What is the Difference Between Indentured Servants and Slaves

In Virginia, many indentured servants worked to earn enough money to pay for the cost of their travel from England. The main difference between indentured servants and slaves is that indentured servants worked for another only for a set period of time while slaves worked throughout their lifetime for their masters.

So that I have not a penny, nor a penny worth, to help me too either spice or sugar or strong waters, without the which one cannot live here. For as strong beer in England doth fatten and strengthen them, so water here doth wash and weaken these here only keeps life and soul together. But I am not half a quarter so strong as I was in England, and all is for want of victuals; for I do protest unto you that I have eaten more in day at home than I have allowed me here for a week. You have given more than my day’s allowance to a beggar at the door; and if Mr. Jackson had not relieved me, I should be in a poor case.

History of Indentured Servitude

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’. Learn about the Indentured Servants in the southern colonies during the 1600s and how they were different from slaves. Indentured servants are people who sign a bond to work for another for a specified time in order to repay an indenture or loan.

There were some laws to protect https://simple-accounting.org/, but people considered slaves as the legal property of masters and they did not have any rights under the law. Over time a marked regional division in labor market institutions emerged in colonial America. The use of slaves was concentrated in the Chesapeake and Lower South, where the presence of staple export crops provided economic rewards for expanding the scale of cultivation beyond the size achievable with family labor. European immigrants tended to concentrate in the Chesapeake and Middle Colonies, where servants could expect to find the greatest opportunities to enter agriculture once they had completed their term of service.

Everything you need to know about indentured servitude

Generally, these people worked in return for payment of transportation costs, food, clothing, and shelter. When a person wanted to move to a new location but didn’t have the money for the transportation or accommodation, he or she agreed to work for a wealthy person in that location for a period of time. «The Burning of Jamestown,» painting by Howard Pyle, 1905, courtesy ofCanadian Libraries. During Bacon’s Rebellion ( ), Nathanial Bacon organized Virginia settlers across race and class divisions to protest against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.

These results also provide the name of Philip Welch’s wife, their date of marriage, and several of their children . Indentured service was a sort of “work your way to America” program for people who couldn’t otherwise afford the expense. For others, it was a way to settle debts that they could not pay or as a sentence for criminal behavior – even minor offences. Old Bailey Online, one of the resources coveredin our guide to criminal record research, has multiple examples of such punishment for petty and serious crimes . David Constable, also someone who traveled to the colonies of his own free will, graduated from the College of Aberdeen in Scotland.

Indentured Servitude vs. Slavery

Children of indentured servants did not become indentured servants, but children of slaves also became slaves. Indentured servants at Hampton in the colonial period were all white, and therefore legal persons with legal rights. Many used the court system to argue that they were being held beyond their term. These legal disputes were complicated by the fact that the Ridgelys could change contract terms when servants ran away, which many attempted. Mattai’s multimedia objects, which examine the present-day legacy of her family’s past as indentured servants in Guyana, is thoughtful, colorful and complicated. An indenture is a contract and for indentured servants, these contracts contained «indented» marks along the sides of the document.

She has a Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education from Missouri State University. She holds a lifetime teaching certificate in the state of Missouri for Birth-6th Grade. Nonetheless, at Findmypast, we are committed to shining a spotlight on them so that we can all learn from our shared heritage. The efforts of Price Genealogy, and a global community of researchers, have resulted in an excellent compiled list of additional information. The British Indentured Servitude Project on WikiTree is a valuable online location for sharing research. The issue is heavily researched by historians and academics around the world.

Indentured Servants in Virginia

The search results will give you references to that surname by page number but will not show you the actual page. Some of these resources can be accessed online, while others reference physical texts. If the book you want does not include an online database, you can still check to see if the book has been scanned for online access. The second entry, Matthew Goldsmith, shows that he “Transported himself by 1658,” meaning that he paid his own passage.

At the end of their term they received a payment known as «freedom dues» and became free members of society. One could buy and sell indentured servants’ contracts, and the right to their labor would change hands, but not the person as a piece of property. Indentured servitude in British America was the prominent system of labor in British American colonies until it was eventually overcome by slavery. By the beginning of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, only 2 to 3 percent of the colonial labor force was composed of indentured servants.

Of Property (from Plymouth Plantation)

The majority of Virginians were Anglican, not Puritan, and while religion did play a large role in everyday lives, the culture was more commercially based. In the Chesapeake and North Carolina, tobacco constituted a major percentage of the total agricultural output. In the lower Atlantic colonies where tobacco was the main cash crop, the majority of labor that indentured servants performed was related to field work. In this situation, social isolation could increase the possibilities for both direct and indirect abuse, as could lengthy, demanding labor in the tobacco fields. Between the 1630s and the American Revolution, one-half to two-thirds of white immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies arrived under indentures. Half a million Europeans, mostly young men, also went to the Caribbean under indenture to work on plantations. Most indentures were voluntary, although some people were tricked or coerced into them.

• As the 1600s continued, the supply of enslaved Africans increased as their price decreased giving way to the majority of landowners using only slave labor.
• The Transportation Act 1717 established a regulated system for indentured criminal laborers.
• Skilled laborers were usually indentured for four or five years, but unskilled workers often needed to remain for seven or more years.
• Servants were often uneducated and could be cheated so marking the two original copies helped to ensure a lasting means of authenticating the contract.
• Typically, the father of a teenager would sign the legal papers, and work out an arrangement with a ship captain, who would not charge the father any money.
• Most labor contracts made were in increments of five years, with the opportunity to extend another five years.
• Fewer Europeans were willing to accept undesirable contracts in the Americas, particularly after rumors spread of the deadly conditions on American plantations.

On September 19, 1676, they burned the colonial capital of Jamestown, Virginia to the ground. The indentured servitude system allowed landowners to provide only food and shelter for indentured servants, as opposed to wages. Some landowners offered their servants basic medical care, but typically labor contracts did not provide for this. The American and British governments passed several laws that helped foster the decline of indentures.

indentured servant

Mercantilism was the primary economic system of trade between the 16th and the 18th centuries with theorists believing that the amount of wealth in the world was static. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in oureditorial policy. In 1676, planters began to prefer permanent African slavery to the headright system that had previously enabled them to prosper.

• Those working within their contract found living conditions very similar to their enslaved counterparts, such as their less than substantial food and clothing provisions.
• Free-will indentured servants decided to come to America on their own merit and willingly signed a contract before departing England.
• One third to half of the European population in Colonial Era America came in as indentured servants, apprentices, or convicts.
• Shortly after, the Headright System passed the Great Charter Act of 1618.