[The following entries from Winthrop's History show the desperate feeling of the servants and the attitude of the gentry class at this time:—
"August 6, 1633. Two men servants to one Moodye, of Roxbury, returning in a boat from the windmill, struck upon the oyster bank. They went out to gather oysters, and, not making fast their boat, when the flood came, it floated away, and they were both drowned, although they might have waded out on either side; but it was an evident judgment of God upon them, for they were wicked persons. One of them, a little before, being reproved for his lewdness, and put in mind of hell, answered, that if hell were ten times hotter, he had rather be there than he would serve his master, etc. The occasion was, because he had bound himself for divers years, and saw that, if he had been at liberty, he might have had greater wages, though otherwise his master used him very well.
"November, 1633. ... The scarcity of workmen had caused them to raise their wages to an excessive rate, so as a carpenter would have three shillings the day, a laborer two shillings and sixpence, etc.; and accordingly those who had commodities to sell advanced their prices sometime double to that they cost in England, so as it grew to a general complaint, which the court, taking knowledge of, as also of some further evils, which were springing out of the excessive rate of wages, they made an order, that carpenters, masons, etc., should take but two shillings the day, and laborers but eighteen pence, and that no commodity should be sold at above four pence in the shilling more than it cost for ready money in England; oil, wine, etc., and cheese (in regard of the hazard of bringing, etc.,) excepted. ..."
Winthrop, no doubt, put the cart before the horse. The increased cost of all European goods, due to high freights, necessitated higher wages; but Winthrop resents any attempt of the laborers to ask more than their old European wages.]
66. The Beginning of Town Government in Massachusetts, 1633
Dorchester Town Records, p. 3.
For some three years after the great migration of 1630, the eight Massachusetts "towns" were governed wholly by the central colonial authority,—the courts of Assistants and the General Courts,—and by officers appointed by this central authority. The entry below marks the beginning of local self-government. The Dorchester Records, it is true, contain notice of four earlier meetings to regulate pasturage or the division of town lands (cf. one such Boston meeting later; No. 73 b); but here we have a formal assumption of government by periodic town meetings and "select men." The next town to act in a like way was Watertown (cf. No. 83, opening). Later (cf. No. 78, law 66), the central government accepted this establishment of local government, giving it the sanction of law. On the history of this movement, see American History and Government, §§ 71-74.
An agreement made by the whole consent and vote of the Plantation made Mooneday 8th of October, 1633.
Inprimus it is ordered that for the generall good and well ordering of the affayres of the Plantation their shall be every Mooneday before the Court by eight of the Clocke in the morning, and presently upon the beating of the drum, a generall meeting of the inhabitants of the Plantation att the meeteing house, there to settle (and sett downe) such orders as may tend to the generall good as aforesayd; and every man to be bound thereby without gaynesaying or resistance. It is also agreed that there shall be twelve men selected out of the Company that may or the greatest part of them meete as aforesayd to determine as aforesayd, yet so as it is desired that the most of the Plantation will keepe the meeteing constantly and all that are there although none of the Twelve shall have a free voyce as any of the 12 and that the greate[r] vote both of the 12 and the other shall be of force and efficasy as aforesayd. And it is likewise ordered that all things concluded as aforesayd shall stand in force and be obeyed untill the next monthely meeteing and afterwardes if it be not contradicted and other wise ordered upon the sayd monthley meete[ing] by the greatest parts of those that are present as aforesayd.