more and that of many � was seven or eight years after the restoration of the in the term of service was permanently reduced to four years xvi english bound themselves to serve a term of years fairly hoping to better their condition in america and men in domestic or other trouble would sell themselves for a term of service in the plunging into the abyss and trusting to luck to come up in better plight in a new world husbands their wives lost their identity in the transport ship and wives from husbands were swallowed up in the flood children and were welcomed by the and prison pursued by hue and cry were quickly safe on board in those days of slow communication of every sort were as utterly lost to their old lives in america as they could have been had they to the moon it was an age of soldiers sailors pupils children and now and then even wives were thought the better for one ought hardly to be surprised therefore at the numerous and cruel of english servants women as well as men who were naked with rods and washed chap vi fate of the of civilization chap vi s journal with the punishment continuing sometimes at intervals for hours or being renewed day after day there were also in use by masters and and other such devil s devices the food allowed was sometimes a scant diet of indian meal the sick servant was neglected lest the doctor s charge should exceed the value of his remaining service and one master in required a servant sick of a mortal disease to dig his own grave in advance in order to save the other men s time in virginia the secret burial of servants and the of christian white servants naked without the consent of a justice great numbers fled away from the of bondage taking the risk of cruel and an extension of their terms if captured during the existence of new dutch servants broke away to new england or while english servants from both directions made their way to the dutch territory with new england the dutch had at one time a treaty for the return of those who carried their under their feet to get away on to seize a and make off to a neighboring colony and represent themselves as and to fly to the indians were favorite devices of so great was the number of that inferior persons were always liable to arrest on suspicion north was filled with from virginia in a dangerous conspiracy of servants land and labor in the early colonies was discovered in virginia and a general fear of the class among whom were many desperate characters probably prompted much of the severe treatment inflicted on the found that servants led astray the and young the before starting at considerable cost to their servants a corrupt element they even sent back two boys who had shown vicious on but the large proportion of out to servants during the first years of the colonies shows how slight was the effect of the process even in the colonies where the element was shut out many of the servants were obtained from dangerous classes such as sturdy beggars and other idle and persons they could eat till they sweat and work till they in the quaint words of a in new england it was probably from those who had been servants that the sea fitting out in the colonies found the james when short of hands lay off the virginia coast and captured transport ships many of the and servants in them preferring to risk a in on the grand account to in bondage in some instances the criminal rose and the crew taking the ship into some out of the way harbor and escaping the degradation of the women servants was a continual source of evil laws were made to correct their and other laws chap vi the of civilization chap vi � state papers to prevent these christians from with the heathen in all the colonies there were those brought as servants even as who rose to wealth through industry and two virtues on which a new land pays high some founded families that attained to honor and influence xvii the severity of english laws occasioned of all kinds for saxon people prefer to reform an abuse by rather than by direct the old provision for benefit of clergy was stretched to an absurd the need for men in the colonies offered a new opportunity for merciful of the death penalty in cases of minor it became common to pardon thieves on condition of their accepting a seven years term of service in the colonies and the english state paper office has many curious for this as early as a horse thief that he much prefers service in virginia to hanging at a later period a husband is found on behalf of his wife condemned to death for stealing three that she might be transported to any plantation after the restoration it was that at their discretion might send loose and persons to the colonies and at intervals a hundred or so of birds were taken in a close lighter from to wool land and labor in the early colonies where they were put aboard ship for america was the chief of the trade here even the small and sometimes the had in the colonies therefore naturally took the lead in the servant trade and most of the great of the city became involved in when in a man was on trial for some small crime the petty officers would persuade him to beg for in order to escape being hanged these were then assigned to the mayor and each of the in turn who sold them to the and grew rich from the spoils of the poor and the desperate in the most scene in history the 