Category: British Indentured Servitude
Categories: Great Britain | United Kingdom | British America
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.
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