Social Welfare in Colonial America (2)

Because much of colonial America was based on a feudal system, with indentured servants in the mid-colonies (more than half of all colonists came to this country as indentured servants) and slavery in the southern colonies, the pauper class
clearly lacked freedom. Often overlooked, however, was a set of harsh laws reasonably enforced up until the time of independence requiring masters to meet the basic survival needs of servants and slaves. Ironically, in the maturation from a plantation to a pre-industrial economy, economic uncertainty also increased. Consequently,
public relief was the largest expenditure in the public budgets of most major cities at the time of the American Revolution.