What indentured servants?

What indentured servants?

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.

Who used indentured servitude?

Indentured servitude was popular in the United States in the 1600s as individuals, mainly European immigrants, worked in exchange for the price of passage to America. Indentured servitude was not slavery as individuals entered contracts of their own free will.

What is the meaning of indentured Labour?

Indentured labour was a system of bonded labour that was instituted following the abolition of slavery. Indentured labour were recruited to work on sugar, cotton and tea plantations, and rail construction projects in British colonies in West Indies, Africa and South East Asia.

What does the term indentured mean?

To be indentured is to be forced to work by some contract. It started out as a word for a contract between masters and apprentices. Now it describes anyone bound to work, like it or not, because of some deal. Use the adjective indentured to describe someone who’s bound or attached in a legal sense.

What is chattel slavery?

Chattel slavery means that one person has total ownership of another. There are two basic forms of chattel, domestic chattel, with menial household duties and productive chattel, working in the fields or mines.

What race were most indentured servants?

Many indentured servants in the British colonies were working-class white immigrants from the British Isles, including thousands of Irish people. Indentured servants were often treated horribly by their masters, many dying before they were set free. “During their period of servitude, their treatment varied widely.

Who were the indentured servants in the Caribbean?

Indentured servants were people who worked without pay. Europeans who owned money they could not pay back were often sent to prison. The servants signed contracts that required them to work from three to seven years in exchange for paying off their debts.

Who were the first indentured servants in America?

In 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in place, they were initially treated as indentured servants, and given the same opportunities for freedom dues as whites.

What is the meaning of Jamestown?

Jamestown in British English (ˈdʒeɪmzˌtaʊn ) noun. a ruined village in E Virginia, on Jamestown Island (a peninsula in the James River): the first permanent settlement by the English in America (1607); capital of Virginia (1607–98); abandoned in 1699.

Who were indentured labourers Class 10?

Indentured labourers were bonded labourers under contract to work for an employer for a specific amount of time, to pay off their passage to a new country or home. Recruitment was done by agents engaged by employers and was paid a small commission.

What does Addlepated mean?

Definition of addlepated 1 : being mixed up : confused. 2 : eccentric.

When did contract labor end in the United States?

Although indentured service of the colonial genre ceased after the American Revolution, similar kinds of contract labor were widespread in the United States during periods of labor shortage until the passage of the Contract Labor Law of 1885.

How did the arrival of indentured servants address the labor shortage?

The arrival of indentured servants in the American colonies addressed a labor shortage that emerged in the early 1600s because of the success of a system of land distribution that was meant to encourage the establishment of farms.

What were the sources of labor in the colonies?

The sources of labor in the colonies were jobs in the plantations working on rice and tobacco. Why were so many laborers needed? The work on the plantations had intensified so the laborers were needed more.

Why did artisans purchase indentured servants in the 18th century?

During this period, artisans purchased two-thirds of the indentured servants in the city. Given high wage rates for journeyman workers, servants were a better economic investment and were more manageable in the domestic shop structure at that time.