Sandra, I know that was true in 17th century Virginia, but was it true in Pennsylvania? I'm not arguing; actually I've tried to determine if that was the case and not found actual pervasive cruelty outside of Virginia. In Virginia people were worked, starved and beaten to death and sometimes outright murdered. The skeletons of young men had old age osteoarthritis. My emigrant Smith ancestor was an indentured servant, along with his wife. At one point I wondered if their employer fathered my 2 x great grandfather. Those people don't seem to have been paragons of virtue as we would see it, but they do seem to have been scrupulous and to have treated the Smiths well by their own standards. When they left service they were given enough money to buy a plot of land sufficient to support a family, consistent with colonial Pennsylvania law. It was 1797, so I don't know if that law still applied. The indentured servants of the Pennsylvania Dutch were fond of running away, and the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers seemingly as fond of chasing after them with big whatevers, which is never a good sign, but I don't know if the specific problem was maltreatment. They were often separated from other family members, and they were required to work hard. I am increasingly aware that many people today THINK it's mistreatment if people have to work hard, all day long, and one can imagine what many young people separated from their parents by one reason or another might have thought. I don't recall mistreatment of indentured servants or their running away to have been frequent problems in colonial New England. My brother in law's emigrant male line ancestor was an indentured servant. He seems to have been treated as one of the family, essentially, and he too ended up with his own land. Dora -----Original Message----- From: Sandra Ferguson Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2012 2:07 PM To: PaOldCh Subject: [PaOldC] Indenture While indenture seemed to be a symbiotic relationship for both owner and servant, we need to remember that 40% of indentures died before completing their term. Times were hard for all but I can't help but think this was a higher number of deaths than in the general population. Sent from Sandra's iPod ???? ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PA-OLD-CHESTER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message