The second class, "kids," were obtained through people who were called "spirits." These parties had been engaged in spiriting away men who were turned over to the military authorities to become soldiers, and when the demand for laborers for America became such as to offer opportunities for great profit, these "spirits" turned their trade into procuring people to satisfy this want of the new county. These men were particularly active in kidnapping children. Among a shipload of such children offered for sale in Boston one day in 1730, there was a boy who had sailed from America with his uncle who was the captain of the ship. The uncle died at sea and the mate and crew sold the boy to a transport-ship which was passing them bound for this country. The boy served out his term and later became an officer in the wars with the Indians. One noteworthy case was that of James Annesley, son and heir of Lord Altham. When thirteen years of age he was taken from Dublin, at the instigation of his uncle, and carried to America and he served twelve years of bondage in Pennsylvania. After this service he returned to his native land and brought suit to recover his father's titles and estates. This suit was successful but it was appealed to the House of Lords and the young man died before the decision was reached. Not only were criminals that were convicted sent to America, but when a man was on trial for a small crime the officers of the court would make him believe that he would suffer severe punishment, perhaps hanging, so that he would beg for transportation. Then these prisoners were sold and the money would be kept by the officers. They even went further, for innocent persons were arrested and condemned that they might be sold into the colonies. However strong were the needs of the colonists for laborers, yet they did not want these convicts and protested against their coming in. Some of the colonial assemblies passed laws against such importation but England would not accept such laws as this course afforded too good a way of getting rid of criminals. "The hardest words said against the mother country in colonial prints, a quarter of a century before the Revolution, sprang from the bitter resentment excited by this practice of forcing criminals on the plantations in spite of their utmost endeavor to keep them out. One of the most pungent newspaper writers of the time compared England to a father seeking to spread the plague among his children, or emptying filth upon their table; and Franklin proposed to send a present of rattlesnakes for the king's garden, as a fit return for the convicts out of English jails."[224]