What were the benefits of becoming an indentured servant?
What were the benefits of becoming an indentured servant? Upon completion of the contract, the servant would receive “freedom dues,” a pre-arranged termination bonus. This might include land, money, a gun, clothes or food. On the surface it seemed like a terrific way for the luckless English poor to make their way to prosperity in a new land.
Who were some famous indentured servants?
Indentured servants at Hampton in the colonial period were all white, and therefore legal persons with legal rights. Many used the court system to argue that they were being held beyond their term. These legal disputes were complicated by the fact that the Ridgelys could change contract terms when servants ran away , which many attempted.
What is the difference between slavery and indentured servitude?
What are 3 Similarities & 3 differences between indentured servants and slaves?
- similarities. both worked on farms or plantations, both didn’t have any rights, both had short life spans.
- difference 1. slaves were forever, while indentured servants had a contract. …
- difference 2. slaves worked against their will, indentured servants worked willingly.
What is indentured servitude and how did it work?
Indentured servitude was a system by which the worker would given their labour to an European Master for a period of 5–7 years after which they were promised a sum of money and land. During the 5–7 years their life belonged to their Masters.
Where did indentured servants come from?
Indentured servants first arrived in America in the decade following the settlement of Jamestown by the Virginia Company in 1607. The idea of indentured servitude was born of a need for cheap labor. The earliest settlers soon realized that they had lots of land to care for, but no one to care for it.
Where were most indentured servants recruited from?
North America. Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was common in British America. It was often a way for Europeans (usually from Ireland) to migrate to the American colonies: they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage.
Did indentured servants come from Europe?
Until the early eighteenth century, the majority of Europeans who came to the Americas were not free settlers or elite landholders. They were indentured servants.
Who were typically indentured servants?
Most workers who became indentured servants were males, generally in their late teens and early twenties, but thousands of women also entered into these agreements and often worked off their debts as household employees or domestic servants.
Did the middle colonies have indentured servants?
As a carryover from English practice, indentured servants were the original standard for forced labor in New England and middle colonies like Pennsylvania and Delaware. These indentured servants were people voluntarily working off debts, usually signing a contract to perform slave-level labor for four to seven years.
How many indentured servants came to the Caribbean?
Between 1838 and 1917, western European governments allowed their planters in the Caribbean to import an estimated 500,000 Indian indentured servants from India to work on their plantations. The arrival of these indentured laborers was in direct response to a so-called labor shortage emanating from slave emancipation.
What was a key difference between indentured servants from England and slaves from Africa?
Most seventeenth-century migrants to North America from England: were lower-class men. What was a key difference between indentured servants from England and slaves from Africa? Three-quarters of indentured servants escaped to another colony and found permanent freedom.
Who were European indentured servants?
Indentured servants were men and women who signed a contract (also known as an indenture or a covenant) by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia and, once they arrived, food, clothing, and shelter.
How did indentured servants get to America?
Typically, the father of a teenager would sign the legal papers, and work out an arrangement with a ship captain, who would not charge the father any money. The captain would transport the indentured servants to the American colonies, and sell their legal papers to someone who needed workers.
Why did indentured servants go to the middle colonies?
The arrival of indentured servants in the American colonies addressed a labor shortage that emerged in the early 1600s because of the success of a system of land distribution that was meant to encourage the establishment of farms.
Why were indentured servants attracted to the English colonies?
Why were indentured servants attracted to the English colonies? The colonists were in desperate need of servants, so they paid very well. Tending the fields and crops in the colonies was much easier than in England. Work was hard to come by in England, while there was plenty of work in the colonies.
What happened to indentured servants after they were freed?
After they were freed, indentured servants were given their own small plot of land to farm.
What was a key difference between indentured servants from England and slaves from Africa?
Most seventeenth-century migrants to North America from England: were lower-class men. What was a key difference between indentured servants from England and slaves from Africa? Three-quarters of indentured servants escaped to another colony and found permanent freedom.
Who were the indentured servants in colonial society?
Indentured servants were men and women who signed a contract (also known as an indenture or a covenant) by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia and, once they arrived, food, clothing, and shelter.
Who were the indentured servants quizlet?
A worker bound by a voluntary agreement to work for a specified period of years often in return for free passage to an overseas destination. Before 1800 most were Europeans; after 1800 most indentured laborers were Asians.
What are 2 differences between indentured servants and slaves?
Indentured servitude differed from slavery in that it was a form of debt bondage, meaning it was an agreed upon term of unpaid labor that usually paid off the costs of the servant's immigration to America. Indentured servants were not paid wages but they were generally housed, clothed, and fed.
When did indentured servants first arrive in America?
Indentured Servants In The U.S. Indentured servants first arrived in America in the decade following the settlement of Jamestown by the Virginia Company in 1607. The idea of indentured servitude was born of a need for cheap labor.
Why did the Virginia Company develop the system of indentured servitude?
With passage to the Colonies expensive for all but the wealthy, the Virginia Company developed the system of indentured servitude to attract workers. Indentured servants became vital to the colonial economy. The timing of the Virginia colony was ideal.
What problems did the colonial elite face?
The colonial elite realized the problems of indentured servitude. Landowners turned to African slaves as a more profitable and ever-renewable source of labor and the shift from indentured servants to racial slavery had begun. Investigations Home.
How long did servants work?
Servants typically worked four to seven years in exchange for passage, room, board, lodging and freedom dues. While the life of an indentured servant was harsh and restrictive, it wasn't slavery. There were laws that protected some of their rights.
When did the first black Africans come to Virginia?
In 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in place, they were initially treated as indentured servants, and given the same opportunities for freedom dues as whites.
Can an indentured servant's contract be extended?
An indentured servant's contract could be extended as punishment for breaking a law, such as running away, or in the case of female servants, becoming pregnant.
Where did the term "indentured servant" come from?
The term "indentured servant" applied to the largest and broadest group of European immigrants who sold their labor for a period of years in exchange for passage to the New World. Indentured servants first appeared in the Chesapeake colonies, but they also were present in the middle colonies and the Lower South.
What is an indentured servant?
The term "indentured servant" applied to the largest and broadest group of European immigrants who sold their labor for a period of years in exchange for passage to the New World. Indentured servants first appeared in the Chesapeake colonies, but they also were present in the middle colonies and the Lower South. The term "redemptioner" applies to eighteenth-century immigrants, usually from Germany and Switzerland but also from England and Ireland, who traveled to the colonies in family groups and sold their labor upon arrival to repay the cost of passage. This group was most common in Pennsylvania. A third group, transported convicts, became more prevalent after the Transportation Act of 1718 permitted the banishment of convicted felons. They usually went to Virginia and Maryland, were of English, Scottish, or Irish descent, and were the least popular form of bound laborer in the colonies. Colonists complained about the questionable character of convict servants and were thus more reluctant to purchase their services.
Why were indentured servants important?
Indentured servants played a critical role in the process of populating the North American colonies, and their motivation to migrate changed over time. Estimated to have made up 75 percent of the seventeenth-century migrants, servants were critical both to population growth and to successful tobacco cultivation in the Upper South. They continued to arrive in significant numbers during the eighteenth century, especially in the middle colonies. Most seventeenth-century servants were drawn from the mass of the increasingly mobile English population unable to find work because of enclosure, economic instability, and overpopulation. Eighteenth-century bound migrants came from more diverse backgrounds and for a variety of reasons. With many of the previous century's challenges in England resolved by the eighteenth century, English servant migration waned. Scottish Covenanters and Jacobites from the 1715 and 1745 uprisings were deported to American plantations as an expediency. Irish from Ulster traveled out of Belfast as indentured servants and redemptioners. Restrictions on Irish trade, the rack-renting of absentee landlords, and anti-Catholic fervor made survival in Ireland difficult and many saw emigration as an appealing alternative. Famine in the late 1720s gave particular impetus to emigration. Germans from the Rhineland and Palatinate, having survived decades of war, found themselves persecuted for their Protestant practices as the eighteenth century unfolded. The British government also sent thirty-two-hundred Germans to New York in 1710, hoping to provide a labor force to produce naval stores. Convict laborers were also more common in the later period. An estimated two-thirds of British felons were transported between 1715 and 1775, with estimated total numbers varying from twenty thousand to fifty thousand. There was a particularly intensive period of migration between the end of the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution (1763–1775).
What changed the nature of servitude and the opportunities for freed servants?
By the end of the early eighteenth century, however, reduced availability of land, a more complex economy combining agriculture, nascent industries, urban commercial ventures, and a more diverse and plentiful supply of labor changed the nature of servitude and the opportunities for freed servants.
What did servants receive at the end of their indenture?
At the end of their indenture, servants received their freedom and "freedom dues," which consisted at various times and different locations of land, clothing, corn, tobacco, a musket, blankets, or tools—or some combination of these.
Why were servants drawn from the mass of the increasingly mobile English population unable to find work?
Most seventeenth-century servants were drawn from the mass of the increasingly mobile English population unable to find work because of enclosure, economic instability, and overpopulation. Eighteenth-century bound migrants came from more diverse backgrounds and for a variety of reasons.
How long does a servant contract last?
Servant contracts varied in length. For adults, who were sometimes able to negotiate their contract based upon their skill level, periods of service usually lasted from four to seven years. For minors, indenture lasted until they reached adulthood.
Why was an indentured servant's contract extended?
An indentured servant's contract could be extended as punishment for breaking a law, such as running away, or in the case of female servants, becoming pregnant. Those transported unwillingly were not indentures. They were political prisoners, vagrants, or people who had been defined as "undesirable" by the English state.
How did the ship indentured servants affect the voyage?
Once indentured, these servants had little control over their destination, as their contracts were sold to local planters on arrival. Ships were often overcrowded, and the mortality rate on voyages could be high: one ship which arrived at Barbados in 1638 had lost eighty of its 350 passengers (23%) to sickness by the time it arrived.
How many slaves were there in Barbados in 1638?
In 1638, the population of Barbados was about 6,000, with 2,000 of that number being indentured servants and 200 being African slaves. Fifteen years later, the Islands slave population had grown to 20,000, while indentured servants numbered 8,000.
What is the Irish slave myth?
Further information: Irish slaves myth. Treatment of Irish indentured servants varied widely , and has been the subject of considerable historical debate. Comparisons between the treatment of Irish indentured servants (particularly in Barbados) and the treatment of African slaves have been especially controversial.
Why did the government use involuntary transportation in Barbados?
The decreased appeal of an indenture on Barbados, combined with enormous demand for labor caused by sugar cultivation, led the use of involuntary transportation to Barbados as a punishment for crimes, or for political prisoners, and also to the kidnapping of laborers who were sent to Barbados involuntarily.
What were the Leeward Islands?
Many of these Irish were either indentured servants or former servants, and many of them lived "materially impoverished" lives; however, the Leeward Islands were also home to more affluent Irish, who were members of powerful merchant families and had numerous servants themselves.
What was the population of Montserrat made of?
Unlike Barbados, the Irish population of Montserrat was primarily made up of individuals who had been "recruited to emigrate" by the islands' elite residents (who were often Irish themselves), rather than vagrants or convicts, and some of them had arrived as free laborers rather than as indentured servants.
Legal Standing and Contracts
Migration
- Indentured servants played a critical role in the process of populating the North American colonies, and their motivation to migrate changed over time. Estimated to have made up 75 percent of the seventeenth-century migrants, servants were critical both to population growth and to successful tobacco cultivation in the Upper South. They continued to arrive in significant num…
Changes in Occupation
- As the southern colonies came to rely upon African slave labor in the eighteenth century, the type of labor in which indentured servants engaged and their opportunities for advancement changed. Most worked as agricultural laborers during the seventeenth century, learning the skills they hoped would one day enable them to establish their own farms. ...
Waning of Servitude
- An important shift occurred during the Revolutionary period, especially in cities such as Philadelphia. With growing economic instability, increasing stratification of wealth, and the gradual move toward a more capitalist wage-labor economy, the proportion of bound laborers in the city shrank while that of wage laborers grew. Artisans no longer purchased long-term servan…
Bibliography
- Ekirch, A. Roger. Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718–1775. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford UniversityPress, 1987. Galenson, David W. "'Middling People' or 'Common Sort'?: The Social Origins of Some Early Americans Reexamined, with a Rebuttal by Mildred Campbell." William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 35 (1978), 499–524. ——. White Servitud…