If anyone is interested in a highly academic but extremely well researched book regarding white indentures in Colonial America I recommend the following book: White Servitude in Colonial America by David Galenson, published by Cambridge University Press, 1981. Reprinted in 1984 and 1990. The introduction covers the origin of indentured servitude. A lengthy part of the book treats the subject of who came, when, where and why. There are statistical analysis of the ages, trades and literacy of those that came during various periods of Colonial settlement. The economic "drivers" and the evolution of indentured servitude in the colonies is treated quite well. It endured for so long that it did change over time as did all other aspects of "peopling" North America. As often is the case, we tend to focus very narrowly on subjects we don't understand. I recommend the book for a better understanding of what was going on in the world at the time the colonies emerged and developed. It will enlighten your view of all the subjects being discussed on this list recently. For an equally thorough discussion of women and the property laws of the colonies I would recommend the following: Women and the Law of Property in Early America by MaryLynn Salmon, published by The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, copyright 1986. I believe you will all be surprised. Enjoy the reading. Loretta

Good advice, Loretta. For those same interested folks, I also have found MUCH help and food for genealogical thought in the works by historian Philip Bruce, all usually available from OOP books sources; those recommended are, "Economic History of VA in the Seventeenth Century," "Institutional History of VA in the Seventeenth Century," and "Social History of VA in the Seventeenth Century." The Social History has been repub'ed, again by Heritage Books at heritagebooks@pipeline.com