Indentured Servants or Redemptioners

The

Forgotten Slaves of America

A contract from 1738

Indentured servitude is in reference to the historical practice of contracting individuals to work for a fixed period of time, typically 3 to 7 years, in exchange for food, clothing, shelter, transportation and other necessities that may arise during the term of indenture. Typically the father of the person or persons to become the indentured made the arrangements with a ships captain by signing the legal papers, which seldom included monetary consideration. Such servitude included both men and women; most often under the age of 21, who were destined to become farm hands, shop helpers or alternatively, house servants in a foreign land.

In terms of living conditions and discipline, they were often described as being treated like relatives, but in the eyes of the law, they were considered slaves. There was no initial cash payment made to the servant. It was a system that provided jobs but most importantly, transportation for poor young people from the overcrowded labor markets of Europe who wanted to come to labor-short America (and other distant places like Australia) but could not afford to pay for it.

According to historical record, in colonial North America, farmers, planters, and shopkeepers were hard pressed to hire free workers, chiefly because cash was very short and it was said to be easy for potential workers to set up their own farms or homesteads. As a result, the more common solution was to pay the ship passage of a young worker from Europe to America, who would work for several years to off-set the expense the shopkeepers, farmers, etc, had incurred so as to have them delivered. During the indenture period they were not paid wages, but they were provided food, room, clothing, and sometimes training for a particular trade.

The ship captain (with legal documents in hand) would transport the indentured servants to the American colonies aboard his ship, and sell their legal papers he had obtained to anyone who needed worker(s). So as to accomplish this end the captain would often place an advertisement in the local news paper.  At the indentures end (4 to 7 years later), the young person was often given a new suit of clothes and was free to leave. Many immediately set out to begin their own farms, while others used their recently acquired skills to pursue a trade.

These workers or slaves as indicated above were usually Europeans, including Irish, Scottish, English, or German, who immigrated to Colonial America in substantial numbers as indentured servants, most particularly to the 13 British Colonies. During the 1600’s, nearly two-thirds of English settlers who arrived were indentured servants.   In fact it has been estimated that the redemptioners (persons selling themselves into indentured servitude without the assistance of a father) comprised almost 80% of the total British and continental emigration to America prior to the American Revolution that began in 1776.

Indentures were not permitted to marry without the permission of their owner or master, they were often subjected to physical punishment, and their obligation to labor was enforced by the courts. So as to ensure uninterrupted work by the female servants, the law lengthened the term of their indenture if she became pregnant. There is some indication that at the end of the indenture's term they sometimes received a payment known as “freedom dues” at the time of being released from bondage.

Indentured servants or redemptioners were a separate category from a “bound apprentice”. They were American-born children, usually orphans or children from an impoverished family who could not provide what was considered proper care for them. They too, were under the control of courts and were “leased” out to work as an apprentice until a certain age. A couple of the most famous Apprentices were Benjamin Franklin, who illegally fled his apprenticeship with his brother, and Andrew Johnson, who would become president.        

Indentured servitude was without doubt a large aspect of colonial labor economics, from the 1620s until the American Revolution. Only a few indentures arrived after 1775, so Colonial planters, and others alike, turned to black slaves for their labor force.  Like thousands of black slaves that were legally traded after them, indentured servants were not free men and women; possession of their labor could freely and legally be transferred from one owner to another. But the biggest difference and of the utmost importance, unlike the black slaves, they could look forward to eventually becoming free men and women.

Sources ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant                http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/rosenbloom.indenture         http://www.revisionisthistory.org/forgottenslaves.html                       http://johncrandall.suite101.com/indentured-servants-a29877