HIS 101 - France in North America to Indentured Servitude

10:09PM Jun 29, 2020

Speakers:

Keywords:

jamestown

world

french

land

england

native americans

north america

establish

roanoke

spain

colony

money

virginia

unpaid labor

indentured servitude

spanish

colonists

france

great lakes

ultimately

Hey guys, so today I want to pick up where we left off last class, talking about Roanoke, Virginia and how that was England's first major excuse me Roanoke North Carolina, which was England's first major attempt to colonization we said the nako particularly well. So I want to pick up with the French today, as I mentioned, towards the end of the last lecture.

approach to

France is going to have a very different approach to colonization of the New World, and in particular, its relationship with the Native Americans, so and that's going to be a big contributor to the French having a pretty decent amount of success when they come over here. So we'll talk about France's efforts in Canada, we'll talk about what ultimately keeps them here financially because the whole point or purpose of a colony, is to generate money and or cheap raw materials for the Motherland, definitely hold on to that because that's going to be a theme that keeps coming up over and over and over again throughout compensation. We'll talk about how France is going to be able to spread its influence through and claim, many areas of North America pretty quickly because of its very shrewd use of a lot of the natural geographic features of North America, in particular the rivers and the waterways. So we'll talk a little bit about that. Once we kind of wrap up with that we'll get into chapter two, which deals with Jamestown, and that's Jamestown, Virginia, 1607 so we'll talk about the entity that's responsible for establishing Jamestown, and spoiler alert, it's not actually the British government's least not directly. So we'll talk about what group is responsible for establishing Jamestown and why they ultimately established it. We'll talk about why Jamestown is really going to struggle to get by for the first several years of its existence, and we'll ultimately talk about what causes that that to change how do they go from struggling and barely holding on survive wise to eventually maturing into a functional column. So let's talk about what happened there. We'll talk about what product ultimately keeps England here in the Jamestown and Virginia area because similar to what we see with the Spanish similarly to what we see with the French if they're not making money off their colony they're not going to hang around for too long. If there's any time left, towards the end of that we'll also talk about some additional groups, particularly the labor groups and I hate to references just merely labor groups. But, but other groups that are going to start to come over here to North America as well some of their own choice some of not of their choice. We'll talk about indentured servitude. And what that looks like and why people in Europe are going to be willing to sell themselves into short term unpaid labor service, and an effort to get over here to the new world. And if there's any time left at the very end of this lecture, we'll also talk about how slavery will eventually start to overtake indentured servitude as the chief means of unpaid labor over here in the new world and why that's going to occur. Maybe we'll get to have time to get to that maybe it'll get pushed to the next lecture, but.

So, going back

to topics that we discussed last class last class or last lecture we talked about Christopher Columbus, and we said that Columbus had this radical idea of sailing westward into the Atlantic Ocean. In an effort to find a faster, quicker all water route to India and Southeast Asia, and we said that most places that he pitched this idea to the Italian kingdoms the Portuguese, even the Spanish King, basically said no way we're not giving you our money because our scientists or Renaissance scientists are telling us that the earth is much larger than you, Christopher Columbus think it is. And your, your voyage is going to be doomed to failure, so it's not until Queen Isabella comes along and says yes I'm willing to fund your voyage, but with stipulations first any new land you claim has to be for Spain which we said Christopher Columbus does when he eventually gets to the new world, he'll claim the Bahamas and claim, Cuba Hispaniola which is today present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and eventually even parts of central Mexico. We said that in addition to claiming land that he also had to bring something of value back and we said that, Christopher Columbus is going to take about 25 or so Native American prisoners that the Spanish captured, bring them back with him to Spain and present them to the Queen said, we can we can slay these Native American peoples and that can be how we financially benefit off of this, and we said unfortunately Queen Isabella agreed that that is that's compelling that that, in essence constitutes a successful voyage. We said that this discovery of the new world is going to have a profound impact both on Europe and on the new worlds, we said that much of what is brought to the new world is not going to be particularly good. We know that European diseases are going to spread across Native American populations and are going to kill millions of them. We talked about how the new technologies that are going to be brought over are going to have a significant impact but mainly because they're going to be used against the Native Americans like armor and steel and iron like guns and gunpowder like horses for instance. We also talked about some invasive species being brought over by the Europeans, like rabbits for instance in cows for instance and how they're going to push out and ultimately lead to the extinction of some indigenous animals that lived over here prior to European contact. We also talked about how the new world is going to have a big impact on Europe, how it's going to increase Europe's understanding of the world in terms of what's there. The discovery of these two new super super continents of North America and South America is going to have a big deal in terms of rewriting what we know of, of the, the, the world map as we know it. It's also going to have a big impact we said on ethnocentrism especially eurocentrism this belief here that the European culture is superior to all others because the Europeans were able to go to Africa and and to conquer and to dominate and were able to go to Central and South America, and to conquer and to dominate and this convinces the Europeans, that they have been chosen by God, that their religion is superior that their culture is superior, and therefore it's their duty to spread themselves across across the globe. Why one and there's a question that that I mentioned last lecture that I didn't get a chance to answer and I want to answer it now before we get into France and Canada. I mentioned you know towards the end of the lectures I think last lecture you know why why Mr. Judge have we have we blown all this time talking about the board geez and talking about the Spanish in Central and South America, what's the point here what what does this have to do with American history. And my response to that is everything.

The Portuguese heading

to the Western shores of Africa is what brings the Africans over to America in the first place. It's what leads on ultimately to African culture. You know, in in American American history. It's the main reason why the African American culture is here, um, and obviously the it was not of their choice was not of their freewill, but it's still an important part of our history as America to know that to understand that when we talk about the Spanish in Central and South America, this is also an important part of the story, because when the Spanish Get over here to the new world. One of the things that they're going to start to, to bring back with the back home to Europe are a lot of valuable items. In addition to the Native American slave trade which is awful. And the slave labor, what the Spanish are also going to find over here is a lot of gold and especially a lot of silver. We know from roughly 1550 to 1650 about 100 years or so of time, we know that the Spanish found somewhere around 7 million pounds of silver, that it is ripped out of the ground in Central and South America, and shipped back to Spain. Spain for pure profit. That's significant, the fact that Spain is conquering so much territory and adding it to their land holdings and we again we talked about how land equals wealth, that is significant. The reason why this is so significant for American history is because it convinces other European countries that they have to come over here and colonize the New World, because they're falling behind Spain too far Spain's making all this money over here in the new world, all this gold, all this silver all this new land, and the European countries are feeling lots of different emotions about this, they're feeling jealousy, certainly, that that Spain is profiting so much and they're not. A lot of these European countries are probably also feeling fear, in particular countries like England, for instance, because Spain and England had that war in 1588 England's afraid here that if Spain continues to run over the New World unchecked, that eventually England's going to fall behind, it's going to fall behind financially it's going to fall behind in natural resources and land ownership in the world. And that will eventually lead to a Spain that's so wealthy that is so powerful that England's not going to be able to resist invasions in the future. So that convinces a lot of other countries that they have to come over here like the English like the French like the Dutch. So Spain in Central and South America has a massive part to play in American history, because it provides the motivation. Without that motivation of Spain comes over here and there's nothing really a value in the new world for them. If it's mostly you know resource less land that's not good for cultivation or making money off of in some way shape or form. You probably don't see other countries coming over here to the new world like England in. What's present a United States of America, for instance. So this is an important step. And it's a step that you know had to happen, and history is is a whole series of causes and events, without the Portuguese going to Western Africa, there is no slave trade there is no African slave trade most likely to the new world, and millions of Africans would have never been enslaved in the first place. If Portugal had never gone to the Western shores of Africa, and had eventually never gone to India and Southeast Asia, then Spain probably never has the motivation to to explore the new world of course for Columbus probably has no motivation to to go westward into the Atlantic Ocean, and without Spain coming over here to the new world There probably is no motivation for England to come over and colonize, what is the present day United States of America. So history would have been radically different had these series of events not occurred in exactly the way in which they occurred them in which they occurred there we go. So this is an important part of American history, even though it may not feel like it. Okay, so let's talk about France here in North America. So why is France going to Canada specifically when it starts its, its overseas exploration around 16 Oh wait, and the main reason is because there really isn't a whole lot of other place for France to go here in the new world. I mean, Spain had already really established a strong presence in the Caribbean. It established a strong presence in Central and in parts of South America Portugal

had already started to move into what's present day Brazil at this point, England had just set up its. stake in in the Jamestown area of Virginia. In North America, the Dutch were already over here in parts of what's present a Northeastern America around places like New York and northern New Jersey. So, the the New World land in essence is being grabbed up really quickly, and that kind of in some ways leaves France with just Canada left.

Now that's okay um because

Canada is lush with natural resources as well. And so let's kind of talk a little bit about that. So when the France and the French do come over here to the new worlds, what were the, what's ultimately going to keep them here is the first trade.

What the French figure out very quickly

is that Canada is one gigantic wilderness, much like North America is, and inside that wilderness are tons and tons and tons of woodland creatures that you can trap and kill and ultimately you know use use their their hides in their furs in order to make clothing out of. So, I mean, foxes. Wolves beavers minx all these things are very very popular animals to make clothing, and other products out of. So it's the fur trade that really keeps the French over here in Canada. So, now that they're here. The French are going to find is that life over here is difficult, just like the English are ultimately found that out when they came over to Roanoke in 1588. Things didn't go well. So, what's gonna be different here from the French compared to the English, and the Spanish in the Dutch, is that the French are really going to commit themselves to having a much better relationship with the Native Americans than any of those other European countries did. And I don't mean the French just, you know, did lip service to this, they really did commit themselves to it for the most part, the French are gonna have a very good working relationship with many of the Native American tribes that they come into contact with certainly not all because certain Native American tribes within America within North America didn't like each other so eventually you're going to have to pick a side and the French did pick sides, which means some Native American groups aren't going to like the French, but when it came to relations with the Native Americans, the French really committed themselves to and did a good job with it. I mean they signed treaties with the Native Americans, they for the most part treated them very fairly and equitably. They made them very good business partners in the fur trade and knowing that that was going to benefit the French as well. They learned Native American languages and Native American cultures. They married into Native American families and had mixed race children with them. They, they really committed themselves like I said to having a good relationship with the Native Americans and that is going to pay big dividends down the road. But the French move over here to North America, they realize that the English are establishing a presence over here as well, which means that long term, because historically England and France have never liked one another, they've always hated each other. France knows that long term, a war between us and Great Britain over here in the new world is probably inevitable, it's gonna happen sooner or later. So, if it is inevitable, probably best to have the Native Americans on our side than working against us during that war, and the French are absolutely correct. And the French benefited so much from having a good relationship with the Native Americans, the Native Americans are going to teach them how to survive over here in the brutal winters of Canada, which is going to help keep a lot of the French alive in the first place which is a big deal. The Native Americans are going to serve as scouts and trackers for them to to show them, show them where the great places are to trap animals and the best techniques to trap animals over here in North America, they'll point out great locations to establish cities like Quebec City, for instance, Quebec city's location was chosen largely because the friendly Native Americans showed the French were a good place to establish the city would be. So the French really benefited from this relationship with them in a big way. And this is a smart smart way of handling it. If only the other European countries did this with the Native Americans. I wonder how different history would have been. But speaking of Quebec City. You'll notice that Quebec City is on a river, and this is usually the point where I asked my classes. What really significant river runs between parts of the United States of America and Canada, and I usually get super blank stares. It's, it's a very important river and and no it's not the Hudson River. It's the St. Lawrence River and usually often have to play hangman in order to get that it's the St. Lawrence River. But yes, this is the St. Lawrence River is going to prove Lidl for the French not just now, but in the future as well, particularly when we talk about the French and Indian War, St. Lawrence River is going to have an important part to play in that story so keep that in your back pocket. So the French are going to use the St. Lawrence River to move down into the interior of Canada and

parts of North America.

It's a superhighway in essence, it's a very very wide deep enough river that large sailing ships can sail down pretty freely, which means that the French are going to be able to transport their colonists transport their soldiers and supplies and food and everything else is going to need in order to have success over here, Quebec is not the only major French city that's going to get established along the St. Lawrence River and again that was not by accident. We're also going to see is that Montreal is going to get established along the river as well which is another major French city.

You'll see Toronto,

Ottawa has

a number of those major French cities are going to be established either along the St. Lawrence River, or along the Great Lakes, and that's, that's another major waterway that the French are going to use the St. Lawrence River doesn't connect directly to the Great Lakes but it's not too too far of a distance so the big wooden sailing ships can drop off supplies at the end of the St. Lawrence River, and then they can be picked up and hauled overland to the Great Lakes within wooden sailing ships can then use the Great Lakes to pass them from place to place. So the French did a brilliant job of using the waterways to their advantage to spread themselves out relatively quickly down the St. Lawrence River into the Great Lakes into the interior of North America pretty rapidly.

And again came in contact with many many Native American tribes

during the process of this.

Eventually, what we see is that the French are also going to discover another major waterway in North America specifically a very large and long river that flows through most of the interior of present day United States of America. And if you said the same. She said the Mississippi River, you are correct, the Mississippi River is not too far away at all from the Great Lakes, so when the French do discover this river they're eventually going to use it, they're going to sail all the way down the river. They'll establish major trading posts and for trade and for a trapping presence throughout the interior of what's present a United States of America. And, and that's going to work for them for a long time. The English, are going to remain pretty content to stay on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains, right up until the mid 1700s, which gives France more or less free reign over all the land and territory to the west of the Appalachian Mountains. And one of the main reasons why they could do that is because they had a good relationship with the Native Americans they didn't come here to conquer them for the most part, outside of the, the enemies of their friends, Native American was. So, the French like I said have a ton of success over here, and and a large reason for that is their good relationship with the Native Americans, they came in contact with. Okay, chapter two. What chapter two really picks up with here is Jamestown, Virginia and 1607, and you can really chalk this up to being England's second major attempt to colonization of the new world. We know their first attempt didn't go particularly well Roanoke was a disaster. They came unprepared for the weather, we said that the land that they chose to try to establish their civilization, their colony did not have adequate soil, it wasn't good for farming so starvation is going to be a major problem, and conflict with the Native Americans from almost day one. All of that contributes to why Roanoke really did not work out well at all. What we're going to see in Jamestown, is that things for the first 15 years or so,

are going to be just as bad as they were in Roanoke, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's first talk about who is responsible for setting up Jamestown and why. So I said at the beginning of this lecture. Spoiler alert it's not the British government, so if it's not the government's well then who is establishing Jamestown, and the million dollar answer to that question is a private company called the Virginia Company or sometimes referred to as the London company and the Virginia Company was a subsidiary of it but let's just go with Virginia Company to keep it simple. So the Virginia Company this private business company is looking to establish a colony over here in North America. Now why would a business, be interested in establishing a colony overseas. Let me put this another way. If you heard today that Elon Musk was launching a crew to colonize Mars right now, which would not probably be terribly surprising. Why do you think Elon Musk's companies would be so interested in establish a colony on Mars.

Hopefully

you guys kind of thought to yourselves here that it's for money, because what what else do private businesses do besides try to make money and try to turn a profit. That's it. It's, it's why Elon Musk would be interested in going to Mars in the first place. Yeah, it's awesome to bright yourself into their history books and all that other cool junk, but he wouldn't be going up there if you didn't expect to make money off of it it's it's the truth. And that's exactly why the Virginia Company established a presence in North America. What it did was it looked at what the Spanish did in Central and South America, all that gold, all that silver, all that land and what the Virginia Company in essence said is I want a piece of that. If we can establish a colony over here in North America, maybe we can find a lot of gold and silver and other precious metals, and we can make a huge profit off of it. So that's what's driving the motivation right now. Surprise surprise. So the Virginia Company sends over 900 colonists a significantly larger number than that 100 that first was sent over for Roanoke 900 colonists sent over here to the new world to try to establish a colony and in essence, a foothold here in North America. And for all the reasons that things did not go well for Roanoke is all the reasons why things are not gonna go well in Jamestown either unprepared for the harsh winters, mixed with the fact that they established themselves along areas of Virginia that were very very close to the ocean means that much of the soil of the Jamestown area is very Sandy and awful for growing crops, so their, their farming is going to be poor. Most of the colonists that came over here didn't come with skills of farming anyway so that's going to be a major challenge. And of course the disposition of the English with the Native Americans of coming over here almost immediately with intentions of conquering land. It's not going to go well. Now when you are 900 colonists versus 10s of thousands of Native Americans living in the area of the coastline of Virginia right now. So all of these things combined are going to work against the English within the first few years of Jamestown being established of the 900 or so colonists that were sent over here, only about 100 are going to be alive within the first year or two years. So clearly, this this this business venture of the Virginia Company is now on life support, and clearly the company does not want to see this, this column you go wander the company borrowed massive sums of money from a lot of investors in England in order to fund this little colony of Jamestown, which means they owe a lot of powerful people, a lot of money. So, this is when the company is now going to start to get desperate launches this massive marketing and PR campaign across England to try to convince mainly poor people to come over here to the new world and and try to establish this colony. So of course when you are marketing towards poor people. what are you going to promise, most of them free land, obviously, for a poor person in England right now, who has zero prospects of ever owning land, promising something like 50 acres of land is a kingdom, compared to what they would be expecting anytime in their lifetime. So for them. This is all sounds almost too good to be true. Between the years of 1610 and 1622. So about a 12 year or so period. The Virginia Company will manage to convince a total of 9000 English people.

By 1622.

Only about 2000, of those 9000 either due to disease, or with conflicts with the Native Americans or starvation, lack of

supplies

exposure to the inhospitable climate that they were not prepared for you name it. It did not go well for them at all. by 1622, it became very apparent that James town was on the verge of collapse that the company had done an awful job in terms of getting it up and running, and that the company owed a lot of money to a lot of important people. When you mixed in the fact that there is no gold or silver anywhere near Jamestown, that there is no gold or silver anywhere in Virginia, that there is no gold or silver or silver anywhere on the entire East Coast of the United States of America. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see where this is headed in 1622, the government of England finally decides to intervene, they strip the Virginia Company of its colonial charter, meaning they have lost their permission to continue to run and operate a colony. And instead, the British government takes over Jamestown and declares it a royal colony. Now in some ways that might sound like the end of the story, but in another way, it really simply just shifts the narrative slightly. What we see here now is that it this declaration of Jamestown becoming a royal colony, is by and large what's going to save it short term, England, the government of England has a near limitless supply of resources of supplies of, you know, soldiers to protect the colony and so on, that this is really what breathe some life back into Jamestown, when you mix in the fact that Jamestown by this point had just recently been introduced

to tobacco,

that is the product that's ultimately going to save Jamestown long term. What we see is by the year 1624, James town and surrounding area will be responsible for producing somewhere around 200,000 pounds of tobacco. In just 10 years time by around 1635, that number is going to spike up to about 3 million pounds of tobacco. That is ultimately what saves saves Jamestown and that is ultimately what keeps England interested in maintaining Jamestown as a colony because remember, the whole point or purpose of a colony, is to generate cheap raw materials and or money for the motherland. If a colony is not doing that the motherland is not going to stick around for too long because there's no point in keeping it running. So Jamestown is saved by tobacco tobacco is for England, what the gold and silver was for the Spanish in Central and South America, it's what keeps them here it's what's ultimately going to make them money.

Now,

clearly, if Jamestown is producing 3 million pounds of tobacco by 1635, it can't just be those 2000 or so colonists that were barely alive and just holding on. Clearly other people have come over since then and not all of them are directly colonists. What we've also see started to happen here around the same time is indentured servitude is going to start to pick up in terms of its popularity. So

let's talk

briefly here about indentured servitude what was it, what does it look like, how did it work. So what you see here is is

all

if not almost all people who sold themselves into indentured servitude are lower class poor people, and and for them, they've, they've heard the stories now of the new world of this free land that's being given out in places like Jamestown and Virginia and now some surrounding areas as well. And these poor people know that they're never going to have a decent paying job in Europe, they're never going to be landowners in Europe. So this promise of free land over in North America, like I said before is a dream that sounds almost too good to be true, with their finger to themselves if I can just get over there to the new world if I can get my 50 acres I can work my butt off. I can have my own farm, I can support myself over there. I can grow enough crops to support myself and then maybe if I make a little bit of extra money, I can purchase some more land and I can expand myself out a little more, and I can create an even larger farm which can make even more money. I can set myself up for life, and not only can I be established. I can be a landowner, I can pass that land on to my children, and they can pass it on to their children and so on and so forth. But the problem that these poor people had right now in Europe, is that they do not have the money to get over here to the new world ships, leaving from Europe to the new world specifically to North America, it's a long treacherous journey, that's going to take them across parts of the North Atlantic, probably going to take them at least six weeks maybe even a little bit

longer than that, depending on how the winds and the weather go.

So it's a long journey, and it's going to require a lot of food to keep those people alive that are serving as passengers on board those ships, and many of those poor people who want to get on those ships bound for the New World, don't have any skills, they don't have the skills of sailing, or being a sailor or being a ship captain, which means that they can't really contribute too much of anything in terms of work on those ships for that six weeks are more. So, a single ticket to the new world in Europe right now in the 1620s is somewhere around the equivalent of one year's salary for your average brutal blue collar worker for. If you're extrapolating those numbers by today's standards, you're looking at a single one way ticket to the new world in today's terms of being somewhere around $30,000, that is way more than any poor person in Europe could have afforded at the time. So what did these people do them, they're there, their solution was to sell themselves into short term servitude. So what some would do is they would either establish a contact of somebody who may already be a landowner over in the new world looking for laborers, or maybe they would go down to one of their docks, in the area of England or Ireland, and they would sit there and they would make contact with a boat captain, and what they would do is go up to that, that ship

captain and say hey listen. I

heard you're bound for the new world. I can't I don't have the money to pay for a ticket over there. But what I can offer you up instead of cash for that ticket is, I can create a contract with you and what you and I as the ship captain and the labor are going to do is we're going to negotiate out what the terms of this contract is going to be average length of service for these contracts was five to seven years of unpaid labor. So what this person would do is go to the ship captain say let's make a contract. I will promise to work for somebody a landowner over there in the new world for five to seven years of unpaid labor. And in exchange, I'm going to get some money a small amount of money or a small bit of land at the end of that five to seven years of service. And what the ship captain would promise to do is to bring that person over to the new world, in essence, quote unquote, free of charge, it's not really free, but the person isn't paying any cash up front. What that ship captains going to do once they get to America once they get to the new world is they are going to look for landowners who are looking to purchase labor, and that ship captain will ultimately sell that contract of five to seven years of service to a landowner over here in the new world and that means that the landowner is going to pay for that contract. So the captain gets money in cash from the landowner the landowner gets five to seven years of unpaid laborers from the servant, and the servant doesn't have to come up with the $30,000 in today's money in cash to get over here to the new world in the first place. So that is how the indentured servant contract worked out that's how many of the poor people got over here to the new world as indentured servants. We're going to see though is that the conditions of indentured servitude aren't going to be quite as great as perhaps it sounds a lot of times I asked my students, if you were destitute Lee poor going back to this time period, you have no job prospects in Europe, you're never going to own land. Would you be willing to do this. Would you be willing to sell yourself into five to seven years of unpaid labor. In an effort to get your own land, and I usually get a relatively decent amount of adventurous types I guess who who raises their hand and say yes, which is interesting. Um, and usually I lose some hands, once I tell them the conditions. A lot of indentured servants are going to be treated very very horribly over here in the new world other than you know having a roof over their head and some clothes and some food that really aren't given much else. Many of them will be treated very poorly some will be beaten, some will be forced to work under awful conditions. Many of the women who who sold themselves into indentured servitude will be sexually assaulted. Some of the indentured servants contracts will be sold to other landowners and they'll move to other parts of Virginia as a results. Some of the, the owners of the contracts, again treated them very poorly gambled away their contracts in card games sometimes, and somewhat even reset the clock, if a female indentured servant was raped and became pregnant as a result of that rape. Many times, her owner her, her master would stop the clock on terms of her term of service to him, meaning, you know, once she wasn't able to perform as much work because of her pregnancy as she used to, you know, she in essence would lose a half a year to a year and in terms of getting rid of that contract and time. And her clock when start again. And so after she had the baby delivered. And she'd be forced to live with her rapist that entire time. I mean, imagine how awful these conditions are that they had to live under. Despite the negative things here despite the fact that some of the you know the the owners of these contracts wouldn't pay out land at the end of the term of service and wouldn't pay out the money at the end of the term of service. Still nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of people will continue to sell themselves into indentured servitude. In an effort to get over here to the new world despite how bad some of the conditions could be sometimes. Alright. I'm not a bad place to stop here, we'll pick up in the next lecture talking about how slavery is slowly going to start to replace indentured servitude as the chief means of unpaid labor over here in America particularly By the mid 1700s. As always if you have any questions please feel free to email.