Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/598

 CHAPTER IX

SYSTEM OF LABOR: THE SERVANT

the preceding chapters I have described the modes of acquiring a patent to land, and the general use which was made of the soil. I have come now to an examination of the system of agricultural labor prevailing in Virginia in the seventeenth century, the means employed in securing servants and slaves, the laws applicable to this part of the population, the duties which they were called on to perform, their character and manner of life, and their influence upon the economic destinies of the Colony. Of these two great classes, the servants are entitled to be considered first, not only because they exceeded the slaves in number throughout the period to which my attention is confined, but also because they were introduced at an earlier date. When the Dutch ship in 1619 arrived with its memorable cargo of negroes, that section of the community which was known as servants made up a very large proportion of the whole population, and this proportion was steadily maintained until the end of the century was nearly reached, when the number of imported slaves approximated the number of imported English servants. In 1625, there were about four hundred and sixty-four white servants in Virginia, but only twenty-two negroes. In 1671, there were six thousand servants and two thousand