Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/421

 also, a child five years of age was apprenticed in the same county for a period of sixteen years. One of the duties to be performed on the part of the master was to teach his youthful servant so that he should be able to read a chapter in the Bible, the Lord&#8217;s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. Failure on the part of the master to perform his agreement subjected him to the penalty of a fine of five hundred pounds of tobacco. If he was delinquent in delivering the suit of clothing, and the grain which custom required of him, the same fine was imposed.

If cases arose of children of the poorest classes showing vicious propensities which their parents made no effort to restrain or repress, the local courts stepped in and required them to be placed in the care of competent and industrious handicraftsmen. In 1694, there were three children in Elizabeth City County, the offspring of a woman of bad character, who had become notorious for their criminal conduct, the more remarkable as they were still very young. They were inveterate thieves, finding a refuge in the recesses of the woods. One of the three was a girl. The court placed her in the service of a planter and his wife who resided in the county, requiring them to provide her with food, clothing, and lodging and also to instruct her sufficiently to enable her to read a chapter in the Bible, the Lord&#8217;s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. One of the two remaining children was bound at first to a merchant, but on his requesting that he should be transferred to a shoemaker, the court