"This is a new world all backwards and built on the backs of prisoners," she noted simply. She wouldn't lie to the men after all. "In theory those sent here can work off their sentences and be freemen once more. In reality most who buy the contracts, well..." they could imagine, certainly.

"We are starting to gather some measure of respectability here, more farmers and work hands than bondsmen, but many of those are people who HAVE finished out their terms and chose to stay."