ABSTRACT
The corollary to the great expanse of undeveloped land was a chronic labor shortage throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The shortage of labor was not only general in terms of a demand for muscle-power, but particular, in that skilled workers were needed. The leaders feared that if the “inferiour sort” were given too large allotments of land, workers might be encouraged to neglect their trades, thus increasing the labor shortage. The land system, then, influenced the institution of servitude in several ways. In order to accomplish the improvement of the institution of servitude, masters had duties to perform which were equally obligatory in God’s eyes as the duties of the servant. Religion, then, provided a justification for orders within society, reenforced the family nature of servitude, and set up a pattern of behavior for all Christian masters and servants to obey.
