Note 125 — Chapter XIV · SOCIETY IN THE OLD DOMINION.

“Among the rest, she often told me how the greatest part of the inhabitants of that colony came thither in very indifferent circumstances from England; that, generally speaking, they were of two sorts: either, 1st, such as were brought over by masters of ships to be sold as servants; or, 2nd, such as are transported after having been found guilty of crimes punishable with death. When they come here ... the planters buy them, and they work together in the field till their time is out.... [Then] they have a certain number of acres of land allotted them by the country, and they go to work to clear and cure the land, and then to plant it with tobacco and corn for their own use; and as the merchants will trust them with tools and necessaries upon the credit of their crop before it is grown, so they again plant every year a little more [etc.].... Hence, child, says she, many a Newgate-bird becomes a great man, and we have ... several justices of the peace, officers of the trained bands, and magistrates of the towns they live in, that have been burnt in the hand.... You need not think such a thing strange; ... some of the best men in the country are burnt in the hand, and they are not ashamed to own it; there’s Major ——, says she, he was an eminent pickpocket; there’s Justice B—— was a shoplifter, ... and I could name you several such as they are.” Moll Flanders, p. 66.