Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/58

 arrived in the rivers. The articles he thus acquired in exchange for his small crop, enabled him to buy a sow, which his employer permitted to range with his own cattle; one litter of pigs furnished him with means to purchase a cow and calf, and by the time his term had drawn to an end, he was in possession of a sufficient number of live stock to supply his needs when he opened a plantation of his own. His indenture not infrequently required that his master should provide him with several head when he became free. Bullock strongly recommended that every planter should pay to each of his servants a certain amount of tobacco for every pound of flax which he dressed, and should in other branches of agricultural work offer rewards that might stimulate them to greater energy and assiduity. The law strictly protected the right of persons of this class in all goods which they had brought into the country, or which they had secured since their arrival during the course of their terms. It frequently happened that they obtained freedom in consideration of a payment of cattle or the conveyance of land.

In 1610, Sir John Harvey presented a favorite servant with a negro slave, an English laborer, and a cow, and about the same time, Robert Felgate of York bequeathed to one of his employees four head of cattle, and also corn sufficient to last him for one year. To these, sixty acres and five hundred pounds of tobacco were added. In