Note 183 — Chapter IV · DOMESTIC SERVICE SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD

An illustration of this change is seen in the different definitions given to the word. In the Royal Standard English Dictionary, 1813, a servant is “one who attends and obeys another, one in a state of subjection.”

Johnson’s Dictionary, London, 1818, gives: “(1) One who attends another and acts at his command; the correlative of master. Used of man or woman. (2) One in a state of subjection.”

Richardson’s New Dictionary of the English Language, London, 1838, defines servant as the correlative of master.

The American usage was practically the same. The first edition of Webster, 1828, gives: “(1) Servant, a person, male or female, that attends another for the purpose of performing menial offices for him, or who is employed by another for such offices, or for other labor, and is subject to his command. Servant differs from slave, as the servant’s subjection to a master is voluntary, the slave’s is not. Every slave is a servant, but every servant is not a slave.”

Worcester, 1860, says of servant: “(1) One who serves, whether male or female; correlative of master, mistress, or employer. (2) One in a state of subjection; a menial; a domestic; a drudge; a slave.”

These various definitions all suggest the class association of the terms “servant” and “slave.”