Work Requirement Quotes
This appears to be one of the first expressions of the 'workfare' concept.
In the early colony of Liberia each man was supposed to work 2 days a week for the community in exchange for public stores. Ashmun was the agent of the colonial society that provided funds to get the colony started, but he became a political issue. While many of the whites of the Colonial Society were abolitionists, many others were not and just wanted to get rid of free Blacks. Ashman however was an outspoken foe of the slave trade and the latter group, in retaliation for his public attacks on the slave trade, withdrew their ‘confidence” in him and refused to honor his bank drafts or even to provide funds for his subsistence and remuneration. The colony was thus in chaos, and a number of men went on a work strike in protest of the political fight in the society affecting them. To prevent complete chaos and maintain some unity and discipline in the colony, Ashmun issued this order. Things calmed down in the colony but the society continues its politicking with different views on slavery the cause of the strife.
The spelling was the original the in legislation passed by the Virginia Assembly Gunsmiths were ery few at the time. The South Carolina Province had only as single gunsmith and he was not very skilled. Planting tobacco was a much more lucrative endeavour, so many of the few gunsmiths abandned that trade for tobacco farming.
This quotation illustrates the fact that there was, contrary to popular myth, no gun culture in Colonial America. Few Americans could afford guns which cost 2 to 3 months wages of a skilled worker. And there were few guns available as there was not a single gun manufacturer in Colonial America. Gunsmiths would come over from England and find that business was terrible as most Americans did not own guns and they were not part of the culture other than the fact that they were status symbols as they were so costly. The gunsmiths would find that they could do better economically by farming and left their trade. Meanwhile, the legislature, like most in America at the time was concerned that if there were trouble with the Indians there would not be enough guns for defense. The guns then were in frequent need of repairs and there were too few gunsmiths. Thus the law. It didn’t work and so in 1662 they tried tax exemptions for gunsmiths which also didn’t work and they went back to fines.
