Category: British Indentured Servitude

Categories: Great Britain | United Kingdom | British America

This is a mid-level category. Profiles should be added to the narrowest category possible, but may be placed here when further information is not known. See How to Categorize.

Indentured servitude or indentured labor is any system of unfree labor under which an employee (indenturee) is bound by a contract (indenture) to work for a particular employer, for a fixed period of time. The employer is often permitted to assign the labor of an indenturee to a third party. Indenturees usually enter into an indenture for a specific payment or other benefit, or to meet a legal obligation, such as debt bondage.

Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was a very common practice in the the British colonies of the Americas. While it was often a way for poor people in Britain to emigrate to the colonies: they signed an indenture in return for a passage, it was also a system which was manipulated.

At times children were shipped by indenture, often ignorant of their choice, they were effectively "pressed" into indentured servitude and shipped to the Americas. Instances of kidnapping for transportation to the Americas are recorded, though these were often indentured in the same way as their willing counterparts. See: Indentured Children

The decline of servitude took place mainly in three time periods: in the 1650s with the rise of slavery in the New World, from 1818-1840 in the United States, and in 1917 when indentured servitude was outlawed in the Americas.



Point of Contact is Grace McChesney

Subcategories (2)


Person Profiles (10)

abt 1625 Fifeshire, Scotland - 15 Jan 1717 photo
- abt Jan 1752 photo
abt 1652 Essex, England - aft 1710
abt 22 Jul 1649 Kelvedon, Essex, England - aft 1687
abt 1613 Ireland - aft 1672
1750 England - abt 1800
abt 1750 Dunfries Galloway, Scotland - bef 1800
abt 1690 On Findhorn River, Inverness-shire, Scotland - 26 Mar 1746 photo
04 Jun 1705 Ormsby, St. Margaret, Norfolk, England - 06 Mar 1797 photo
abt 1657 Whitfield, Northumberland, England - abt 1708




This page was last modified 15:09, 17 February 2021. This page has been accessed 376 times.