Indentured Servitude - wikipedia Indentured Servitude An indenture signed by Henry Mayer, with an `` X '', in 1738. This contract bound Mayer to Abraham Hestant of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who had paid for Mayer to travel from Europe. An indentured servant or indentured laborer is an employee ( indenturee ) within a system of unfree labor who is bound by a signed or forced contract ( indenture ) to work for a particular employer for a fixed time. The contract often lets the employer sell the labor of an indenturee to a third party. Indenturees usually enter into an indenture for a specific payment or other benefit, or to meet a legal obligation, such as debt bondage. On completion of the contract, indentured servants were given their freedom, and occasionally plots of land. In many countries, systems of indentured labor have now been outlawed, and are banned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a form of slavery. Contents 1 The Americas 1.1 North America 1.1. 1 Contracts 1.2 Caribbean 2 Indian indenture system 3 Oceania 4 Africa 5 Legal status 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 Further reading 9.1 Historiography 10 External links The Americas Main article : Indentured servitude in the Americas North America Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was very common in British North America. It was often a way for poor Europeans to immigrate to the American colonies : they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage. After their indenture expired, the immigrants were free to work for themselves or another employer. The consensus view among economic historians and economists is that indentured servitude occurred largely as `` an institutional response to a capital market imperfection ''. In some cases, the indenture was made with a ship 's master, who on - sold the indenture to an employer in the colonies. Most indentured servants worked as farm laborers or domestic servants, although some were apprenticed to craftsmen. The terms of an indenture were not always enforced by American courts, although runaways were usually sought out and returned to their employer. Between one - half and two - thirds of white immigrants to the American colonies between the 1630s and American Revolution had come under indentures. However, while almost half the European immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies were indentured servants, at any one time they were outnumbered by workers who had never been indentured, or whose indenture had expired, and thus free wage labor was the more prevalent for Europeans in the colonies. Indentured people were numerically important mostly in the region from Virginia north to New Jersey. Other colonies saw far fewer of them. The total number of European immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 was about 500,000 ; of these 55,000 were involuntary prisoners. Of the 450,000 or so European arrivals who came voluntarily, Tomlins estimates that 48 % were indentured. About 75 % of these were under the age of 25. The age of adulthood for men was 24 years ( not 21 ) ; those over 24 generally came on contracts lasting about 3 years. Regarding the children who came, Gary Nash reports that `` many of the servants were actually nephews, nieces, cousins and children of friends of emigrating Englishmen, who paid their passage in return for their labor once in America. '' Several instances of kidnapping for transportation to the Americas are recorded such as that of Peter Williamson ( 1730 -- 1799 ). As historian Richard Hofstadter pointed out, `` Although efforts were made to regulate or check their activities, and they diminished in importance in the eighteenth century, it remains true that a certain small part of the white colonial population of America was brought by force, and a much larger portion came in response to deceit and misrepresentation on the part of the spirits ( recruiting agents ). '' One `` spirit '' named William Thiene was known to have spirited away 840 people from Britain to the colonies in a single year. Historian Lerone Bennett, Jr. notes that `` Masters given to flogging often did not care whether their victims were black or white. '' Indentured servants could not marry without the permission of their master, were sometimes subject to physical punishment and did not receive legal favor from the courts. To ensure that the indenture contract was satisfied completely with the allotted amount of time, the term of indenture was lengthened for female servants if they became pregnant. Upon finishing their term they received `` freedom dues '' and were set free. The American Revolution severely limited immigration to the United States, but economic historians dispute its long - term impact. Sharon Salinger argues that the economic crisis that followed the war made long - term labor contracts unattractive. His analysis of Philadelphia 's population shows how the percentage of bound citizens fell from 17 % to 6.4 % over the course of the war. William Miller posits a more moderate theory, stating that `` the Revolution (... ) wrought disturbances upon white servitude. But these were temporary rather than lasting ''. David Galenson supports this theory by proposing that the numbers of British indentured servants never recovered, and that Europeans from other nationalities replaced them. The American and British governments passed several laws that helped foster the decline of indentures. The UK Parliament 's Passenger Vessels Act 1803 regulated travel conditions aboard ships to make transportation more expensive, so as to hinder landlords ' tenants seeking a better life. An American law passed in 1833 abolished imprisonment of debtors, which made prosecuting runaway servants more difficult, increasing the risk of indenture contract purchases. The 13th Amendment, passed in the wake of the American Civil War, made indentured servitude illegal in the United States. Contracts Through its introduction, the details regarding indentured labor varied across import and export regions and most overseas contracts were made before the voyage with the understanding that prospective migrants were competent enough to make overseas contracts on their own account and that they preferred to have a contract before the voyage. Most labor contracts made were in increments of five years, with the opportunity to extend another five years. Many contracts also provided free passage home after the dictated labor was completed. However, there were generally no policies regulating employers once the labor hours were completed, which led to frequent ill - treatment. Caribbean Coolie woman in traditional dress In 1838, with the abolition of slavery at its onset, the British were in the process of transporting a million Indians out of India and into the Caribbean to take the place of the African slaves in indenture - ship. Women specifically, looking for what they believed would be a better life in the colonies, were sought after and recruited at a much higher rate than men due to the high population of men already in the colonies. However women had to prove their status as a single and eligible to emigrate, as married women could not leave without their husbands. Many women seeking escape from abusive relationships were willing to take that chance. The Indian Immigration Act of 1883 prevented women from exiting India as widowed or single in order to escape. Arrival in the colonies brought unexpected conditions of poverty, homelessness, and little to no food as the high numbers of emigrants overwhelmed the small villages and flooded the labor market. Many were forced into signing labor contracts that exposed them to the hard field labor on the plantation. Additionally, on arrival to the plantation, single women were ' assigned ' a man as they were not allowed to live alone. The subtle difference between slavery and indenture - ship is best seen here as women were still subjected to the control of the plantation owners as well as their newly assigned ' partner '. Their status was closer to chattel property than human being. A half million Europeans went as indentured servants to the Caribbean ( primarily the south Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago, French Guiana, and Suriname ) before 1840. In 1643, the white population of Barbados was 37,200 ( 86 % of the population ). During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, at least 10,000 Scottish and Irish prisoners of war were transported as indentured laborers to the colonies. There were also reports of kidnappings of Europeans to work as servants. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, children from England and France were kidnapped and sold into indentured labor in the Caribbean. Indian indenture system The Indian indenture system was a system of indenture, a form of debt bondage, by which 3.5 million Indians were transported to various colonies of European powers to provide labour for the ( mainly sugar ) plantations. It started from the end of slavery in 1833 and continued until 1920. This resulted in the development of large Indian diaspora, which spread from the Indian Ocean ( i.e. Réunion and Mauritius ) to Pacific Ocean ( i.e. Fiji ), as well as the growth of Indo - Caribbean and Indo - African population. The British wanted Indians to work in Natal as workers. But the Indians refused, and as a result, the British introduced the indenture system. On 18 January 1826, the Government of the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion laid down terms for the introduction of Indian labourers to the colony. Each man was required to appear before a magistrate and declare that he was going voluntarily. The contract was for five years with pay of ₹ 8 ( 12 ¢ US ) per month and rations provided labourers had been transported from Pondicherry and Karaikal. The first attempt at importing Indian labour into Mauritius, in 1829, ended in failure, but by 1834, with abolition throughout most of the British Empire, transportation of Indian labour to the island gained pace. By 1838, 25,000 Indian labourers had been shipped to Mauritius. After the end of slavery, the West Indian sugar colonies tried the use of emancipated slaves, families from Ireland, Germany and Malta and Portuguese from Madeira. All these efforts failed to satisfy the labour needs of the colonies due to high mortality of the new arrivals and their reluctance to continue working at the end of their indenture. On 16 November 1844, the British Indian Government legalised emigration to Jamaica, Trinidad and Demerara ( Guyana ). The first ship, the Whitby, sailed from Port Calcutta for British Guiana on 13 January 1838, and arrived in Berbice on 5 May 1838. Transportation to the Caribbean stopped in 1848 due to problems in the sugar industry and resumed in Demerara and Trinidad in 1851 and Jamaica in 1860. The Indian indenture system was finally banned in 1917. According to The Economist, `` When the Indian Legislative Council finally ended indenture... it did so because of pressure from Indian nationalists and declining profitability, rather than from humanitarian concerns. '' Oceania Main article : Blackbirding Convicts transported to the Australian colonies before the 1840s often found themselves hired out in a form of indentured labor. Indentured servants also emigrated to New South Wales. The Van Diemen 's Land Company used skilled indentured labor for periods of seven years or less. A similar scheme for the Swan River area of Western Australia existed between 1829 and 1832. During the 1860s planters in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, and the Samoa Islands, in need of laborers, encouraged a trade in long - term indentured labor called `` blackbirding ''. At the height of the labor trade, more than one - half the adult male population of several of the islands worked abroad. Over a period of 40 years, from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, labor for the sugar - cane fields of Queensland, Australia included an element of coercive recruitment and indentured servitude of the 62,000 South Sea Islanders. The workers came mainly from Melanesia -- mainly from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu -- with a small number from Polynesian and Micronesian areas such as Samoa, the Gilbert Islands ( subsequently known as Kiribati ) and the Ellice Islands ( subsequently known as Tuvalu ). They became collectively known as `` Kanakas ''. It remains unknown how many Islanders the trade controversially kidnapped. Whether the system legally recruited Islanders, persuaded, deceived, coerced or forced them to leave their homes and travel by ship to Queensland remains difficult to determine. Official documents and accounts from the period often conflict with the oral tradition passed down to the descendants of workers. Stories of blatantly violent kidnapping tend to relate to the first 10 -- 15 years of the trade. Australia deported many of these Islanders back to their places of origin in the period 1906 -- 1908 under the provisions of the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901. Australia 's own colonies of Papua and New Guinea ( joined after the Second World War to form Papua New Guinea ) were the last jurisdictions in the world to use indentured servitude. Africa A significant number of construction projects, principally British, in East Africa and South Africa, required vast quantities of labor, exceeding the availability or willingness of local tribesmen. Coolies from India were imported, frequently under indenture, for such projects as the Uganda Railway, as farm labor, and as miners. They and their descendants formed a significant portion of the population and economy of Kenya and Uganda, although not without engendering resentment from others. Idi Amin 's expulsion of the `` Asians '' from Uganda in 1972 was an expulsion of Indo - Africans. The majority of the population of Mauritius are descendants of Indian indentured labourers brought in between 1834 and 1921. Initially brought to work the sugar estates following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire an estimated half a million indentured laborees were present on the island during this period. Aapravasi Ghat, in the bay at Port Louis and now a UNESCO site, was the first British colony to serve as a major reception centre for slaves and indentured servants for British plantation labour. Legal status The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 ) declares in Article 4 `` No one shall be held in slavery or servitude ; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms ''. More specifically, It is dealt with by article 1 ( a ) of the United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery. However, only national legislation can establish the unlawfulness of indentured labor in a specific jurisdiction. In the United States, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act ( VTVPA ) of 2000 extended servitude to cover peonage as well as Involuntary Servitude. See also Bracero program Coolie Coolitude Debt Bondage Human trafficking Home Children History of Guyana Indenture ( document ) Indentured servitude in Pennsylvania Involuntary servitude Padrone system Penal transportation Redemptioner Slavery Khal Torabully Irish indentured servants United States labor law Notes Jump up ^ Whaples, Robert ( March 1995 ). `` Where Is There Consensus Among American Economic Historians ? The Results of a Survey on Forty Propositions ''. The Journal of Economic History. Cambridge University Press. 55 ( 1 ) : 140, 144. doi : 10.1017 / S0022050700040602. JSTOR 2123771 -- via JSTOR. ( Registration required ( help ) )... ( the ) vast majority ( of economic historians and economists ) accept the view that indentured servitude was an economic arrangement designed to iron out imperfections in the capital market. Jump up ^ Galenson 1984 : 1 Jump up ^ John Donoghue, `` Indentured Servitude in the 17th Century English Atlantic : A Brief Survey of the Literature, '' History Compass ( 2013 ) 11 # 10 pp 893 -- 902. Jump up ^ Christopher Tomlins, `` Reconsidering Indentured Servitude : European Migration and the Early American Labor Force, 1600 -- 1775, '' Labor History ( 2001 ) 42 # 1 pp 5 -- 43, at p. Jump up ^ Tomlins ( 2001 ) at notes 31, 42, 66 Jump up ^ Gary Nash, The Urban Crucible : The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution ( 1979 ) p 15 Jump up ^ `` trepan trapan, n. 2 ''. OED Online. June 2017. Oxford University Press Jump up ^ Richard Hofstadter ( 1971 ). America at 1750 : A Social Portrait. Knopf Doubleday. p. 36. Jump up ^ Lerone Bennett, Jr. ( November 1969 ). White Servitude in America. Ebony Magazine. pp. 31 -- 40. Jump up ^ Calendar of State Papers : Colonial series. Great Britain. Public Record Office. 1893. p. 521. Jump up ^ Calendar of State Papers : Colonial series. Great Britain. Public Record Office. 1893. p. 36. Jump up ^ Eric Foner : Give me liberty. W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. ISBN 978 - 0 - 393 - 97873 - 5. Jump up ^ Salinger, Sharon V. ( 1981 ). `` Colonial Labor in Transition : The Decline of Indentured Servitude in Late Eighteenth ‐ Century Philadelphia ''. Labor History. 2. 22 : 165 -- 191 ( 181 ). doi : 10.1080 / 00236568108584612. Jump up ^ Miller, William ( 1940 ). `` The Effects of the American Revolution on Indentured Servitude ''. Pennsylvania History. 3. 7 : 131 -- 141 ( 137 ). Jump up ^ Galenson, David ( 1984 ). `` The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas : An Economic Analysis ''. Journal of Economic History. 1. 44 : 1 -- 26 ( 13 ). doi : 10.1017 / s002205070003134x. ^ Jump up to : Walton, Lai. Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar. pp. 50 -- 70. Jump up ^ ( 1 ) Jump up ^ Bahadur, Gaiutra ( 2014 ). Coolie Woman : The Odyssey of Indenture. United States : Chicago Press. p. 22. ISBN 9780226211381. Jump up ^ Bahadur, Gaiutra ( 2014 ). Coolie Woman : The Odyssey of Indenture. United States : University of Chicago Press. p. 123. ISBN 9780226211381. Jump up ^ Michael D. Bordo, Alan M. Taylor, Jeffrey G. Williamson, eds. Globalization in historical perspective ( 2005 ) p. 72 Jump up ^ Gordon K. Lewis and Anthony P. Maingot, Main Currents in Caribbean Thought : The Historical Evolution of Caribbean Society in Its Ideological Aspects, 1492 -- 1900 ( 2004 ) pp 96 -- 97 Jump up ^ Cutler, Cecilia ( 12 July 2017 ). Language Contact in Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas : In honor of John V. Singler. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 178. ISBN 978 - 9027252777. Jump up ^ Population, Slavery and Economy in Barbados, BBC. Jump up ^ Higman 1997, p. 108. ^ Jump up to : `` The legacy of Indian migration to European colonies ''. The Economist. 2 September 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2017. Jump up ^ Atkinson, James ( 1826 ). An account of the state of agriculture & grazing in New South Wales. London : J. Cross. p. 110. Retrieved 2012 - 11 - 14. On Sir Thomas Brisbane assuming the Government, it was ordered, that all persons should, for every 100 acres of land granted to them, take and keep one convict until the expiration or remission of his sentence. Jump up ^ Perkins, John ( 1988 ), `` Convict Labour and the Australian Agricultural Company '', in Nicholas, Stephen, The Convict Workers : Reinterpeting Australia 's Past, Studies in Australian History, Cambridge University Press, p. 168, ISBN 9780521361262, retrieved 2012 - 11 - 14, A feature of the Australian Agricultural Company 's operation at Port Stephens was the simultaneous employment (... ) of various forms of labour. The original nucleus of the workforce consisted of indentured servants brought out from Europe on seven - year contracts. Jump up ^ p. 15 Duxbury, Jennifer Colonia Servitude : Indentured and Assigned Servants of the Van Diemen 's Land Company 1825 - 1841 Monach Publications in History 1989 Jump up ^ Fitch, Valerie Eager for Labour : The Swan River Indenture Hesperian Press 2003 Jump up ^ `` Documenting Democracy ''. Foundingdocs.gov.au. Archived from the original on October 26, 2009. Retrieved 2009 - 07 - 04. Jump up ^ Patel, Hasu H. ( 1972 ). `` General Amin and the Indian Exodus from Uganda ''. Issue : A Journal of Opinion. 2 ( 4 ) : 12 -- 22. doi : 10.2307 / 1166488. Jump up ^ `` History ''. Government Portal of Mauritius. Retrieved 22 January 2015. Jump up ^ `` Universal Declaration of Human Rights ''. United Nations. Retrieved 2011 - 10 - 14. Jump up ^ `` US Peonage and involuntary servitude laws ''. justice.gov. Retrieved 2011 - 10 - 14. References Bahadur, Gaiutra : Coolie Woman : The Odyssey of Indenture. The University of Chicago ( 2014 ) ISBN 978 - 0 - 226 - 21138 - 1 Higman, B.W. ( 1997 ). Knight, Franklin W., ed. General History of the Caribbean : The slave societies of the Caribbean. 3 ( illustrated ed. ). UNESCO. p. 108. ISBN 978 - 0 - 333 - 65605 - 1. Galenson, David W. ( March 1981 ). `` White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in Colonial America ''. The Journal of Economic History. 41 ( 1 ) : 39 -- 47. doi : 10.1017 / s0022050700042728. Galenson, David W. ( June 1981 ). `` The Market Evaluation of Human Capital : The Case of Indentured Servitude ''. Journal of Political Economy. 89 ( 3 ) : 446 -- 467. doi : 10.1086 / 260980. Galenson, David ( March 1984 ). `` The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas : An Economic Analysis ''. The Journal of Economic History. 44 ( 1 ) : 1 -- 26. doi : 10.1017 / s002205070003134x. Grubb, Farley ( July 1985 ). `` The Incidence of Servitude in Trans - Atlantic Migration, 1771 -- 1804 ''. Explorations in Economic History. 22 ( 3 ) : 316 -- 39. doi : 10.1016 / 0014 - 4983 ( 85 ) 90016 - 6. Grubb, Farley ( Dec 1985 ). `` The Market for Indentured Immigrants : Evidence on the Efficiency of Forward - Labor Contracting in Philadelphia, 1745 -- 1773 ''. The Journal of Economic History. 45 ( 4 ) : 855 -- 868. doi : 10.1017 / s0022050700035130. Grubb, Farley ( Spring 1994 ). `` The Disappearance of Organized Markets for European Immigrant Servants in the United States : Five Popular Explanations Reexamined ''. Social Science History. 18 ( 1 ) : 1 -- 30. doi : 10.2307 / 1171397. Grubb, Farley ( Dec 1994 ). `` The End of European Immigrant Servitude in the United States : An Economic Analysis of Market Collapse, 1772 -- 1835 ''. The Journal of Economic History. 54 ( 4 ) : 794 -- 824. doi : 10.1017 / s0022050700015497. Tomlins, Christopher. `` Reconsidering Indentured Servitude : European Migration and the Early American Labor Force, 1600 -- 1775, '' Labor History ( 2001 ) 42 # 1 pp 5 -- 43. new statistical estimates Khal Torabully, Coupeuses d'azur, Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, Mauritius, 2014. Jackson, Gaines Bradford ( June 2014 ). `` Indentured Servitude Revisited '' Xlibris Corporation Further reading Abramitzky, Ran ; Braggion, Fabio. `` Migration and Human Capital : Self - Selection of Indentured Servants to the Americas, '' Journal of Economic History, ( 2006 ) 66 # 4 pp 882 -- 905, in JSTOR Ballagh, James Curtis. White Servitude In The Colony Of Virginia : A Study Of The System Of Indentured Labor In The American Colonies ( 1895 ) excerpt and text search Brown, Kathleen. Goodwives, Nasty Wenches & Anxious Patriachs : gender, race and power in Colonial Virginia, U. of North Carolina Press, 1996. Hofstadter, Richard. America at 1750 : A Social Portrait ( Knopf, 1971 ) pp 33 -- 65 online Jernegan, Marcus Wilson Laboring and Dependent Classes in Colonial America, 1607 -- 1783 ( 1931 ) Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom : The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. ( Norton, 1975 ). Nagl, Dominik. No Part of the Mother Country, but Distinct Dominions - Law, State Formation and Governance in England, Massachusetts und South Carolina, 1630 - 1769 ( LIT, 2013 ) : 515 -- 535, 577f., 635 -- 689. online Salinger, Sharon V. To serve well and faithfully : Labor and Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania, 1682 -- 1800. ( 2000 ) Tomlins, Christopher. Freedom Bound : Law, Labor, and Civic Identity in English Colonization, 1580 -- 1865 ( 2010 ) ; influential recent interpretation online review Torabully, Khal, and Marina Carter, Coolitude : An Anthology of the Indian Labour Diaspora Anthem Press, London, 2002, ISBN 1 - 84331 - 003 - 1 Torabully, Khal, Voices from the Aapravasi Ghat - Indentured imaginaries, poetry collection on the coolie route and the fakir 's aesthetics, Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, AGTF, Mauritius, November 2, 2013. Wareing, John. Indentured Migration and the Servant Trade from London to America, 1618 - 1718. Oxford Oxford University Press, February 2017 Whitehead, John Frederick, Johann Carl Buttner, Susan E. Klepp, and Farley Grubb. Souls for Sale : Two German Redemptioners Come to Revolutionary America, Max Kade German - American Research Institute Series, ISBN 0 - 271 - 02882 - 3. Zipf, Karin L. Labor of Innocents : Forced Apprenticeship in North Carolina, 1715 -- 1919 ( 2005 ). Historiography Donoghue, John. `` Indentured Servitude in the 17th Century English Atlantic : A Brief Survey of the Literature, '' History Compass ( Oct. 2013 ) 11 # 10 pp 893 -- 902, DOI : 10.1111 / hic3. 12088 External links https://uk.news.yahoo.com/unfree-irish-caribbean-were-indentured-servants-not-slaves-072226285.html#8TTqXzc https://medium.com/@Limerick1914/we-had-it-worse-eebe705c41a#.or9hof7pm GUIANA 1838 -- a film about indentured laborers Voices from the Aapravasi Ghat, Khal TOrabully, https://web.archive.org/web/20150617164151/http://www.potomitan.info/torabully/voices.php Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indentured_servitude&oldid=828951370 '' Categories : Debt bondage Apprenticeship Colonization history of the United States Colonial United States ( British ) Indentured servitude Hidden categories : Pages with login required references or sources All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from April 2012 All articles with self - published sources Articles with self - published sources from December 2017 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Čeština Deutsch Español Esperanto Français हिन्दी Italiano עברית Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Português Simple English Svenska Türkçe 中文 8 more Edit links This page was last edited on 5 March 2018, at 19 : 22. 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Question: which group was most common as workers in the american colonies
Answer: workers who had never been indentured, or whose indenture had expired, and thus free wage labor was the more prevalent for Europeans in the colonies