Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/22

 were bound by indenture, being prompted to this line of conduct not only by an impulse of common humanity, but also by a desire to remove every obstacle and repress every influence tending to discourage the growth of population. They were also commanded by the English authorities to suppress all inhuman severity towards servants. The people of Virginia, the author of Leah and Rachel, the pamphlet already quoted, remarked, were Christians. While there may have been a disposition on the part of some to overlook the obligations which they had assumed towards their laborers, the enlightened spirit of the laws in this connection proved conclusively that the sentiment of the planters at large was sternly condemnatory of any abridgment of the usual comforts of this class. It was provided that every master should allow his servants sufficient food, clothing, and shelter, and that in inflicting punishment he should be careful not to exceed the bounds of moderation. If the servant had just grounds for thinking that he was deprived of his necessary amount of food, or that the house set apart for him did not furnish a sufficient protection from the weather, or that the correction he received for his negligence was harsher than the character of the offence called for, he possessed the right, which had been expressly granted to him, to enter a complaint with the commissioners of the court for the county in which his master resided. If, upon a hearing, this complaint seemed just, the latter was required to appear at the following session and defend his conduct, and if he failed to show good cause, was compelled to give ample satisfaction for the charges against him. These