appear hideously harsh and oppressive to us of to-day. The early colonial
statutes provided that, "For the just encouragement of servants in the
discharge of their duty, and the prevention of their deserting their
master's or owner's service, be it enacted, that no servant bound to
serve his or her time in this province, shall be sold or disposed of to
any person residing in any other province or government without the
consent of said servant, and two justices of the peace of the county
wherein such servant lives or is sold, under the penalty of ten pounds to
be forfeited by the seller." What a picture this conjures up of some
poor, orphaned and half-starved colonial Oliver Twist, dragged by his
master into the presence of pompous justices, and frowned into a
hesitating consent to exchange the evils with which he was familiar for a
fate whose wretchedness he knew not of!

Ten shillings was to be paid for returning a runaway servant, if captured
within ten miles of the servant's abode; if over ten miles, then the sum
of twenty shillings was to be paid to the captor on delivery of the
fugitive to the sheriff, the master to pay, in addition to the reward,
five shillings prison fees, and all other disbursements and charges. The
penalty for concealing a runaway servant was twenty shillings, and any
one purchasing any goods from a servant without the consent of the master
or mistress was fined treble the value of the goods, to the use of the
owner, "and the servant, if a white, shall make satisfaction to his or
her master or owner by servitude after the expiration of his or her time,
to double the value of said goods, and if the servant be a black, he or
she shall be severely whipped in the most public place in the township in
which such offence was committed."

It may be seen from the above that common labor up to the time of the
Revolution was virtually that of serfs, without discrimination of color
or nativity. The supply of such labor came largely from Great Britain and
Ireland, and to some extent from the other colonies and from Africa. Poor
debtors also were sold into servitude, a law of 1705 providing that
"debtors should make satisfaction by servitude not exceeding seven years,
if a single person and under the age of fifty, and three years or five
years if a married man, and under the age of forty-six years." What the
family of the married debtor were to do for a living while he was in
servitude, legislation failed to