migrants was undoubtedly due to the
unwholesome conditions on board the ships during their passage from
Europe. The vessels were often crowded with wretched men, women and
children, and were foul beyond description. Gross uncleanliness was
the rule rather than the exception. William Copps, in a letter to
Deputy Treasurer Ferrar, says, "Betwixt decks there can hardlie a man
fetch his breath by reason there arisith such a funke in the night
that it causes putrifacation of blood and breedeth disease much like
the plague." Often the number of persons that died at sea was
frightful. One vessel lost one hundred and thirty persons out of one
hundred and eighty. The disease started in this way was often spread
in Virginia after the settlers had reached their new homes, and
terrible epidemics more than once resulted.

If the assertion of Berkeley that four out of five of the indentured
servants died during the first year's residence in the colony, or
Evelyn's statement that five out of six soon succumbed, be accepted as
correct, the number of deaths must have been very large indeed. Among
the hundreds of servants that were brought to the colony each year a
mortality of over eighty per cent would have amounted in a few years
to thousands. Statements made in regard to early Virginia history are
so frequently inaccurate, and the conditions here described are so
horrible that one is inclined to reject this testimony as obviously
exaggerated. However, a close examination of the number of persons
that came to Virginia from 1607 to 1649, and of the population between
those dates forces us to the conclusion that the statements of
Berkeley and Evelyn were not grossly incorrect. When, however, Evelyn
adds that "old Virginians affirm, the sicknesse there the first thirty
years to have killed 100,000 men," it is evident that this rumor was
false.[185] Yet even this is valuable because it shows in an
indefinite way that the mortality was very large.

When we consider the fact that it was the lowest class of immigrants
that were chiefly exposed to these perils it becomes evident how great
a purifying force was exerted. The indentured servants more than any
others had to face the hot sun of the fields, and upon them alone the
climate worked with deadly effect.

But disease was not the only danger that the indentured servant faced
in those days. At times starvation carried off great numbers. Even
after the colony had attained a certain degre