Indenture White Out For Free

Servants ran away largely because their lives in Virginia tended to be nasty, brutish, and short. Although they often worked alongside their masters in tobacco fields, they usually lived apart and often under primitive conditions.

The official definition of a white indentured servant was a man or woman who would emigrate after signing an agreement to serve a planter in the colonies for a period of five to seven years. The contract guaranteed that their passage would be paid, and they would be maintained at the expense of the planter.

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.

Slavery replaced indentured servitude in the colonies in the 1660s because purchasing slaves became more economical for planters. Life expectancy in the Chesapeake and Southern colonies had increased, which meant that indentured servants were living long enough to fulfill their terms of indenture.

Indentured servants were men and women who willingly signed a contract in which they agreed to work for a certain number of years to compensate for their voyage to America. Three different types of indentured servant agreements existed in the 18th century: free-willers, King's passengers, and redemptioners.

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.

Indentured servitude refers to a contract between two individuals, in which one person worked not for money but in exchange for the price of passage to America. Indentured servitudepopular in the United States in the 1600swas essentially a kind of barter system.