Indentured Servants Essay

Labor in the British colonies in America consisted of African slaves who were typically permanently enslaved as well as white indentured servants who worked for a specific amount of time and according to conditions outlined in a legal document, as well as several combinations of the two categories. Both the indentured servants and the slaves were essential to the growth of the colonial economy and society as a whole because of their work. The rapid growth of the farming economy led to a significant

hopes of freedom or a better life than the one they were given. Indentured servants would sign a contract, ultimately signing away their freedom to work for four to seven years to pay passage to the colonies while slaves were forcefully taken from their homes in Africa to provide the colonist with a form of cheap labor so that the colonist could keep their farms producing enough food for them to survive. The lives of indentured servants and African slaves were not that different in the way that they

Indentured Servants Lived Better Lives Than Slaves in the 18th Century When the colonies were first starting to form, the people settling in America had no idea how to work on the land because they were wealthy enough to not have to work in England. Indentured servants and slaves came into America soon after the settlers came, because there was work to be done. Indentured servants and slaves both had hard lifestyles but indentured servants lived life easier due to being seen more as humans than

Atlantic indentured servants served a master for a 3-7 years. The younger they were the longer they served. In return their master promised to give them the tools they needed, and paid for passage to new world. (Divine et al. 18) Becoming an indentured servant didn’t seem like a big deal since it was only temporary and not permanent. Once their indenture contract had been achieved they were released from servitude, and free to start a life and business of their own in the colony. Most indentured servants

but in exchange for free passage to a new country is known as an indentured servant. The servant would become a free man after their debt was paid off. The indentured servant played an important role in the American labor scene from the early seventeenth century to the third decade of the nineteenth century (Heavner 1). Many regions of colonial America had issues with obtaining a big enough labor supply to get work done. Indentured servitude was an initial solution to this problem developed by the

the New World they were stunned to see how cheap land was and how expensive labor was. Many of these settlers relied on Indentured servants and Indians as cheap labor but this came with many disadvantages. Indentured servants “carried too high a price for farmers who raised crops for subsistence.” ( The American Journey Ch. 3, Pg.78) Another disadvantage to using indentures servants was that they only worked long enough to repay the debt they had. Using Indians also came with an array of problems.

Indentured Servants Indentured servitude was the institutional arrangement devised to increase labor mobility from Europe (particularly England) to America, and it was the labor system that preceded American slavery. Its emergence in Virginia in the seventeenth century can be seen as a development expedient to the circumstances surrounding the colony. Indentured servitude was practically the only way in which a poor person could get to the colonies and planters could be supplied with cheap

towards indentured servants could be found between regions, ages and genders. One of the most distinct difference was the relationship between gender and education. More female indentured servants had an education than male indentured servants because of the difference of their roles within the colonial American society. This evidence appeared in two places: first, in the “care and necessaries” clauses as a term of indenture; second, in the proportion of female educated indentured servants and the

was indentured servitude. White males in colonial America would pay for citizens in Europe to take the journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. Thus, the new citizens would have to sign a contract and work as an indentured servant for as many years as the contract states, typically four to seven years. All indentured servants in the colonies retained the rights of an English citizen, they had both civil rights and liberties. Over time, as life expectancy increased, indentured servants

slavery came the rise of indentured servants in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When slaves were freed, they were no longer willing to put in the hours they were previously forced to work. The colonies depended on plantations and also needed a new source of labor. This led to mistreatment of indentured laborers. Most British people needed to turn to indentured servitude in order to make money from their plantations. With each year, more and more indentured servants would be needed to work