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gov. B asked:


The stanzas below come from a poem written by a young Englishman named James Ravel. As punishment for a crime, Ravel was transported to Virginia and forced to work as an indentured servant. Read the excerpt, then answer the following questions

Thus twelve long tedious years did pass away,
And but two more by law I had to stay;
When Death did for my cruel Master call,
But that was no relief to us at all.

The Widow would not the Plantation hold,
So we and that were both for to be sold,
A lawyer rich who at James-Town did dwell,
Came down to view it and lik’d it very well.

He bought the Negroes who for life were slaves,
But no transported Fellons would he have,
So we were put like Sheep into a fold,
There unto the best bidder to be sold.

—from “the Poor Unhappy Transported Felon’s Sorrowful Account of His Fourteen Years Transportation at Virginia in America,” by James Ravel, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 56, 1948.

1. For how many years was Ravel sentenced to work as an indentured servant?

2. How was Ravel’s situation different from that of slaves?

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