In the 19th century, the class society was still a major fact, yet pioneers of equal opportunities dreamed of a better society and some took action. With royal assent, private Dutch initiative bought cheap land in Drenthe province to establish vagrant colonies, where lower class dropouts got another chance. Initially it was all hopeful, optimistic and liberal for its time, but soon the project got into trouble as funds ran out, many of the (in)voluntary recruits -often dumped opportunistically from cities- failed to live up to expectations and a paternalistic regime