Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1914 — WHITE SERVANTS’ GOOD WORK [ARTICLE]

WHITE SERVANTS’ GOOD WORK

Did Much Toward Building Up the .. South In the Days Before the Revolution.

Socially the white servant was an important factor in helping to build up a landed aristocracy in the south, because he .made possible the cultivation of extensive areas of land, declares a writer In Harper’s Magazine. But in the course of a few years he became a free citizen and owner of a small estate. Thus was developed a yeoman class, a much needed democratic element in the southern colonies, while at the same time settlers were secured for the black lands, where they Were needed to protect the frontier. Nevertheless, they did not form a distinct class after becoming freedmen. Some were doubtless the progenitors of the "poor white trash” of the south, but it is likely that environment rather than birth was the main factor in producing this class. While comparatively few rose to prominence, yet there are some notable examples to the contrary. Two

signers of the Declaration of Independence, George Taylor and Mathew Thornton; Charles Thompson, the secretary of the continental congress, and General Sullivan of revolutionary war fame, had all been white servants. It is certain also that many became successful planters, and perhaps the majority respectable and desirable citizens.