[Ads-l] wench

[George Thompson]

JL:   I do not know if Native Americans could also be slaves (can anyone
enlighten me?)

           RUN away from *Nicholas Bayard*, an Indian Man Slave, named
*James*, about 40 Years of Age, well sett, about 5 Foot 10 Inches high,
wears his own Hair. . . .  [20 shillings reward]
            N-Y E Post, May 15, 1749, p. 4, col. ?

JL:  "wench", long archaic, is enjoying a micro-revival  "wench", long
archaic, is enjoying a micro-revival
           It's my impression that "wench" is also to be encountered these
days in romance novels of the "bodice-ripping" genre, applied to alluring
bar-maids, servant women, &c.

GAT


On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 2:09 PM, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com>
wrote:

> Something that appears to have overlooked in this thread:  in the 17th
> century both Africans and Native Americans were used as household
> servants.  The blacks were usually slaves (slavery was practiced in all 13
> Colonies until circa 1780).  I do not know if Native Americans could also
> be slaves (can anyone enlighten me?)
>
> If in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Colonies the term "wench"
> generally meant "slave woman", it would still frequently be necessary to
> specify if a particular wench were African, Native American, or mixed-race.
>
> Off-topic: "wench", long archaic, is enjoying a micro-revival in George R.
> R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series, set in a universe quite similar
> to our Middle Ages, in which "Wench" is Jaime Lannister's disparaging term
> of address to Brienne of Tarth.
>
> - Jim Landau
>
>
>
> _____________________________________________________________
> Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org