, left the Iron Works to go into the sawmill business. John Gifford and William Aubrey assumed management of the Iron Works, with Gifford serving as ironmaster and Aubrey doing the accounting. Although the Iron Works produced a respectable quantity of iron, due to the high cost of labor, financial mismanagement which may have included embezzlement, and a number of lawsuits, it seldom operated at

3780-599: The United States, but economic historians dispute its long-term impact. Sharon Salinger argues that the economic crisis that followed the war made long-term labor contracts unattractive. Her analysis of Philadelphia 's population shows that the percentage of bound citizens fell from 17% to 6.4% throughout the war. William Miller posits a more moderate theory, stating that "the Revolution...wrought disturbances upon white servitude. But these were temporary rather than lasting". David Galenson supports this theory by proposing that

3864-472: The area and set a new precedent, with comparison to the national military parks , which were then in the War Department. The park's establishment allowed the NPS to have an administrative historical program with professional historians. President Franklin D. Roosevelt reorganized the agency to also oversee memorials and military parks with historic significance later in 1933, substantially broadening

3948-512: The availability or willingness of local tribesmen. Indentured Indians from India were imported, for such projects as the Uganda Railway , as farm labor, and as miners. They and their descendants formed a significant portion of the population and economy of Kenya and Uganda, although not without engendering resentment from others. Idi Amin 's expulsion of the "Asians" from Uganda in 1972 was an expulsion of Indo-Africans. The majority of

4032-585: The building. In exchange, Ford wanted the Alumni Association reimbursed what it spent on the property. Fundraising efforts in Saugus were disappointing, so William Sumner Appleton , President of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities , proposed splitting the cost between the state, town, and the public. When it became clear that this plan would not work, Appleton created a nonprofit, called

4116-428: The colonial government, and inequality between the upper and lower class in colonial society. Indentured servitude was the primary source of labor for early American colonists until the rebellion. Little changed in the immediate aftermath of Bacon's Rebellion; however, the rebellion did cause a general distrust of servant labor and fear of future rebellion. The fear of indentured servitude eventually cemented itself into

4200-468: The colonies brought unexpected conditions of poverty, homelessness, and little to no food as the high numbers of emigrants overwhelmed the small villages and flooded the labor market. Many were forced into signing labor contracts that exposed them to the hard field labor on the plantation. Additionally, on arrival to the plantation, single women were 'assigned' a man as they were not allowed to live alone. The subtle difference between slavery and indenture-ship

4284-474: The dedication. Also participating in the ceremony were Senator Leverett Saltonstall , Governor Christian Herter , First Iron Works Association President J. Sanger Attwill, and Inland Steel Company chairman Edward L. Ryerson. After it opened to the public, Saugus Iron Works operated as a private museum run by the First Iron Works Association and funded by the American Iron and Steel Institute. In 1961,

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4368-482: The details regarding indentured labor varied across import and export regions and most overseas contracts were made before the voyage with the understanding that prospective migrants were competent enough to make overseas contracts on their own account and that they preferred to have a contract before the voyage. Most labor contracts made were in increments of five years, with the opportunity to extend another five years. Many contracts also provided free passage home after

4452-581: The dictated labor was completed. However, there were generally no policies regulating employers once the labor hours were completed, which led to frequent ill-treatment. In 1643, the European population of Barbados was 37,200 (86% of the population). During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms , at least 10,000 Scottish and Irish prisoners of war were transported as indentured laborers to the colonies. A half million Europeans went as indentured servants to

4536-504: The dies for the first silver money coined in New England. In 1654 he made the first fire engine in America." Eventually, the plaque too became obscured by the underbrush and remained camouflaged until it was discovered during the restoration of the Iron Works. In 1915, antiquarian Wallace Nutting purchased the Appleton-Taylor-Mansfield House, a 1680s farmhouse near the iron works site which was believed to be

4620-533: The eighteenth century, it remains true that a certain small part of the European colonial population of America was brought by force, and a much larger portion came in response to deceit and misrepresentation on the part of the spirits [recruiting agents]." One "spirit" named William Thiene was known to have spirited away 840 people from Britain to the colonies in a single year. Historian Lerone Bennett Jr. notes that "Masters given to flogging often did not care whether their victims were black or white." Also, during

4704-515: The end of slavery in 1833 and continued until 1920. This resulted in the development of a large Indian diaspora , which spread from the Indian Ocean (i.e. Réunion and Mauritius ) to Pacific Ocean (i.e. Fiji ), as well as the growth of Indo-Caribbean and Indo-African population. The British wanted local black Africans to work in Natal as workers. But the locals refused, and as a result,

4788-425: The former home of the ironmaster of the Saugus Iron Works. He renamed the home Broadhearth and undertook an extensive, albeit embellished, restoration of the home. Nutting used Broadhearth to showcase his collection of antiques, photographs, and reproduction furniture. In 1917 he added a blacksmith's shop to the property and hired a blacksmith to manufacture and sell reproductions of early ironwork. In 1920, Nutting, who

4872-438: The foundations of buildings, remains of the blast furnace, holding ponds, and canal, a 500-pound hammer used in the forge, and a waterwheel that powered the bellows for the blast furnace, along with its wheel pit. The wheel was saved by biologists from Harvard University , who developed a process to preserve it. In total, more than 5,000 artifacts were found. Robbins was aided by a historical researcher (Professor E. Neal Hartley of

4956-588: The hearts of Americans, leading towards the reliance on enslaved Africans. This helped to ingrain the idea of racial segregation and unite white Americans under race rather than economic or social class. Doing so prevented the potential for future rebellion and changed the way that agriculture was approached. The American and British governments passed several laws that helped foster the decline of indentures. The UK Parliament's Passenger Vessels Act 1803 regulated travel conditions aboard ships to make transportation more expensive, and to hinder landlords' tenants seeking

5040-585: The historical integrity of structures, sites and objects significant to the commemoration or illustration of the historical story". But because most units contained a combination of natural, historic, and recreational lands, the General Authorities Act of 1970 made all areas equal within the National Park System ; separate policy manuals for each were replaced in 1975 with one that would tailor policies in each park respective to

5124-658: The immigrants were free to work for themselves or another employer. At least one economist has suggested that "indentured servitude was an economic arrangement designed to iron out imperfections in the capital market". In some cases, the indenture was made with a ship's master, who sold the indenture to an employer in the colonies. Most indentured servants worked as farm laborers or domestic servants, although some were apprenticed to craftsmen. The terms of an indenture were not always enforced by American courts, although runaways were usually sought out and returned to their employer. Between one-half and two-thirds of European immigrants to

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5208-520: The labour would be extended by two years. Cases of successful prosecution for these crimes were very uncommon, as indentured servants were unlikely to have access to a magistrate, and social pressure to avoid such brutality could vary by geography and cultural norm. The situation was particularly difficult for indentured women, because in both low social class and gender, they were believed to be particularly prone to vice, making legal redress unusual. The American Revolution severely limited immigration to

5292-511: The large majority of which are neither owned nor managed by the NPS. Of these, about 2,600 have been designated at the highest status as National Historic Landmark (NHL) sites. After its founding in 1916, the National Park Service initially oversaw sites of primarily scenic and natural significance, including national parks and national monuments . Historians soon began recommending preservation of sites relating to human history. Congress created Colonial National Monument in 1930 to protect

5376-578: The late 18th century, indentured servitude was common in British America . It was often a way for Europeans to migrate to the American colonies: they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage. However, the system was also used to exploit many of them, as well as Asians (mostly from India and China) who wanted to migrate to the New World. These Asian people were used mainly to construct roads and railway systems. After their indenture expired,

5460-573: The mid-19th century to the early 20th century, labor for the sugar-cane fields of Queensland , Australia included an element of coercive recruitment and indentured servitude of the 62,000 South Sea Islanders . The workers came mainly from Melanesia – mainly from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu – with a small number from Polynesian and Micronesian areas such as Samoa , the Gilbert Islands (subsequently known as Kiribati ) and

5544-599: The new arrivals and their reluctance to continue working at the end of their indenture. On 16 November 1844, the British Indian Government legalised emigration to Jamaica , Trinidad and Demerara ( Guyana ). The first ship, Whitby , sailed from Calcutta for British Guiana on 13 January 1838, and arrived in Berbice on 5 May 1838. Transportation to the Caribbean stopped in 1848 due to problems in

5628-445: The numbers of British indentured servants never recovered, and that Europeans of other nationalities replaced them. Indentured servitude began its decline after Bacon's Rebellion , a servant uprising against the government of Colonial Virginia. This was due to multiple factors, such as the treatment of servants, support of native tribes in the surrounding area, a refusal to expand the amount of land an indentured servant could work by

5712-495: The period often conflict with the oral tradition passed down to the descendants of workers. Stories of blatantly violent kidnapping tend to relate to the first 10–15 years of the trade. Australia deported many of these Islanders back to their places of origin in the period 1906–1908 under the provisions of the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 . A significant number of construction projects in British East Africa and South Africa , required vast quantities of labor, exceeding

5796-609: The plantations from which they were employed. Similarly, the laws regarding slavery would prevent enslaved Africans from doing the same. While enslaved Africans - and for a period, free Africans - were not allowed to use the court system in any manner, even to act as a witness, Barbados would allow "white servants" to go to court if they felt that they had received poor treatment. Additionally, children of African descent were offered no supplementary protection, while children of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh extraction who were sent to Barbados as indentured servants could not work without

5880-419: The population of Mauritius are descendants of Indian indentured labourers brought in between 1834 and 1921. Initially brought to work the sugar estates following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire an estimated half a million indentured laborers were present on the island during this period. Aapravasi Ghat , in the bay at Port Louis and now a UNESCO site, was the first British colony to serve as

5964-443: The purpose of zones within. National historic sites are generally federally owned and administered properties, though some remain under private or local government ownership. There are currently 86 NHSs, of which 76 are official NPS units, 9 are NPS affiliated areas, and one is managed by the United States Forest Service . Derived from the Historic Sites Act of 1935, a number of NHSs were established by United States Secretaries of

6048-399: The region from Virginia north to New Jersey . Other colonies saw far fewer of them. The total number of European immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 was about 500,000; of these 55,000 were involuntary prisoners. Of the 450,000 or so European arrivals who came voluntarily, Tomlins estimates that 48% were indentured. About 75% of these were under the age of 25. The age of adulthood for men

6132-422: The site of the Iron Works. Robbins was interested in the idea of digging at a site that was over three hundred years old, the challenge of working on a site where there little information, including no plans or sketches, and the opportunity to work at what may have been the first iron-manufacturing plant in the American colonies. Robbins' excavations uncovered the major manufacturing units of the Iron Works, including

6216-541: The sugar industry and resumed in Demerara and Trinidad in 1851 and Jamaica in 1860. This system of labour was coined by contemporaries at the time as a "new system of slavery", a term later used by historian Hugh Tinker in his influential book of the same name. The Indian indenture system was finally banned in 1917. Although the system was officially suspended, those who were serving indentures at that time were required to complete their terms of service, thereby extending

6300-708: The system into the early 1920s. According to The Economist , "When the Indian Legislative Council finally ended indenture...it did so because of pressure from Indian nationalists and declining profitability, rather than from humanitarian concerns." Convicts transported to the Australian colonies before the 1840s often found themselves hired out in a form of indentured labor. Indentured servants also emigrated to New South Wales . The Van Diemen's Land Company used skilled indentured labor for periods of seven years or less. A similar scheme for

6384-401: The workers, so indentureships were commonly sold by such men to planters or others upon the ships' arrival. Like slaves, their prices went up or down, depending on supply and demand. When the indenture (loan) was paid off, the worker was free but not always in good health or of sound body. Sometimes they might be given a plot of land or a small sum to buy it, but the land was usually poor. Until

6468-496: The world. Once functioning, the Iron Works ran for thirty weeks of the year and produced one ton of cast iron a day. Skilled workers were brought over from England to ply their trade at the iron works. These emigrants did not fit in with the local Puritan society and often ran afoul of its laws. Many ironworkers were arrested for crimes such as drunkenness, adultery, gambling, fighting, cursing, not attending church, and wearing fine clothes. The less experienced local men who worked at

6552-661: Was 24 years (not 21); those over 24 generally came on contracts lasting about three years. Regarding the children who came, Gary Nash reports that "many of the servants were nephews, nieces, cousins, and children of friends of emigrating Englishmen, who paid their passage in return for their labor once in America." Several instances of kidnapping for transportation to the Americas are recorded, such as that of Peter Williamson (1730–1799). Historian Richard Hofstadter pointed out that "Although efforts were made to regulate or check their activities, and they diminished in importance in

6636-492: Was completed in 1645. On October 15, 1645, Winthrop secured the Undertakers an exemption from taxes and a 21-year monopoly on iron production from the Massachusetts General Court . The Braintree Iron Works, however, was unsuccessful due to a lack of iron ore in the area and an inadequate supply of water to power the machinery. In 1645, the Undertakers wrote to Winthrop informing him that Richard Leader ,

6720-588: Was having financial troubles, sold the house to Boston antiques dealer Charles L. Cooney. After Cooney's death, his widow sold it to another Boston antiques dealer, Philip Rosenberg. Upon purchasing property, Rosenberg promised Louise Hawkes of the Parson Roby Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution that he would only sell the house to the DAR or the Town of Saugus. In 1938, the DAR purchased

6804-419: Was normally used for flux , was not available, but through trial and error it was found that gabbro , which could be mined in nearby Nahant , would work as a flux. The new iron works, which was called Hammersmith, began operations in 1646. It consisted of a blast furnace for producing pig iron and gray iron (the later of which was poured into molds to make firebacks , pots, pans, kettles, and skillets),

6888-515: Was responsible for the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg , was hired to reconstruct the Iron Works. The reconstruction was based on archeological evidence and historical documents, as well as partially on conjecture. The Saugus Iron Works was opened on September 18, 1954, the first day of Saugus’ three-day celebration of the town's 325th anniversary. Benjamin Franklin Fairless , chairman of U.S. Steel , served as master of ceremonies at

6972-625: Was the first place to be preserved as a national historic site, created by Secretary Harold L. Ickes 's secretarial order on March 17, 1938. It had followed his designation of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in 1935; many historic sites in the National Park System continue to be protected under different designation types. Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site was designated later that year, another example of industrial heritage. As

7056-528: Was unimpressed by the house, he was interested in the property's slag pile, which indicated that the site could contain the remains of an iron works. Bent eventually convinced the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) to fund the restoration of the Iron Works. In September 1948, FIWA president J. Sanger Attwill approached archaeologist Roland W. Robbins who had discovered the site of Henry David Thoreau 's cabin on Walden Pond about trying to find

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