ABSTRACT
The master class was organized, however, and had fairly effective control of the courts and other means of discipline, whereas the servant, except in rare instances, acted alone or in conjunction with a friend or relative. Inadequate food and clothing could be as important to the present health of a servant as the learning of a skill was to his future welfare. A few complaints were made to the effect that masters refused to take servants into their service as agreed, but many more were the servants who wished to get out of their uneasy servitude. Despite the regularity with which protests occur in the courts, illegal methods of dissent were far more frequent and hold a commanding position in the history of servant reaction to the institution of servitude. Many a servant got himself in trouble by protesting with a “saucy” tongue. Servant protests against living conditions or against servitude itself occasionally went beyond the bounds of reason.
