DUTY FOR A TERM --
THE INDENTURED SERVANT

The folk that followed Nicholas Dupui deep into the heart of Penn's Woods weren't a bunch of settlers that had just arrived fresh off of the boat from Europe.  These were folk that already had deep roots in New England, with most of them hailing from New York's Ulster County region.  As such, they weren't "indentured servants" who typically worked four to seven years in exchange for room, board, lodging and passage to the New World.

Instead of working for a lengthy term, Dupui's ledger offers up close to a hundred examples of these area residents working for only a matter of days, typically 1 to 2 days at a time.  An occasional entry will state "By twenty six Days work; By 4 Days at a table," or "By 14 Days work in 3 weaks," but these are the rarities in the ledger record.

We only note one instance of an entry that might perhaps vaguely hint at the possibility of indentured servitude...  the account page of Catharine Snell contains this entry:  "To 6 Days left from ye 14th till 19th of July."  More palpably convincing is this second entry in the 1755 account page of Margaret Snell that stipulates:  "To 3 yards of Linseywolsey @ 3s6; Margaret Snell Entered in Service."  So perhaps the area had at least one or possibly two indentured servants who worked for a limited term.  The notion is supported by yet another entry in the Margaret Snell account pages:  "To 2 Weeks & 2 Days left."

...just a thought, but if you're actively counting the days remaining in your servant's contract, then one might well arrive at the conclusion that indentured servitude might not have been the panacea that employers had expected.

As a matter of conjecture, one might think it more likely that apprenticeship rather than servitude held sway in the area, but we really don't have any compelling evidence pointing to area trades in which a journeyman's services would have been needed.  At the most we have but a single entry in the account of James Walling that states:  "On Accounts of James Wedlon for 3 1/2 years."  Sorry, but no real certitude is offered by way of this given data point.