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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servitude_in_British_America
Indentured servitude in British America was the prominent system of labor in British American colonies until it was eventually overcome by slavery.
During its time, the system was so prominent that more than half of all
immigrants to British colonies south of New England were white
servants, and that nearly half of total white immigration to the Thirteen Colonies came under indenture. By the beginning of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, only 2 to 3 percent of the colonial labor force was composed of indentured servants.
The consensus view among economic historians and economists is that indentured servitude became popular in the Thirteen Colonies
in the seventeenth century because of a large demand for labor there,
coupled with labor surpluses in Europe and high costs of transatlantic
transportation beyond the means of European workers. Between the 1630s and the American Revolution, one-half to two-thirds of white immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies arrived under indentures. Half a million Europeans, mostly young men, also went to the Caribbean under indenture to work on plantations. Most indentures were voluntary, although some people were tricked or coerced into them. A debt peonage system similar to indenture was also used in southern New England and Long Island to control and assimilate Native Americans from the 1600s through the American Revolution.
Indentured servitude continued in North America into the early 20th century, but the number of indentured servants declined over time.
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 travel to North America that made immigrants less likely to rely on
indentures to pay travel costs; and effects of the American Revolution,
particularly on immigration from Britain.
In the Caribbean, the number of indentured servants from Europe began
to decline in the 17th century as Europeans became aware of the cruelty
of plantation masters and the high death rate of servants, largely due
to tropical disease. After the British Empire ended slavery in 1833, plantation owners returned to indentured servitude for labor, with most servants coming from India, until the British government prohibited the practice in 1917.
North America
Between one-half and two-thirds of European immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies between the 1630s and the American Revolution came under indentures. The practice was sufficiently common that the Habeas Corpus Act 1679,
in part, prevented imprisonments overseas; it also made provisions for
those with existing transportation contracts and those "praying to be
transported" in lieu of remaining in prison upon conviction. In any case, while half the European immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
had been indentured servants at some time, actively indentured servants
were outnumbered by non-indentured workers, or by those whose indenture
had expired. Thus free wage labor was more common for Europeans in the
colonies. Indentured persons were numerically important mostly in the region from Virginia north to New Jersey.
Other colonies saw far fewer of them. The total number of European
immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 was 500,000–550,000; of these,
55,000 were involuntary prisoners. Of the 450,000 or so European arrivals who came voluntarily, Tomlins estimates that 48% were indentured.
About 75% were under the age of 25. The age of legal adulthood for men
was 24 years; those over 24 generally came on contracts lasting about 3
years.
Regarding the children who came, Gary Nash reports that, "many of the
servants were actually nephews, nieces, cousins and children of friends
of emigrating Englishmen, who paid their passage in return for their
labor once in America."
Farmers, merchants, and shopkeepers in the British colonies found
it very difficult to hire free workers, primarily because it was easy
for potential workers to set up their own farms.
Consequently, a common solution was to transport a young worker from
Britain or a German state, who would work for several years to pay off
the debt of their travel costs. During the indenture period the servants
were not paid cash wages, but were provided with food, accommodation,
clothing and training. The indenture document specified how many years
the servant would be required to work, after which they would be free.
Terms of indenture ranged from one to seven years with typical terms of
four or five years. In southern New England, a variant form of indentured servitude, which controlled the labor of Native Americans through an exploitative debt-peonage system, developed in the late 17th century and continued through to the period of the American Revolution.
Not all European servants came willingly. Several instances of kidnapping
for transportation to the Americas are recorded, though these were
often indentured in the same way as their willing counterparts. An
illustrative example is that of Peter Williamson (1730–1799). As historian Richard Hofstadter
pointed out, "Although efforts were made to regulate or check their
activities, and they diminished in importance in the eighteenth century,
it remains true that a certain small part of the white colonial
population of America was brought by force, and a much larger portion
came in response to deceit and misrepresentation on the part of the
spirits [recruiting agents]."
Many white immigrants arrived in colonial America as indentured
servants, usually as young men and women from Britain or Germany, under
the age of 21. Typically, the father of a teenager would sign the legal
papers, and work out an arrangement with a ship captain, who would not
charge the father any money.
The captain would transport the indentured servants to the American
colonies, and sell their legal papers to someone who needed workers. At
the end of the indenture, the young person was given a new suit of
clothes and was free to leave. Many immediately set out to begin their
own farms, while others used their newly acquired skills to pursue a
trade. A few became sufficiently prosperous that they were eventually able to acquire indentured servants of their own.
Given the high death rate, many servants did not live to the end of their terms. In the 18th and early 19th century, numerous Europeans, mostly from outside the British Isles, traveled to the colonies as redemptioners, a particularly harsh form of indenture.
Indentured servants were a separate category from bound apprentices.
The latter were American-born children, usually orphans or from an
impoverished family who could not care for them. They were under the
control of courts and were bound out to work as an apprentice until a
certain age. Two famous bound apprentices were Benjamin Franklin who illegally fled his apprenticeship to his brother, and Andrew Johnson, who later became President of the United States.
George Washington used indentured servants; in April 1775, he offered a reward for the return of two runaway white servants.
Development
Indentured servitude in the Americas was first used by the Virginia Company in the early seventeenth century as a method for collateralizing the debt finance for transporting people to its newfound British colonies.
Before the rise of indentured servitude, a large demand for labor
existed in the colonies to help build settlements, farm crops and serve
as tradesmen, but many laborers in Europe could not afford the transatlantic crossing, which could cost roughly half a worker's annual wage.
European financial institutions could not easily lend to the
workers since there was no effective way to enforce a loan from across
the Atlantic, rendering labor immobile via the Atlantic because of capital market imperfections.
To address this imperfection, the Virginia Company would allow
laborers to borrow against their future earnings at the Virginia Company
for a fixed number of years in order to raise sufficient capital to pay
for their voyage. Evidence shows this practice was in use by 1609, only
two years after the founding of the Virginia Company's original Jamestown settlement. However, this practice created a financial risk for the Virginia Company. If workers died or refused to work, the investment would be lost.
By 1620, the Virginia Company switched to selling contracts of
"one hundred servants to be disposed among the old Planters" as soon as
the servants reached the colonies.
This minimized risk on its investment to the 2–3 months of
transatlantic voyage. As the system gained in popularity, individual
farmers and tradesmen would eventually begin investing in indentured
servants as well.
The archaeological excavation of a 17th-century Maryland
residence in Anne Arundel County discovered what was most likely an
indentured servant who was murdered buried and hidden beneath the floor
alongside a garbage pit. In 1661 Virginia law prohibited the inappropriate burial of indentured servants. The Transportation Act 1717 established a regulated system for indentured criminal laborers.
In the 18th century, wages in Great Britain were low because of a surplus of labor. The average monetary wage was about 50 shillings (£2.50, equivalent to £384 in 2020)
a year for a plowman, and 40 shillings (£2) a year for an ordinary
unskilled worker. Ships' captains negotiated prices for transporting and
feeding a passenger on the seven- or eight-week journey across the
ocean, averaging about £5 to £7, the equivalent of years of work back in
England.
Still, demand for indentured labor remained relatively low until the adoption of staple crops, such as sugarcane in the West Indies or tobacco in the American South.
With economies largely based on these crops, the West Indies and
American South would see the vast majority of indentured labour.
An indenture signed by Henry Mayer, with an "X", in 1738. This contract bound Mayer to Abraham Hestant of
Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, who had paid for Mayer to travel from Europe.
Author and historian Richard Hofstadter has written:
The most unenviable situation was that of servants on Southern
plantations, living alongside but never with Negro slaves, both groups
doing much the same work, often under the supervision of a relentless
overseer… Even as late as 1770, William Eddis, the English surveyor of
customs at Annapolis, thought that the Maryland Negroes were better off
than "the Europeans, over whom the rigid planter exercises an inflexible
severity." The Negroes, Eddis thought, were a lifelong property so were
treated with a certain care, but the whites were "strained to the
utmost to perform their allotted labour."
Over time the market for indentured servitude developed, with length
of contracts showing close correlations to indicators of health and
productivity. Tall, strong, healthy, literate or skilled servants would
often serve shorter terms than less productive or more sickly servants.
Similarly, destinations with harsh working climates such as the West
Indies would come to offer shorter contracts compared to the more
hospitable colonies.
The majority of indentured servants ended up in the American
South, where cash crops necessitated labor-intensive farming. As the
Northern colonies moved toward industrialization, they received far less
indentured immigration. For example, 96% of English emigrants to Virginia and Maryland from 1773 to 1776 were indentured servants. During the same time period, 2% of English emigrants to New England were indentured.
Legal documents
Indenture
of apprenticeship binding Evan Morgan, a child aged 6 years and 11
months, for a period of 14 years, 1 month. Dated Feb. 1, 1823, Sussex
Co., Delaware.
An indenture was a legal contract enforced by the courts. One indenture reads as follows:
This INDENTURE Witnesseth that James Best a Labourer doth Voluntarily
put himself Servant to Captain
Stephen Jones Master of the Snow Sally to serve the said Stephen Jones
and his Assigns, for and during the full Space, Time and Term of three
Years from the first Day of the said James’ arrival in Philadelphia in
AMERICA, during which Time or Term the said Master or his Assigns shall
and will find and supply the said James with sufficient Meat, Drink,
Apparel, Lodging and all other necessaries befitting such a Servant, and
at the end and expiration of said Term, the said James to be made Free,
and receive according to the Custom of the Country. Provided
nevertheless, and these Presents are on this Condition, that if the said
James shall pay the said Stephen Jones or his Assigns 15 Pounds British
in twenty one Days after his arrival he shall be Free, and the above
Indenture and every Clause therein, absolutely Void and of no Effect. In
Witness whereof the said Parties have hereunto interchangeably put
their Hands and Seals the 6th Day of July in the Year of our Lord, One
Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Three in the Presence of the Right
Worshipful Mayor of the City of London. (signatures)
When the ship arrived, the captain would often advertise in a newspaper that indentured servants were for sale:
Just imported, on board the Snow Sally, Captain Stephen Jones,
Master, from England, A number of healthy, stout English and Welsh
Servants and Redemptioners, and a few Palatines [Germans], amongst whom
are the following tradesmen, viz. Blacksmiths, watch-makers,
coppersmiths, taylors, shoemakers, ship-carpenters and caulkers,
weavers, cabinet-makers, ship-joiners, nailers, engravers, copperplate
printers, plasterers, bricklayers, sawyers and painters. Also
schoolmasters, clerks and book-keepers, farmers and labourers, and some
lively smart boys, fit for various other employments, whose times are to
be disposed of. Enquire of the Captain on board the vessel, off
Walnut-street wharff, or of MEASE and CALDWELL.
When a buyer was found, the sale would be recorded at the city court. The Philadelphia Mayor’s Court Indenture Book, page 742, for September 18, 1773 has the following entry:
James Best,
who was under Indenture of Redemption to Captain
Stephen Jones now cancelled in consideration of £ 15,
paid for his Passage from London bound a servant
to David Rittenhouse of the City of Philadelphia
& assigns three years to be found all necessaries.
Restrictions
Indentures
could not marry without the permission of their owner, were subject to
physical punishment (like many young ordinary servants), and saw their
obligation to labor enforced by the courts. To ensure uninterrupted work
by the female servants, the law lengthened the term of their indenture
if they became pregnant. But unlike slaves, servants were guaranteed to
be eventually released from bondage. At the end of their term they
received a payment known as "freedom dues" and become free members of
society.
One could buy and sell indentured servants' contracts, and the right to
their labor would change hands, but not the person as a piece of
property.
Both male and female laborers could be subject to violence, occasionally even resulting in death. Richard Hofstadter
notes that, as slaves arrived in greater numbers after 1700, white
laborers in Virginia became a "privileged stratum, assigned to lighter
work and more skilled tasks".
He also notes that "Runaways were regularly advertised in the
newspapers, rewards were offered, and both sheriffs and the general
public were enlisted to secure their return. ... The standard penalty in
the North, not always rigorously enforced, was extra service of twice
the time the master had lost, though whipping was also common."
Redemptioner profile
Indentured servitude was a method of increasing the number of colonists, especially in the English and later British colonies. Voluntary migration and convict
labor only provided so many people, and since the journey across the
Atlantic was dangerous, other means of encouraging settlement were
necessary. Contract-laborers became an important group of people and so
numerous that the United States Constitution counted them specifically in appointing representatives:
Representatives and direct Taxes
shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included
within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be
determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years....
Displaced from their land and unable to find work in the cities, many
of these people signed contracts of indenture and took passage to the
Americas. In Massachusetts, religious instruction in the Puritan way of life was often part of the condition of indenture, and people tended to live in towns.
The labor-intensive cash crop of tobacco was farmed in the American South by indentured laborers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Indentured servitude was not the same as the apprenticeship
system by which skilled trades were taught, but similarities do exist
between the two, since both require a set period of work. The majority
of Virginians were Anglican, not Puritan, and while religion did play a
large role in everyday lives, the culture was more commercially based.
In the Chesapeake and North Carolina, tobacco constituted a major
percentage of the total agricultural output. In the Deep South (mainly
Georgia and South Carolina), cotton and rice plantations dominated. In
the lower Atlantic colonies where tobacco was the main cash crop,
the majority of labor that indentured servants performed was related to
field work. In this situation, social isolation could increase the
possibilities for both direct and indirect abuse, as could lengthy,
demanding labor in the tobacco fields.
The system was still widely practiced in the 1780s, picking up immediately after a hiatus during the American Revolution. Fernand Braudel (The Perspective of the World
1984, pp. 405ff) instances a 1783 report on "the import trade from
Ireland" and its large profits to a ship owner or a captain, who:
...puts his conditions to the emigrants in Dublin or some other Irish port. Those who can pay for their passage—usually about 100 or 80 [livres tournois]—arrive
in America free to take any engagement that suits them. Those who
cannot pay are carried at the expense of the shipowner, who in order to
recoup his money, advertises on arrival that he has imported artisans,
laborers and domestic servants and that he has agreed with them on his
own account to hire their services for a period normally of three, four,
or five years for men and women and 6 or 7 years for children.
In modern terms, the shipowner was acting as a contractor,
hiring out his laborers. Such circumstances affected the treatment a
captain gave his valuable human cargo. After indentures were forbidden,
the passage had to be prepaid, giving rise to the inhumane conditions of
Irish 'coffin ships' in the second half of the 19th century.
Southern New England Native Americans and indenture
Starting in the late 17th century, in southern New England and parts
of Long Island, Native Americans were increasingly pulled into an
exploitative debt-peonage system designed to control and assimilate
Native American people into the dominant culture as well as channel
their labor into the market-based Atlantic economy. Following King Philip's War
(1675–1676) most Native Americans in the region were resigned to
reservations or lived in increasingly marginal enclaves on the edges of
colonial towns. Due to restricted access to resources, land loss,
and changes to the environment caused by European settlement, many
Native Americans, especially coastal groups, could no longer practice
traditional subsistence activities and therefore became increasingly
dependent on European trade goods—cloth, tools, guns, alcohol, and
increasingly, food. Merchants trading these items to Native Americans
often inflated the cost and, based on a predatory lending scheme,
advanced them credit for these purchases, knowing full well most Native
Americans would not be able to repay the debts. Eventually when debts
mounted, Native Americans were hauled into court by their creditors.
When they could not pay either their lands, or more commonly their
labor, was seized to settle the debt. Native American debtors were then
indentured to their creditors for terms ranging from a few months to
sometimes years. Rare cases exist when Native Americans were indentured
for a decade or more and a few were enslaved for life (this was quite
rare however).
Many Native Americans experienced repeated indentures over the course
of their lifetimes, amounting to a phenomenon of 'serial indenture' or
debt peonage—multiple short indentures alternating with brief periods of
'freedom.' The 'time' Native American servants owed could be sold or
willed to heirs if a creditor died.
Assessing how many Native Americans experienced indenture is
difficult as exact Native American populations during the colonial
period are unknown. However, Historian John Sainsbury was able to
document that by the mid-18th century about a third of all Native
Americans in Rhode Island were indentured servants living and working in
white households. Also, the Massachusetts state archives contains
numerous petitions, written from the 1730s to 1760s from Native American
tribes in their jurisdiction complaining about abuses in the indenture
system and predatory lending by whites. Statutes were eventually passed
attempting to regulate practices. Colonial military records do provide
some data on Native American indenture as well. Enlistment records from
1704 to 1726 show that almost two-thirds of Native Americans who joined
the army were indentured at the time of their enlistment. Records from
1748 to 1760 show a decline in this rate, but still show almost a third
of Native American recruits being bound to white masters at the time of
their enlistment. One Connecticut regiment raised in 1746 during King George's War
(containing 980 men total) contained 139 Native American men. Almost
half of them had signed their wages over to white creditors before being
deployed.
While many Native American men, women and children became
servants in New England households, the labor of many adult men was
funneled into the whaling industry on Long Island, Rhode Island, Cape
Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as the
coast of eastern Connecticut. These whaling indentures
were somewhat distinct from normal indenture contracts, and stipulated
that Native Americans serve not as servants in white households but
instead as crew members on a certain number of whaling voyages or
'seasons' of whaling (typically November through April). Throughout
most of the colonial period indentured or heavily indebted Native
American whalers were the primary labor force in the early whaling
industry. They remained an important source of labor into the
Revolutionary and early national era, but as their numbers dwindled and
the industry expanded exponentially, they made up a decreasingly small
proportion of the labor force.
- Text of Whaling Indenture Contract of Isaac Pepenie (Wampanoag Indian) to James Lovell Jr. 1729.:
- "Witnesseth that Isaac Pepenie Indian of Falmouth,
Barnstable labourer, hath ... of his own free will. . . Bound and
obliged himself to Serve James Lovell Junr ... a Sea faring man, on
Diverse Whale Voiages in the several seasons ... the date of these
presents: viz. this winter season in . . . Barnstable, and the next
Spring at Nantucket, and former season following in the sloops or
vessels that ... [Lovell] desire[s], all which respective voyages ...
and any and all materials for the performing of sd. Voyages ... he the
said Isaac Pepenie to have one eighth and diet according to costom ...
as shall be needful with his master for the sum of fifteen pounds which
he the said James Lovell doth hereby agree to pay for him, ... then the
sd. Pepenie doth by these [agreements] oblige himself to attend [the]
Whale Voiages at the order and direction of said James Lovell, his
administrators or assigns in manner aforesaid ... this first day of
October in the Eleventh year of His Majesty's Reign ano dom 1729.
- Isaac Papenie Barnstable.
- We the subscribers two of his Majestys Justices of the Peace for
said County being present at the execution of the premesis do allow and
approbate the same as just and reasonable. Danl. Parker, Joseph Lothrop"
Decline
Indentured servitude appeared in the Americas in the 1620s and remained in use as late as 1917. The causes behind its decline are a contentious domain in economic history.
The end of debtors' prisons may have created a limited commitment
pitfall in which indentured servants could agree to contracts with ship
captains and then refuse to sell themselves once they arrived in the
colonies. Increased lobbying from immigrant aid societies
led to increased regulation of the indentured labor market, further
increasing the difficulty of enforcing contracts. With less ability to
enforce the contracts, demand for indentured servants may have fallen.
However, most debtor prisons were still in service when indentured
servitude disappeared and many regulations on indentured servitude were
put in place well before the practice's disappearance.
A rise in European per-capita income
compared to passage fare during the nineteenth century may also explain
the disappearance of indentured servitude. While passage from England
to the colonies in 1668 would cost roughly 51 percent of English
per-capita income, that ratio would decrease to between 20 and 30
percent by 1841.
This increase in relative income may have been further supplemented by a
demonstrated increase in savings among European laborers, meaning
European emigrants would have the capital on hand to pay for their own
passage. With no need for transit capital, fewer laborers would have
become indentured, and the supply of indentured servants would have decreased.
Labor substitutions may have led employers away from indentured servants and towards slaves or paid employees. In many places, African slaves
became cheaper for unskilled and then eventually skilled labor, and
most farmhand positions previously filled by indentured servants were
ultimately filled by slaves. Wage laborers
may have been more productive, since employers were more willing to
terminate waged employment. In comparison, firing an indentured servant
would mean a loss on the original capital investment spent purchasing
the servant's contract.
Either substitution would lead to a decrease in demand for indentured
servitude. An additional problem for employers was that, compared to
African slaves, European indentured servants who ran away could not
always be easily distinguished from the general white population, so
they were more difficult to re-capture.
Indentured servitude's decline for white servants was also
largely a result of changing attitudes that accrued over the 18th
century and culminated in the early 19th century. Over the 18th century,
the penal sanctions that were used against all workers were slowly
going away from colonial codes, leaving indentured servants the only
adult white labor subject to penal sanctions (with the notable exception
of seaman, whose contracts could be criminally enforced up to the 20th
century). These penal sanctions for indentured laborers continued in the
United States until the 1830s, and by this point treatment of European
laborers under contract became the same as the treatment of wage
laborers (however, this change in treatment didn't apply to workers of
color). This change in treatment can be attributed to a number of
factors, such as the growing identification of white indented labor with
slavery at a time when slavery was coming under attack in the Northern
states, the growing radicalism of workers influenced with the rhetoric
of the American Revolution, and the expansion of suffrage in many states
which empowered workers politically. Penal sanctions, previously
considered perfectly in line with free labor, became in the 19th century
a way to transform ordinary labor into "contracts of slavery."
Labor market dynamics
Given
the rapid expansion of colonial export industries in the 17th and 18th
century, natural population growth and immigration were unable to meet
the increasing demand for workers. As a result, the cost of indentured
servants rose substantially. In the Chesapeake Bay, for example, the
cost of indentures rose as much as 60% in the 1680s.
The increase in the price of indentures did not motivate European
workers to emigrate, for they did not benefit from the higher prices. As
a result, the companies that generated indentures disrupted the price signaling effect,
and thus the supply of immigrants did not expand sufficiently to meet
demand. Some actors in the market attempted to generate incentives for
workers by shortening the length of indenture contracts, based on the
productivity of the prospective emigrant. Some American firms also opted to incentivize workers by paying small wages or by negotiating early expiration of indentures. These measures increased the cost of an indenture, while early termination made it less valuable.
The rising cost of indentured labor and its inelastic supply
pushed American producers towards a cheaper alternative: enslaved
workers. Not only were they substantially cheaper, the supply was more
abundant; in contrast with indentured workers, they had to emigrate
whether they wanted to or not. No incentives were necessary, although
higher prices motivated slave traders to expand "production" (in the
form of raiding expeditions). Supply was relatively elastic. Slavery
thus was better able to satisfy labor demands in colonies requiring
large quantities of unskilled agricultural workers (for example,
plantation colonies in the Caribbean). Indentures, however, prevailed in
colonies that required skilled workers, since the cost of an indenture
was less than the cost of training an enslaved worker. Alison Smith and
Abbott E. Smith's analysis of London port records shows how the
destinations of indentured emigrants shifted from the West Indies
towards New England as early as the 1660s, supporting the theory that indentured servitude might have declined in some regions because of labor market dynamics.
Affordability of immigration
The
rise in the affordability of immigration reduced emigrants’ need for
external financing in the form of indentures. David Galenson's analysis
on affordability shows that the cost of immigration from Britain to the
United States over the course of the 18th century dropped from 50% of
per capita income to less than 10%.
This is attributable to higher levels of real income in Europe (a
result of economic growth in the 18th century) and to a sharp decline in
transportation costs.
Innovation had a strong impact on the ease and cost of passenger
transportation, reducing the need of indentures. The railroad made
non-port cities a much cheaper destination for immigrants. The steamboat
was not necessarily cheaper than older sailing technologies, but it
made transatlantic travel much easier and comfortable, an attractive
factor for high-income classes (that could easily afford immigration
without indentures).
The British Navy's efforts against piracy also reduced transportation
costs. Safer seas implied smaller crews (for there was no need to man
weapons on board) and also reduced insurance costs (ships were at lower
risk of being captured).
The composition of immigrants also shifted from single males towards
entire families. Single males usually left their homes with little if
any savings. Instead, families generally liquidated assets in Europe to
finance their venture.
Impact of American Revolution
The
American Revolution severely limited immigration to the United States.
Economic historians differ however on the long-term impact of the
Revolution. Sharon Salinger argues that the economic crisis that
followed the war made long-term labor contracts unattractive. Her
analysis of Philadelphia's population shows how the percentage of bound
citizens fell from 17% to 6% over the course of the war.
William Miller posits a more moderate theory, stating "the
Revolution (…) wrought disturbances upon white servitude. But these were
temporary rather than lasting".
David Galenson supports this theory by proposing that British
indentures never recovered, but Europeans from other nationalities
replaced them.
Legal deterrence
In 1799 New York State passed the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery.
Existing slaves became indentured servants. That status was finally
ended in 1827 and all the indentured obtained full freedom.
A number of acts passed by both the American and the British
governments fostered the decline of indentures. The English Passenger
Vessels Act of 1803, which regulated travel conditions aboard ships,
attempted to make transportation more expensive in order to stop
emigration. The American abolition of imprisonment of debtors by federal
law (passed in 1833) made prosecution of runaway servants more
difficult, increasing the risk of indenture contract purchases.
In the 19th century, most indentures of this nature occurred in the old Northwest Territory. The permissibility of such indentures centered on the interpretation of "involuntary servitude" per the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, which declared:
There shall be neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude in the territory otherwise than in the punishment
of crimes, whereof the Party shall have been duly convicted.
The permissibility (or not) of penal sanctions in labor became an
issue of "fundamental law", in which it was questioned whether those
sanctions or specific performance enforcements turned indentured
servitude into "involuntary servitude". At the time when the Northwest
Ordinance was constructed, white adult servants were still being
imported into the United States, and thus, historically, it seems likely
that the Ordinance's framers considered indenture to be a form of
"voluntary" servitude. In essence, this means the indentured servant
chose to work for someone who bought them something.
The Territory of Hawaii
was the last place in the United States to widely use indentures, as by
1900 the practice had been abolished in the rest of the country and
replaced by alternatives such as the credit-ticket system used to transport Chinese laborers.
Prior to U.S. annexation, indentures were widely used to transport
Japanese contract workers to Hawaii for plantation work. In the Hawaiian Organic Act
of 1900 the U.S. prohibited further use of indentures in the territory
and voided all such existing contracts, thus ending the practice.
Caribbean
European servants in colonies
A half million Europeans went as indentured servants to the Caribbean
(primarily the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean) before 1840.
Most were young men, with dreams of owning their own land or striking
it rich quick, who would essentially sell years of their labor in
exchange for passage to the islands. However, forceful indenture also
provided part of the servants: contemporaries report that youngsters
were sometimes tricked into servitude in order to be exploited in the
colonies.
The landowners on the islands would pay for a servant's passage
and then provide the servant with food, clothes, shelter and instruction
during the agreed term. The servant would then be required to work in
the landowner's field for a term of bondage (usually four to seven
years). During this term of bondage the servant had a status similar to a
son of the master. For example, the servant was not allowed to marry
without the master's permission. Servants could own personal property.
They could also complain to a local magistrate about mistreatment that
exceeded community norms. However, a servant's contract could be sold or
given away by his master.
After the servant's term was complete he became independent and
was paid "freedom dues". These payments could take the form of land
which would give the servant the opportunity to become an independent
farmer or a free laborer. As free men with little money they became a
political force that stood in opposition to the rich planters.
Indentured servitude was a common part of the social landscape in
England and Ireland during the 17th century. During the 17th century,
British and Irish went to Barbados as both masters and as indentured servants. Some went as prisoners. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms many Scottish and Irish prisoners of war were sold as indentured laborers to the colonies. There were also reports of kidnappings of youngsters to work as servants.
After 1660, fewer indentured servants came from Europe to the
Caribbean. Newly freed servant farmers, given 25–50 acres of land, were
unable to make a living because profitable sugar
plantations needed to cover hundreds of acres. However, profit could
still be made through the tobacco trade, which was what these small
25-acre farms did to live comfortably. The landowners’ reputation as
cruel masters became a deterrent to the potential indentured servant. In
the 17th century, the islands became known as death traps, as between
33 and 50 percent of indentured servants died before they were freed,
many from yellow fever, malaria and other diseases.
Indian servants after abolition
When slavery ended in the British Empire in 1833, plantation owners turned to indentured servitude for inexpensive labor. These servants arrived from across the globe; the majority came from India where many indentured laborers came from to work in colonies requiring manual labor. As a result, today Indo-Caribbean people make up a plurality in Guyana,Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname, and a substantial minority in Jamaica, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia and other Caribbean islands.
The British government finally ended indentures in the Caribbean in
1917 by prohibiting the further transportation of persons from India for
purposes of servitude for debt.