George Leslie depones, that about the year 1742, it was the current report that Hugh Mackie, stabler in Aberdeen, was employed by John Burnet, merchant in Aberdeen, for taking up boys, that they might be carried to the plantations.

Depones, that the said Hugh Mackie, with a gang of five or six boys along with him, was at the back of the Gallowgate, where the deponent was working as a mason's servant [1], and they observed a boy coming down the street, they took hold of him but the boy struggled and got out of their gripes; where- upon Hugh Mackie kicked the said boy with his foot, and turned him into the loch, and the boy being hurt, was confined in the house of Harry Black, stabler, for eight or ten days, till he recovered; but the deponent does not know what became of that boy afterwards.

Depones, that he saw a parcel of boys and girls confined in a barn in the Green, before they were sent to the plantations.

Depones, that he believes they were of different ages, from ten to fifteen years.

1. This indicates that George was not free, and not paid, but held as “a dependent” by the mason. If the mason was a fair man, fair treatment was expected. If he was a bad man, cruelty and even sale to a slave merchant [in the case of disobedience or running off] was to be expected, as the parents of George were unlikely to be able to afford buying him back. If the mason fell upon hard times and could not afford to feed or house his dependent he could "indent" [sell] him for a term of years, assuming the parents were not positioned to buy him back.

It may seem strange to the modern reader to consider a world where no adult would think of releasing a child back to a parent without receiving money from the parent. But this was also a world where the child was often sold by a parent, as the child had often been born only to provide income through his or her labor. And if the family business could no longer support another mouth or benefit from another set of hands, the child would be sold.

Recall, that the Santa Claus of Peter's time was a night skulker who came into the house at night to punish the children for being bad and reward parents with rum and other spirits. For a glimpse at what this society evolved into over the following century, read Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.