The
agents and captains then saw to it that few arrived in Philadelphia
out of debt. As a result the immigrants were sold to "soul-drivers,"
who took them to the interior and indentured them to farmers, usually
of their own race. These redemptioners, as they were called, served
from three to five years and generally received fifty acres of land at
the expiration of their service.
On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 French
Protestants fled in vast numbers to England and to Holland. Thence
many of them found their way to America, but very few came hither
directly from France. South Carolina, Virginia, New York, Rhode
Island, and Massachusetts were favored by those noble refugees, who
included in their numbers not only skilled artisans and successful
merchants but distinguished scholars and professional men in whose
veins flowed some of the best blood of France. They readily identified
themselves with the industries and aspirations of the colonies and at
once became leaders in the professional and business life in their
communities. In Boston, in Charleston, in New York, and in other
commercial centers, the names of streets, squares, and public
buildings attest their prominence in trade and politics. Few names are
more illustrious than those of Paul Revere, Peter Faneuil, and James
Bowdoin of Massachusetts; John Jay, Nicholas Bayard, Stephen DeLancey
of New York; Elias Boudinot of New Jersey; Henry Laurens and Francis
Marion of South Carolina.
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