Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/614

 public works subject to the same servitude as they had been accustomed to from the beginning. During the administration of Argoll, the few who received their freedom purchased it at an extraordinary price. The population of the Colony at the close of his administration did not exceed four hundred, which signified a proportionate reduction in the number of agricultural servants.

There is no direct evidence to show what was the exact character of the indentures by which the Company and the servants were mutually bound, previous to the arrival of Yeardley in 1619, but there is no reason to doubt that these agreements, like ordinary indentures at this time, simply required the Company to supply the laborer with food, clothing, and lodging, and probably after the close of his term, with land, in consideration of which he was for a period of years to perform such manual tasks as were set for him. The great value attached to the servant was disclosed in the severe punishment which the first Assembly convening in the Colony directed to be inflicted upon any one who sought to allure him from the employment of his master. By this time, private persons as well as the societies recently formed and known as Hundreds, had begun to import laborers not only for the cultivation of the lands they had acquired, but also to obtain a greater extent of ground