Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/16

 the Colony by retarding its growth in population, the length of service expected of aliens discouraging their emigration to Virginia in the character of laborers. It was decided to place all servants of whatever nationality upon the same footing, no disparaging distinction being allowed in dealing with any class of them.

In the season of 1661-62, an important change was made in the general law that prevailed, by the adoption of the regulation on the same point which had long been in operation in England; it was provided that all servants who were imported without written agreements should be bound for a term of five years if more than sixteen years old, or if less than sixteen, until the completion of the twenty-fourth year. Every master who had introduced a laborer into the Colony or who had purchased one from a merchant or shipowner, there being no indenture in either case, was directed to bring him before the nearest court with a view to having his age adjudged. If the master failed to conform to this general order, the servant, although he may not have attained his twelfth year, was considered to be bound only for the term which would have been required of him if he had been adjudged in court to have passed his sixteenth year. Four months was the limit in which it was permitted to conform to the order of the justices. It was discovered that the law as to length of service in the absence of indentures, operated with great harshness in the case of a youth who had been declared to be only a few months under sixteen, since it compelled him to remain in the employment of his master until his twenty-fourth year, while a companion, whose age was only a few weeks in advance of sixteen years, was in consideration of that