were called; no workingman was safe; the very beggars were afraid to speak with anyone who mentioned the terrifying word "America." Parents were torn from their homes, husbands from their wives, to disappear forever as if swallowed up in death. Children were bought from worthless fathers, orphans from their guardians, dependent or undesirable relatives from families weary of supporting them.
To the great army of involuntary immigrants were added thousands of convicts who were either sent by English judges or who chose deportation in place of fines, prisons, stripes, or the gallows. No doubt many of this class were criminals and incorrigible rascals, but a large portion were the luckless victims of savage laws enacted to protect the property of the ruling classes in England—peasants caught shooting rabbits on some landlord's estate or servant girls charged with purloining a pair of stockings or a pocket handkerchief. Mingled with this motley array of victims were political offenders who had taken part in unsuccessful agitations and uprisings.
The fate of all white servants, whether they voluntarily chose to sell themselves for a term of years to get to America, or were transported against their will, was very much the same. They were bound to serve some master for a period of years ranging from five to seven. They were not tied to the soil, as were the serfs of the middle ages, nor sold like slaves into life-long servitude, but during their term of bondage they were under many disabilities. The penalties imposed upon them for offenses against the law were heavier than those laid upon freemen; if they attempted to escape or committed a crime their term of service could be increased; they could not marry, leave their place of work, or engage in any occupation, without the consent of their masters.
Absolutely at the beck and call of their owners, they could be severely punished for laziness or neglect of duty. They were, in fact, little better off than slaves while their servitude lasted; their fate depended upon the whims of their
