Overview
“The Distressed Damsel,” also known as “The Trappan’d Maiden,” was published as a broadside ballad in England during the late seventeenth century. It tells of the hardships endured by a woman sent from England to Virginia to work as an indentured servant.
Historical Background
Historians estimate that between one-half and two-thirds of Europeans who immigrated to the British colonies in America worked as indentured servants. These men and women signed a contract to work for a specified number of years for someone upon arrival in exchange for the ocean voyage, food, clothing, and shelter. Many chose to enter this agreement in pursuit of a better life, escaping poverty, war, or political persecution. Others, including convicted criminals and debtors, were forced into servitude.
Adults generally served between four and seven years. Children, and those forced into contracts, sometimes served longer terms. Most servants did farm or domestic work, though some apprenticed to learn a trade or skill. Their masters often treated them harshly and denied them the right to vote or earn money outside their indenture. At the end of their servitude, they received a “freedom dues” payment that might include land, money, food, and clothing. Some historians argue that servants fared better after their indenture than new immigrants who freely came to the New World and arrived with nothing. However, the promise of a better life often went unfulfilled, as many former servants remained in poverty. As the demand for labor and the cost of indentured servants grew, landowners increasingly relied on enslaved Africans.
The Virginia Company of London, which founded the Jamestown settlement in 1607, required many laborers to work their expanding tobacco farms. Six times more men than women worked as servants in colonial Virginia. Most labored in tobacco fields, regardless of gender. Women also did the domestic work of cooking, cleaning, weaving and sewing cloth to make and mend clothes, gardening, tending the animals, and caring for the children.
Song History
“The Distressed Damsel” was printed and distributed as a broadside ballad in England during the late seventeenth century. Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), an English bibliophile, diarist, and naval administrator, preserved the broadside in his vast collection of printed material. Pepys curated books and manuscripts, including more than 1,800 broadside ballads. He collected from the 1680s until he died in 1703, amassing the most extensive broadside ballad collection for the period.
The title of the printed broadside reads:
The Trappan’d MAIDEN:
OR,
The Distressed Damsel.
The heading gives the following summary of the events recorded in the text:
This Girl was cunningly trappan'd,
Sent to Virginny from England;
Where she doth Hardship undergo,
There is no Cure, it must be so:
But if she lives to cross the Main,
She vows she'll ne'r go there again.
In this context, the word “trappan,” meaning to ensnare or entrap, implies that the maiden did not enter servitude of her own free will or that someone deceived her into doing so, possibly through promises of a better life that would not materialize.
Lyrics
Give ear unto a Maid
That lately was betray'd
And sent into Virginny O
In brief I shall declare
What I have suffered there
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
When that first I came
To this Land of Fame
Which is called Virginny, O
The Axe and the Hoe
Have wrought my Overthrow
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
Five Years served I
Under Master Guy
In the Land of Virginny, O
Which made me for to know
Sorrow, Grief, and Woe
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
When my Dame says, Go
Then I must do so
In the Land of Virginny, O
When she sits at Meat
Then I have none to eat
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
The Cloaths that I brought in
They are worn very thin
In the Land of Virginny, O
Which makes me for to say
Alas, and Well-a-day
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
Instead of Beds of Ease
To lye down when I please
In the Land of Virginny, O
Upon a Bed of Straw
I lay down full of Woe
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
Then the Spider she
Daily waits on me
In the Land of Virginny, O
Round about my Bed
She spins her tender web
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
So soon as it is day
To work I must away
In the Land of Virginny, O
Then my Dame she knocks
With her Tinder-box
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
I have play'd my part
Both at Plow and at Cart
In the Land of Virginny, O
Billats from the Wood
Upon my back they load
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
Instead of drinking Beer
I drink the Water clear
In the Land of Virginny, O
Which makes me pale and wan
Do all that e'r I can
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
If my Dame says, Go
I dare not say no
In the Land of Virginny, O
The Water from the Spring
Upon my head I bring
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
When the Mill doth stand
I'm ready at command
In the Land of Virginny, O
The Morter for to make
Which made my heart to ake
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
When the Child doth cry
I must sing, By a by
In the Land of Virginny, O
No rest that I can have
Whilst I am here a Slave
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
A thousand Woes beside
That I do here abide
In the Land of Virginny, O
In misery I spend
My time that hath no end
When that I was weary
weary, weary, weary, O
Then let Maids beware
All by my ill-fare
In the Land of Virginny, O
Be sure thou stay at home
For if you do here come
You will all be weary
weary, weary, weary, O
But if it be my chance
Homewards to advance
From the Land of Virginny, O
If that I once more
Land on English Shore
I'll no more be weary
weary, weary, weary, O
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Further Reading
“Broadside Ballad.” In Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. https://www.britannica.com/art/broadside-ballad.
Fumerton, Patricia. “Recollecting Samuel Pepys: His Life, His Library, and His Legacy.” English Broadside Ballad Archive. https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/page/pepys-collecting.
Richter, Julie. “Women in Colonial Virginia.” In Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/women-in-colonial-virginia/.
Wolfe, Brendan. “Indentured Servants in Colonial Virginia.” In Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities.. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/indentured-servants-in-colonial-virginia/.