Not so fast, Henry.  I'm researching the treatment of the poor in antebellum
Virginia, including bound children.  Treatment varied from county to county,
and in some counties race had very little to do with treatment, education
notwithstanding.  Thus indentures in, say, Rockbridge County compared very
well when set against Accomack.  The overwhelming majority of indentures in
Acc. were for farming, only 3 boys learned a "mobile" trade.  Rockbridge
tended toward the potentially lucrative mechanical trades.  Lancaster was
another county where orphans tended to do very well in their apprenticeship.
Indeed of all those, black and white indentured in Lancaster, none showed up
on the poor list again.

Too, the education was generally catch as catch can, if at all.  Masters in
York told the court (the citation escapes me now) that they were reluctant
to take on apprentices BECAUSE of the educational requirements of indenture:
reading, writing, and "cyphering to the rule of three."  Education, too,
varied from county to county.  One common lament among Superintendents of
(Poor) Schools was that many who were eligible for the free education
offered by the schools did not take advantage.  So much for the belief that
America has always been a nation craving knowledge, or at least was at some
"golden age."

So be careful about generalizing and keep in mind the differences from place
to place.

Jim Watkinson

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