Reply #5: They "owed their soul to the company store" [View All]

[SoCalDem]

They were brought here and forced to work off their passage to GET here, but then they were charged room & board and because they were isolated, they have to shop with the "master", so they never really paid off the debt. Their 7 years were eventually up for the passage, but the debt they incurred during the 7 yeras would probably take a lifetime to repay.. That's why so many of them ran away..Probably when they were caught, they were sent to debtors' prisons or the poorhouse, but if they were young, running away seemed preferable anyway :)