[13] "Where the servants were ignorant, which was usually the case, it was to the advantage of the master that there should be no written contract, as there was then a chance of extending the term of service." McCormac, White Servitude in Md., p. 44.
"The Palatines and other German races, who, in the later years formed nearly all of the servant population, knew little of the laws and language and were an easy prey to the abuses of traders and harsh masters. They had been used to very little liberty at home and were slow to assert their rights in America." Ibid., p. 61.
[14] Ante, p. 268.
[15] Henning, Statutes at Large, I, pp. 127, 130, 192; Ballagh, White Servitude in the Col. of Va., p. 45.
[16] Ibid., p. 77.
[17] Ibid., pp. 58, 59.
[18] Bassett, Slavery and Servitude in the Col. of N. C., p. 81.
[19] "In this we have the germ of addition of time, a practice which later became the occasion of a very serious abuse of the servants rights by the addition of terms altogether incommensurate with the offenses for which they were imposed." Ballagh, White Servitude in the Col. of Va., p. 45.
[20] Henning, Statutes at Large, I, p. 438, II, p. 114, III, pp. 87, 140, 450; Ballagh, White Servitude in the Col. of Va., p. 57.
[21] Henning, Statutes at Large, p. 257; Ballagh, White Servitude in the Col. of Va., pp. 50-51.