indentured servant
Debt-bound worker
An indentured servant is a person bound by contract to work for another for a specified period, typically in exchange for passage to a new country, training, or payment of a debt.
Common in colonial America, the arrangement differed from slavery in that it was temporary and theoretically voluntary, though conditions were often brutal and the servant had few rights until the contract expired.
He arrived in Virginia as an indentured servant and worked seven years before gaining his freedom.
Binding tie or connection
- termFixed period or word
- obligationRequired task or commitment
- agreementShared position between parties
- masterAuthority or controller
articles · provision · stipulation · document · signature · apprenticeship · period · engagement
Involuntary subjugation to another
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- abuseCruel or violent treatment
- powerlessnessInability to affect outcomes
- oppressionUnjust exercise of power
debt bondage · unfree labor · subjugation · vulnerability · overwork · mistreatment · harsh conditions · runaways
First permanent English settlement
- plantationsLarge-scale farming operations
- tobaccoDried smoking leaf
- coloniesTerritories under foreign control
- New WorldWestern Hemisphere landmasses
British Empire · sugar · settlers · Atlantic · Virginia · Caribbean · triangular trade · emigration
Strenuous, prolonged effort
- domesticOf the home
- agricultureCultivation of land, livestock
- fieldworkResearch conducted on location
- householdDomestic unit of residents
craftsman · artisan · journeyman · unpaid · bound labor · manual labor · task · overseer
One owed money
- repaymentGiving back what's owed
- financial obligationDuty to pay money
- debtorOne who owes
- loanBorrowed money repaid later
redemption · arrears · default · ship captain · recruitment · poor · poverty
bond
Binding tie or connection
- termFixed period or word
- obligationRequired task or commitment
- agreementShared position between parties
master · articles · provision · stipulation · document · signature · apprenticeship · period · engagement · consent
bondage
Involuntary subjugation to another
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- abuseCruel or violent treatment
- powerlessnessInability to affect outcomes
oppression · debt bondage · unfree labor · subjugation · vulnerability · overwork · mistreatment · harsh conditions · runaways · punishment
Jamestown
First permanent English settlement
- plantationsLarge-scale farming operations
- tobaccoDried smoking leaf
- coloniesTerritories under foreign control
New World · British Empire · sugar · settlers · Atlantic · Virginia · Caribbean · triangular trade · emigration · passage
toil
Strenuous, prolonged effort
- domesticOf the home
- agricultureCultivation of land, livestock
- fieldworkResearch conducted on location
household · craftsman · artisan · journeyman · unpaid · bound labor · manual labor · task · overseer · work conditions
creditor
One owed money
- repaymentGiving back what's owed
- financial obligationDuty to pay money
- debtorOne who owes
loan · redemption · arrears · default · ship captain · recruitment · poor · poverty
- Colonial AmericaGeorge Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Benjamin Franklin, Declaration of Independence
- historical rolesking, queen, emperor, knight, peasant
- social ranksking, queen, emperor, empress, noble
- Colonial VirginiaJamestown, James River, tobacco cultivation, Powhatan, Pocahontas
- rural workerspeasant, farm laborer, farmhand, farmworker, field hand
- bondageslavery, bondage, slaves, thrall, chattel
indentured servantfreeman
Unchained person with rights
chattel slave · freedman · serf · peon · bondsman
indentured servantmaster
Authority or controller
landowner · plantation owner · employer · lord · proprietor
servant, servitude, servants, indenture, indentured, indentures, bondservant, indentured servants