The servant, then, gradually became property, not principally because of a tendency to consider the Negro servant as such, but because of the incidents necessarily arising from the methods which had to be used to make white servitude possible in the colonies. These methods, then, the custom of using them, and finally the tentative legal sanction of them, were fairly well practiced before the Negro's arrival and long before he was considered as chattel.[51] FOOTNOTES: [1] Nieboer, _Slavery as an Industrial Institution_, p. 42. [2] Doyle, _Hist. of Eng. Col. in Am._, p. 385. [3] Ballagh, _Hist. of Slavery in Va._, p. 42. [4] McCormac, _White Servitude in Md._, pp. 9, 60, 61, 63. [5] Ballagh, _White Servitude in the Col. of Va._, p. 15. [6] _Ibid._, pp. 19, 31, 24. [7] "We see, then, that the colonist, while in theory only a Virginia member of the London Company, and entitled to equal rights and privileges with other members or adventurers, was, from the nature of the case, practically debarred from exercising these rights.... He was kept by force in the colony, and could have no communication with his friends in England.... Under the arbitrary administration of the Company and of its deputy governors he was as absolutely at its disposal as a servant at his master's. His conduct was regulated by corporal punishment or more extreme measures. He could be hired out by the Company to private persons, or by the Governor for his personal advantage." _Ibid._, p. 26. [8] _Ibid._, p. 23. [9] Ballagh, _White Servitude in the Col. of Va._, pp. 23, 24, 25, 43 note. [10] McCormac, _White Servitude in Md._, pp. 48, 49. [11] _Ibid._, pp. 38, 43; Ballagh, _White Servitude in the Col. of Va._, pp. 40, 49. [12] "Where no contract but a verbal one existed there was always room for controversy between master and servant, each trying to prove an agreement that would be to his advantage." _Ibid._, p. 50. [13] "Where the servants were ignorant, which was usually the case, it was to the advantage of the master that there should be no written contract, as there was then a chance of extending the term of service." McCormac, _White Servitude in Md._, p. 44. "The Palatines and other German races, who, in the later years formed nearly all of the servant population, knew little of the laws and language and were an easy prey to the abuses of traders and harsh masters. They had been used to very little liberty at home and were slow to assert their rights in America." _Ibid._, p. 61. [14] Ante, p. 268. [15] Henning, _Statutes at Large_, I, pp. 127, 130, 192; Ballagh, _White Servitude in the Col. of Va._, p. 45. [16] _Ibid._, p. 77. [17] _Ibid._, pp. 58, 59. [18] Bassett, _Slavery and Servitude in the Col. of N. C._, p. 81.