American History

Under the system of European colonization of North America, there existed a type of bondage that broadly differed from the institution of slavery in both extent as well as its origin. This system of servitude was principally founded upon municipal law and affected English settlers and other Europeans in all the colonies who enlisted themselves to personal service but without any pay. It affected a class of servants who were recognized through the system of colonial legislation but under a different form from enforced servitude or slavery. People became bound to indentured servitude either by way of their own consent or sometimes involuntarily. When leaving various countries of origin in Europe, many people enlisted themselves as indentured servants in the new land serving in the plantations and mines for certain durations in return for payment of their travel expenses and initial support as settlers. Others were enlisted as a form of punishment or penalties for crimes committed in their mother country such as in the modern penal colonies under Britain. Yet, others were just ordinary vagrants or criminals who were sent from English workhouses or jails to the colonies under some special statute or through commutation of imprisonment. Indentured servitude is said to have laid the foundation for the institution of free labor that for many years became characteristic of the American economy and also laid ground for the American Revolution.

Indentured Slaves in the U.S Colonies
The system of indentured servitude was adopted from a well-established English system through which orphans under English law were taken care of and non-orphaned boys were trained in various artisan courses. Parents often signed legal agreements called indentures which enabled them to place their boys under skilled craftsmen of their choice for certain duration of time so that the youngsters would learn the trade. Under this form of servitude that mainly covered boys between the ages of 14 and 21 years, the boys would work for the skilled craftsmen and in return would not only be fed and sheltered but also taught the specific trades that their masters were qualified in. But these apprentices were bound to their masters under certain kind of law. Orphans were taken care of through the institution of indentured servitude by being offered as menial servants to those families who were willing to bear the burden of raising them up. In the case of orphans, there was no education involved and the parish was relieved of the burden of housing, clothing and feeding such orphans. Those bound to indentured servitude by the courts had to serve for a period of at least seven years in order to attain their freedom.

An indenture referred to a printed document in which blank spaces had been left where the prospective servants would fill in their names, age and the period of time that each had agreed to serve in this status. In group purchases, names and terms remained anonymous. Although males were the majority, ship captains would often fill spaces in their ships with women if the situation so demanded. Early in the 17th Century, only one in every six indentured servants happened to be a woman, although the situation gradually changed and towards the end of the 18th Century, women represented nearly half of all indentured servants entering America. For those signing in as indentured servants but whose age was over 20 years, the most common length of service was 8 years. Those whose ages fell between sixteen and twenty years were often required to serve for six to eight years and those younger than sixteen had to serve until they attained the age of twenty-one years. Most women enlisting for this service were often orphaned girls between fifteen to twenty-four years and they also had to be single. It was very rare for women to enlist for this service and in the few cases that were recorded it was most likely a last resort.

Unlike in early America where natural resources were abundant but labor was in short supply, Europe practiced enclosed agriculture and population growth was so high that it had led to widespread poverty. England was for example experiencing widespread poverty, and prices for most goods were getting extremely high for most people to be able to afford a decent living. New lands on the other hand had a high demand for labor. Tobacco farming was expanding to cover very big estates in America and the attraction of emigrating to work in new lands led the impoverished Europeans, majority of who were young men to sign in as indentured servants. This was done in exchange for the cost of emigration, as well as bed and boarding facilities during the years that they would be in service. Most of those who signed for indentures back in England were skilled and semi-skilled men who negotiated their terms of service to run for four or five years. They also negotiated for modest freedom dues upon the expiry of their terms of service. Those who made their way into the new lands without indentures were sold by the shippers to those planters willing to pay for their passage. As plantation farming expanded in the new lands, large plantation owners or fixed farmers required laborers in their farmlands and through agents in England, impoverished or poor adolescents and adults were recruited to sign indentures that allowed them to work as servants in British colonies for the agreed duration.

As plantation farming expanded in America, other Europeans became popular subjects for indentured servitude. This was mainly because British indentured servants were becoming less popular with the colonial masters as the British Parliament established laws that protected all their subjects from the kind of abuses that colonial masters inflicted on their servants. Very specific laws had to be followed to enlist British subjects back home and all terms of servitude had to be approved by British magistrates. Kidnapping was seriously censured both in England and in the colonies. Germans, Dutch and Swiss subjects who had no relatives waiting to receive them in the colonies became the property of ship owners in return for payment of the cost of their passage. Men who had returned back home from the colonies encouraged prospective emigrants to bind themselves to the shippers who would place them into the hands of prospective planters or farmers who were willing to pay for their passage in return for their services. In some states like Virginia, planters were encouraged to import servants by being compensated with 50 acres of land for every person whose transport costs or passage they paid. The more servants per planter, the more land he acquired and in such way, the state of Virginia became populated and tobacco growing expanded to cover large estates.

Native Americans were also another source of indentured servants, although their form of servitude was often forced. As European towns grew in the colonies, many Indians entered into trade with the white settlers most often on mutually agreeable terms. With time, conflicts arose between the Indians and the settlers, and involuntary servitude became a common form of punishment for the Indians accused of cheating, stealing andor assault but when they were unable to pay the fines defined by the courts. If an Indian living as a wage servant was convicted of a crime, the status was forcibly changed to indentured servitude. Africans, who were sold into slavery in the early 17th century, arrived into the Americas at a time when the system of slavery did not yet have codified laws. Most of these Africans were treated as indentured servants. After serving for several years in this status, these early African slaves were freed and granted land and the privilege to trade in goods. But this status changed when in 1662 enslavement laws subjected every black person to slavery.

White servitude was very common in various states such as the Carolinas, Georgia, Maryland, New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Skilled laborers such as tailors, gardeners and smiths were very popular to work not only in the plantations but also in the iron works such as those owned by the Ridgeleys of Northampton. Although indentured servants and convicts were often treated as mutually separate terms when referring to the sources of indentured servants, distinctions were rarely made on the ground when referring to such servants or even assigning their respective duties. Besides working in ores and plantations indentured servants also cleared the land of timber and performed all kinds of tasks at the farms. Most females who signed in as indentured servants carried out domestic duties such as preparing meals, washing and mending clothes and chumming butter. They also worked in agricultural labor during the early 17th century when manual labor was very hard to find. Yet, women had to be especially very strong against prospective suitors during the indenture because an indentured servant was bound by law to be single until he or she completed the terms of service. A woman had to avoid any instance of getting pregnant because of the social stigma associated with single motherhood and because she had to pay her master for lost labor during pregnancy and the one year that she was nursing the child.

Although various laws recognized indentured servants as legal persons, in due course, their recruitment, working and living conditions became no different from those to which the Negro and Indian slaves were subjected to. Like slavery, indentured servitude had encouraged a booming dirty business with soul sellers lying to would-be emigrants about the length of time required for service and the working conditions and benefits. As a result, ships were often overcrowded as people emigrated in large numbers. Conditions in these ships were pathetic and many would-be indentured servants died before their destination from sicknesses and the unbearable travelling conditions as shippers made booming business from the lives of such men and women. Like slaves, indentured servants had no opportunity to choose their prospective masters or even the nature of work that they were likely to be subjected to. Their masters could also sell them off to other masters without the servants consent. Although imperial British law appears to have recognized this class of servants, the conditions under which they worked and lived varied in different colonies and even in different localities in the same way that slavery varied either between colonies or even between North and South.

Like slavery, indentured servitude subjected people to harsh working conditions. Because of the limited time available for their exploitation, work was hard, hours long and holidays were very few. Under normal circumstances, indentured servants were only free on Sundays and some of them especially those in the ores worked even on Christmas Day. Clothing, shoes and blankets were issued to these servants although these were hardly ever sufficient to protect them especially during cold winter months. The Clothing was also rough, very skimpy and simple and became an obvious mark to identify indentured servants from the rest of the white population wherever they went. On various incidents, they ran away out of frustration and tried to find their way back to England, although such escape was nearly impossible because advertisements for escaped servants would be put all over and eventually they were captured back and made to pay for lost time and the money used to track them.

Unlike slaves, indentured servants were whites and therefore had legal rights to bring their grievances before the law. But the masters for both groups of servants were the same and it was difficult for these masters to separate the way they treated salves and indentured servants. Most often, the appeals against maltreatment fell on deaf ears and were turned against the indentured servants who were charged for lost labor, run-away expenses and other costs related to the court proceedings that appeared to favor the masters. Yet, unlike slaves, they enjoyed some form of medical attention at their masters expense. Upon completion of the period assigned for servitude, indentured servants would walk into freedom and their masters were required to send them off with some tokens such as some little money, a few tools and at least two changes of clothing one to be used during working days and the other to be worn on Sundays. In some cases, freed servants were given land with those in Maryland receiving 50 acres as those elsewhere received less. Those working in Canada received better rewards and more land than those offered in the English colonies.

Conclusion
Indentured servitude is said to have laid the ground for the introduction of the institution of free labor in America. As indentured servitude slowly became unpopular because of the short terms of the services, slave labor became a better option for plantation labor. This form of servitude is also said to have greatly contributed to the American Revolution because those colonists compelled by circumstances to work as indentured servants clearly understood the kind of limitations that such a status subjected them to. Freedom and liberty could not be enjoyed by people who were bound by this form of labor and the urge to be free also led to the dwindling out of this form of labor.