Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/32

 by the promise that protection would be afforded them in case their whereabouts were discovered, an improbable contingency, as was asserted, on account of the remoteness and the isolation of the separate estates. Even in the cases in which the planters receiving absconding servants had not instigated them to leave their masters, the readiness with which they were often employed without any questions being asked amounted to a positive inducement to restless and discontented laborers to break their engagements whenever they felt the desire.

So general became the complaint of the action of the planters who gave employment to absconding servants, whether informed or not as to the expiration of their terms, that it was found necessary to adopt a regulation that no one should enter into a contract under any circumstances with a worker for wages or for a share of the crop, or with a laborer who was subject to an ordinary indenture, unless he could produce a certificate signed by the commander of the place where he had formerly resided, showing that he was at liberty to bind himself by new covenants to any one who was willing to employ him. If, notwithstanding his inability to furnish this certificate, he should be engaged, then the person who was thus guilty of violating the law was compelled to pay to the master or mistress of the servant, if his term was still unexpired, twenty pounds of tobacco for every night he was entertained. Even though the laborer concerned should happen to have hired himself for a short time and for a definite sum, the same penalty was to be enforced. So determined were the members of the Assembly to probe to the heart of the evil, that it was provided that even if the laborer who was thus employed should be a freeman who had not before entered into any contract, the person covenanting with him should still be under the necessity of requiring