Drinks Hard and Swears Much

By one estimate between 350000 and 500000 colonists came to America as compulsory laborers. Some came as indentured servants others as convicts. The transportation of servants into Maryland in particular reached its height in the middle of the 18th century while convicts arrived there in ever-increasing numbers prior to the onset of the American Revolution. For the investors who underwrote the transportation of forced labor-brokers ships' captains landowners-the risks to their investment included death in passage injury chronic maladies and running away. Out of necessity colonial newspapers carried ads offering rewards for the apprehension of runaways and/or notices about their capture. These ads compiled mainly from a half-dozen Maryland and Pennsylvania newspapers form the basis of this book.