Hello, cousin. My earliest ancestor in the America's arrived from Scotland in 1653 as an indentured servant in Virginia. Nothing is known of the circumstances of his coming, however.
351 years in the New World, and none of us has ever made any money. I think I'm owed reparations or something.
Might we, literally be Cousins? Here's one of the better histories of my ancestor, Ninian Beall
http://www.pastracks.com/beall/beall.htm
The only criticism is that the author didn't do a lot of checking for typos, such as setting dates in the 1950s instead of 1650s. She even has him marrying his second wife at the age of between 3 and 8, and he had a child from his first marriage! We Scots are manly men, but come on!
He improved his lot very rapidly after his freedom. At one point he owned all of the area that is now Washington DC and he was instrumental in the founding of the city of Georgetown. After President Kennedy was killed Mrs Kennedy and the children moved from the White House into his historic town house until they left Washington.
Some family stories are that the land for Washington was siezed illegally. We've always maintained that the government owed us for this land (plus interest) and a relative from the branch of the family that stayed in Maryland, when he was elected to Congress in the 70s, actually looked into this. The word that got around the family was that, yes, we were owed billions of dollars in compensation. However, whatever that compensation turned out to be, the taxes on it would always be one dollar more. We never formally pursued our claim.