IndenturedServitude - Teaching American History

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

Indentured Servitude

Cicero © 2007

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

Introduction Indentured servants, or bonded laborers, played a large role in the creation of the British colonies in America. Most of these laborers made their way to the southern colonies, where they were put to work cultivating tobacco and other cash crops. After serving their term of service these settlers would be the ones who would venture west in search of new land to farm and would form the foundation of early American society.

Cicero © 2007

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

Origins Indenture Marks The term indentured servant gets its name from the indenture, or mark that was made on two copies of the contract that was signed by the master and servant. To prevent one of the parties from trying to alter the contract, the two copies of the contract were laid on top of each other and identical marks were made. If anyone questioned the contract, the two pieces of paper would be placed on top of each other again in order to try and match up the marks.

This contract has been marked, but not yet indentured.

A contract that has been indentured. Cicero © 2007

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

Supply & Demand In the early part of the 1600’s there were many unemployed people in England as well as other European countries. At the same time, the Virginia Company was beginning to make money raising tobacco. But with a shortage of laborers to plant and pick the crop, settlers were unable to meet the demand back in Europe. Company agents quickly began to advertise a new life in America in exchange for a few years of bonded labor.

Cicero © 2007

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

The Deal An indentured servant contract was usually pretty simple. The servant would agree to a term of service (usually four years for skilled workers and seven years for unskilled workers) in exchange for passage to America, food, shelter, clothing along with freedom dues at the end of their contract. The freedom dues usually consisted of clothing, two hoes, three barrels of corn and fifty acres of land. To the unemployed and hopeless people of Europe, the opportunity to own their own land and learn a skill were irresistible. Cicero © 2007

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

The Journey The journey to America took about two months and was a very difficult one, especially for the poor settlers traveling to the colonies. Servants were given rations of food every two weeks. If the servant were to finish their food before the next distribution of rations, they faced starvation. Many passengers died from diseases and illness that would often sweep through the ships carrying settlers to the colonies.

Servants made the journey in the steerage or hold of the ship where there were cramped conditions and little privacy.

Upon arrival in the colonies, the ship’s captain would be repaid by the master or company agent.

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Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

Who Were Indentured Servants? People of all ages and races came to America as indentured servants. However, most of the people who came were young men between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. Some of the first indentured servants in Jamestown arrived about 1619 on a Dutch ship carrying African slaves captured from a Portuguese ship. While some of the Africans were sold as slaves, about half were sold as indentured servants. It is estimated that during the 1600’s, more than 300,000 settlers arrived in the colonies as indentured servants. In fact, 75 percent of the settlers in Virginia during the 17th century had come as servants. Cicero © 2007

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

Treatment The treatment of indentured servants depended on their masters. Servants were considered their master’s property. The most common punishment was to have time added to your term of service. Servants were also flogged, or whipped (usually twelve times). Women were sometimes raped by their masters. If a child resulted from the attack, the servant could have more than a year added to her contract.

Young boys were often given the task of whipping those who broke the rules.

Servants were forbidden to marry or have children during their term and were also unable to trade or sell to freemen. Indentured servants could not even travel without written permission from their masters. Minors who became indentured servants were often cheated and forced to work for far more than the usual seven-year maximum. Cicero © 2007

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

Enforced Servitude & Redemptioners Bonded laborers came to the colonies in a variety of ways. Many were brought against their wills. A person who committed a crime back in England could be sentenced to a term of servitude in America. This involved tens of thousands of criminals, many of whom became the first settlers of Georgia.

Another way a person could become an indentured servant was known as redemption. Redemptioners often included families from Germany and Switzerland and Ireland, who would sell their labor upon arrival in the colonies. Many of these people settled in Pennsylvania and the western regions of Maryland and Virginia. Diary entry regarding Samuel Mau, a redemptioner from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Cicero © 2007

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

Racism & Servitude By the middle of the 1600’s the colonial governments began to treat servants who were white different then those of African descent. A 1640 court case was the first to establish that only Africans could be held in slavery for life. In 1662, a law was passed in Virginia (and later in other colonies) that stated that a child born to a black woman automatically became the property of the master. This practice would come to be known as generational slavery. Laws were also passed that forbid intermarrying between races along with others that allowed for much harsher treatment of black servants.

Cicero © 2007

Cicero History Beyond The Textbook

Slavery Replaces Indentured Servants While the practice of indentured servitude would continue well into the 19th century, the practice was already beginning to be replaced by the end of the 1600’s. One of the factors that led to the slowing of the practice occurred in 1676 when many indentured servants along with poor farmers rallied behind Nathaniel Bacon who led a rebellion against wealthy planters who controlled much of the available land. A second uprising In Maryland a year later would mark a sharp decline in the number of indentured servants brought from Europe. Instead, southern planters and merchants in the north turned to the African slave trade as a source of cheap, lifelong labor.

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