Indenture Hide Demanded Field For Free

By 1675 slavery was well established, and by 1700 slaves had almost entirely replaced indentured servants. With plentiful land and slave labor available to grow a lucrative crop, southern planters prospered, and family-based tobacco plantations became the economic and social norm.

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.

Indentured servitude differed from slavery in that it was a form of debt bondage, meaning it was an agreed upon term of unpaid labor that usually paid off the costs of the servant's immigration to America. Indentured servants were not paid wages but they were generally housed, clothed, and fed.

Slavery is when someone actually owns you like a piece of property. Servitude is similar to slavery - you might live on the person's premises, work for them and be unable to leave, but they don't own you. Forced labour means you are forced to do work that you have not agreed to, under the threat of punishment.

Today, indentured servitude is banned in almost all countries. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitutionwhich was passed after the Civil Warmade indentured servitude illegal in the U.S.

Although experts do not agree on the causes of the decline, possible factors for the American colonies include changes in the labor market and the legal system that made it cheaper and less risky for an employer to hire African slave labor or paid employees, or made indentures unlawful; increased affordability of

Servants typically worked four to seven years in exchange for passage, room, board, lodging and freedom dues. While the life of an indentured servant was harsh and restrictive, it wasn't slavery. There were laws that protected some of their rights.