Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/29

 and the contrast, not necessarily very great, between the conditions which they expected and the conditions which they found, threw many into a state of dejection in which they soon succumbed to the lurking miasma of the marshes and the newly exposed soil of the clearings. And the same was also the fate of many in that class which was represented by Frethorne, already referred to, men who had occupied a station of comparative independence in England, and who were cast down by the different situations in which they found themselves in Virginia. The work of men of this stamp being carried out with a faulting or unwilling spirit, was certain to be grossly defective, and was, therefore, well calculated to provoke harshness in the attitude of their master towards them. Regarding them as incurably worthless, there was little inducement on his part to encourage them. He accepted them as incorrigible, and weary of chafing against an evil which it was impossible to remove, he finally sank into a state of carelessness and indifference as to the matter of their improvement.

As the servants increased in number, it became more necessary to employ overseers to supervise them, and this was especially the case in the instance of planters who had obtained patents to large tracts so widely separated in the point of locality that the owners were unable to give the management of them their constant attention. When a more careful superintendence was required than the