Indentured Servants
It was expensive for Europeans to cross over to the American Colonies. To obtain passage, many poorer British and Germans worked for a fixed number of years for an employer who purchased an indenture (a sort of contract) from a sea captain who brought young people over. It was beneficial to both the employer who needed labor (to work on the land essentially) and the employee, who did not receive a wage but was provided with food, accommodation, clothing and training. He was then free to work on his own after the "contract" ended.
The Virginia Company first employed indentured servants a little more than a decade after founding Jamestown. The system was so widely successful that approximately half of the white immigrants in the 17th and 18th centuries were indentured. Unfortunately, only about 40 percent of indentured servants lived long-enough to complete their contracts and secure their freedom. Women, who typically worked as domestic servants, were often harassed, and if they became pregnant, they would have to work an additional period.
At the completion of the contract term, servants were awarded "freedom dues," which commonly included some tools and seed and, on rare occasion, a parcel of land. For all but the earliest arrivals this meant land in the more mountainous, rocky, and less arable land to the west. This lead to a class of free but poor farmers. There were success stories of people who had started as indentured servants and later became prominent citizens, but the number was probably very small. The lingering dark side to the practice was of those who completed their service, but could not afford to buy land and were unable to find employment. The result was hundreds of rootless men in many frontier areas. This fueled movements of social unrest, including Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia, in 1676.
The Virginia Company first employed indentured servants a little more than a decade after founding Jamestown. The system was so widely successful that approximately half of the white immigrants in the 17th and 18th centuries were indentured. Unfortunately, only about 40 percent of indentured servants lived long-enough to complete their contracts and secure their freedom. Women, who typically worked as domestic servants, were often harassed, and if they became pregnant, they would have to work an additional period.
At the completion of the contract term, servants were awarded "freedom dues," which commonly included some tools and seed and, on rare occasion, a parcel of land. For all but the earliest arrivals this meant land in the more mountainous, rocky, and less arable land to the west. This lead to a class of free but poor farmers. There were success stories of people who had started as indentured servants and later became prominent citizens, but the number was probably very small. The lingering dark side to the practice was of those who completed their service, but could not afford to buy land and were unable to find employment. The result was hundreds of rootless men in many frontier areas. This fueled movements of social unrest, including Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia, in 1676.
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