My 20th century brain says 'so he had wimmen instead of slaves, hey?' but I realise that won't be the whole story and is insulting so I apologise. My question, which you may or not be able to answer, is this, ' Was it the accepted practice to take on women who had no man eg widows, deserted wives, the 'unlucky' spinster?' In other words, did these men see it as their duty to look after spare women?