[136] Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, i. 609; Gardiner, History of the Commonwealth, i. 464. It is commonly said that many of the prisoners condemned for taking part in Monmouth’s rebellion, 1685, were sent to Virginia (see Bancroft, Hist. of U. S. i. 471; Ballagh, J. H. U. Studies, xiii. 293). But an examination of the lists shows that nearly all were sent to Barbadoes, and probably none to Virginia. See Hotten, Original Lists of Persons of Quality, Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, etc., pp. 315-344.
[137] Hening’s Statutes, ii. 50.
[138] Mr. Bruce has well said that in the seventeenth century the white servant was “the main pillar of the industrial fabric” of Virginia, and “performed the most honourable work in establishing and sustaining” that colony. “There can be no doubt, as he goes on to say, that the work of colonization which has been performed by the people of England surpasses, both in extent and beneficence, that of any other race which has left an impression upon universal history, and the part the manual labourers have taken in this work is not less memorable than the part taken by the higher classes of the nation.” Economic History of Virginia, i. 573, 582.
[139] Neill’s Virginia Carolorum, p. 279; Hotten’s Original Lists, pp. 207, 233, 254; Hening’s Statutes, i. 386.
[140] In the absence of detailed specific knowledge it is unsafe to base inferences upon the word “servant,” inasmuch as in the seventeenth century it included not only menials but clerks and apprentices, even articled students in a lawyer’s or doctor’s office, etc. See William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 22; Bruce, Economic History, i. 573-575; ii. 45.
[141] “Tour through the British Plantations,” London Magazine, 1755.
[142] Hugh Jones, Present State of Virginia, 1724, p, 114.
[143] Meade’s Old Churches, i. 366.
[144] Before the Revolution this grievance had come to awaken fierce resentment. A letter printed in 1751 exclaims: “In what can Britain show a more sovereign contempt for us than by emptying their gaols into our settlements, unless they would likewise empty their offal upon our tables?... And what must we think of those merchants who for the sake of a little paltry gain will be concerned in importing and disposing of these abominable cargoes!”—Virginia Gazette, May 24, 1751.
[145] Lecky, History of England, i. 127.