Fellow VA-Hist list subscribers:

"Deerskins were certainly the bulkiest but not always the most valuable 
commodities Englishmen extracted from the piedmont. Trudging alongside the 
horses or perched atop the packs of peltry were children--some only three 
years old, yet already worth more than their weight in deerskins--destined 
for a life of servitude on a tobacco plantation, The attention focused upon 
South Carolina's trade in Indian slaves has obscured Virginia's version. It 
is clear however, that this branch of the trade peaked in the latter half 
of the seventeenth century, coinciding closely with the expansion of 
colonial commerce into the highlands, Virginia laws marched right in step, 
making it progressively easier to convert free natives unfree laborers 
until, in 1682, any Indian brought into the colony could be legally enslaved."

Merrell, James H. "The Indians' New World: Catawbas and their neighbors 
from European contact through the era of removal." New York: W. W. Norton & 
Company, 1989. Page 36.

Quoted by:

Jim Glanville
Retired Chemist
201 Graves Avenue
Blacksburg, Virginia 24060

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