Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/28

 occupy their attention. The principal tasks, which consisted in tending the corn and tobacco, began in the spring. The hours of labor were then extended from sunrise to sunset, but there was an intermission of five hours in the day when the sun in the openings was most oppressive and dangerous. Doubtless, to untried and unseasoned servants, it was extremely taxing to be compelled to exert themselves at all, whether in the morning or the afternoon, in the months of June, July, and August, and to many of those who had been recently imported into the Colony, the influence of the heat in these months was fatal by bringing on fevers, which their constitutions, accustomed to a different climate, found it impossible to resist. Omitting from view all considerations of humanity, the prospect of losing valuable laborers whose terms had been purchased a short time before at a high price, and who could not easily be replaced, was sufficient in itself to lead to the adoption of rules that operated as a protection to their general health. Among the most important of these rules was, that no white laborer who had just arrived in the Colony should be forced to engage in any form of work in the fields in very hot weather. The immigration agents in England, who were familiar with the climate of Virginia, frequently urged their inexperienced patrons to secure at least a few seasoned laborers before they began the cultivation of their newly opened plantations. There are indications that many of the servants had been prompted to leave England by extravagant representations of the ease and comfort of the life which they would be able to lead in the Colony,