Table of Contents
What did indentured servants have?
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.
Where were indentured servants located?
Indentured servants first appeared in the Chesapeake colonies, but they also were present in the middle colonies and the Lower South.
Where did the indentured servants mainly work?
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.
What do indentured servants and slaves have in common?
A specific similarity between slavery and indentured servitude is that indentured servants could be sold, loaned, or inherited, at least during the duration of their contract terms. As a result, some indentured servants performed little work for the landowners who paid for their passage across the Atlantic.
Where did the idea of indentured servants come from?
Learn more about Indentured Servants. 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 was an indentured servant buried in the 17th century?
The archaeological excavation of a 17th-century Maryland residence in Anne Arundel County discovered what was most likely an indentured servant who was murdered buried and hidden beneath the floor alongside a garbage pit. In 1661 Virginia law prohibited the inappropriate burial of indentured servants.
What was the average life span of an indentured servant?
Only about 40 percent of indentured servants lived to complete the terms of their contracts. Female servants were often the subject of harassment from their masters. A woman who became pregnant while a servant often had years tacked on to the end of her service time.
When did indentured servitude end in the British Empire?
Indentured servitude in the Americas. After the British Empire ended slavery in 1833, plantation owners returned to indentured servitude for labor, with most servants coming from India, until the British government prohibited the practice in 1917.