period of time. These persons were
called Indents. Their labor was sold, so that in reality they were
little more than slaves. When finally they had worked out their time
they had earned their freedom, and were called Redemptioners. The
practice of selling Redemptioners continued until the year 1820, all of
forty-four years after "Honest" John Hart had signed his name to the
Declaration of Independence. It is said that a lineal descendant of
Emperor Maximilian was so bound in Georgia.

Many were imposed upon in another way. Their baggage and possessions
were often confiscated and even though friends waited on this side ready
to pay their passage, innocent men and women were duped into sale.

Then there were the so-called convicts among the pioneers of the Blue
Ridge. It must be remembered that in those days offense constituting
crime was often a mere triviality. Men were imprisoned for debt; even so
they were labeled convicts. But, as Dr. James Watt Raine assures us in
his _The Land of Saddle-Bags_, the few such convicts who were sent by
English judges to America could scarcely have produced the five million
or more people who today are known as southern mountain people.

Widely different though they were in blood, speech, and customs, there
was an underlying similarity in the nature of these pioneers. It was
their love of independence. Independence that impelled them to give up
the security of civilization to brave the perils of uncharted seas, the
hazards of warfare with hostile Indians, to seek homes in an untamed
wilderness.

BLAZING THE TRAIL

Sometimes a single explorer went ahead of the rest with a few friendly
Indians to accompany him. If not he went alone, tramping into the
forest, living in a rough shack, suffering untold hardship through
bitter winter months. For weeks when he had neither meal nor flour he
lived on meat alone--deer and bear. It was the stories of valuable furs
and the vast quantities of them which trickled back to the settlements
that lured others to follow. Hunters and trappers came bringing their
families. The stories of furs and the promise of greater possessions to
be had in the wilderness grew and so did the number of adventurers. They
began to form little settlements and their coming crowded before them
the earlier hunter or trapper who wanted always the field to himself.

In the meantime settlers in the Valley of Virginia were growing more
smug and p