PRIMARY DOCUMENT

“How long Servants without Indentures shall Serve” (1658)

ORIGINAL IMAGES
Hening's Statutes at LargeHening's Statutes at Large
CONTEXT

In the act “How long Servants without Indentures shall Serve,” passed in its 1658 session, the General Assembly addressed the problem of men and women arriving to Virginia without negotiated contracts, or indentures, for their labor. This law revised a similar one passed in the 1643 session. Some spelling has been modernized.

FULL TEXT

Hening's Statutes at Large

WHEREAS divers controversies have risen between masters and servants being brought into the collonie without indentures or covennants to testifie their agreements, whereby masters and servants have been often prejudiced, Be it therefore enacted and confirmed for prevention of future controversies of the like nature, That such persons as shall be

— page 442 —
Hening's Statutes at Large

imported, haveing no indentures or convenant, either men or women, if they be above sixteen years old shall serve four yeers, If under fifteen to serve till hee or shee shall be one and twenty yeers of age, and the courts to be judges of their ages.

CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
General Assembly. “How long Servants without Indentures shall Serve” (1658). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/how-long-servants-without-indentures-shall-serve-1658.
MLA Citation:
General Assembly. "“How long Servants without Indentures shall Serve” (1658)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 28 Nov. 2023
Last updated: 2020, December 07
Feedback
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Sponsors