was the owner of an African apprentice whose indenture was to remain in force for twenty-eight years.[1] Among the laborers of Mr. George Light was a negro who had come into Virginia a free man, and bound himself out for a period of five.[2]
Upon the close of the negro’s term, he was entitled to the same quantity of clothing and corn as the white servant. Independent provision was often made for him in the indenture itself. In 1685, William, the son of a mulatto woman named Katharine Sewell, was apprenticed to William Booth of York for a period of thirty years, Booth agreeing not only to supply him with the usual quantity of food and raiment, and to provide him with the customary lodging, but also on his reaching his fourteenth year, to give him a heifer, whose increase was to be carefully preserved for his benefit until his term expired.[3] In some cases, the negro servant was permitted to raise hogs on condition that he turn over to his master one-half of the amount obtained from their sale.[4]
There is no reason to think that the negro servant was appraised lower in inventories than the white. His labor was equally as valuable, and he was probably much more easily controlled, an element of special advantage in employing him.
There were found in Virginia in the seventeenth century a number of persons of Turkish blood, who had been imported like English laborers under the terms of ordinary indentures. One of the head rights which Francis Yeardley, in 1647, gave in to obtain a patent to land in Lower Norfolk was acquired by his importation of Simon, who was
