"The U.S. was settled, in large part, by working indentured children... Over 1/2 the people who settled the Colonies south of New England came to America under contracts of indenture... The average age of an indentured servant was 14."
~Barbara Woodhouse, "Hidden in Plain Sight"
Requirement for states to return fugitives whose bonds were not yet paid planted the seeds of the Fugitive Slave Act & also created Appalachia as a region
some worked off their passage, others slipped off through the Cumberland Gap & met up with indigenous communities where they were often accepted
