Indentured servitude

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.

An indentured servant or indentured laborer is an employee (indenturee) within a system of unfree labor who is bound by a signed or forced contract (indenture) to work for a particular employer for a fixed time. The contract often lets the employer sell 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. On completion of the contract, indentured servants were given their freedom, and occasionally plots of land. In many countries, systems of indentured labor have now been outlawed.

The Americas

Main article: Indentured servitude in the Americas

North America

Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was very common in British North America. It was often a way for poor Europeans to immigrate to the American colonies: they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage. After their indenture expired, the immigrants were free to work for themselves or another employer. The consensus view among economic historians and economists is that indentured servitude occurred largely as "an institutional response to a capital market imperfection".

In some cases, the indenture was made with a ship's master, who on-sold the indenture to an employer in the colonies. Most indentured servants worked as farm laborers or domestic servants, although some were apprenticed to craftsmen.

The terms of an indenture were not always enforced by American courts, although runaways were usually sought out and returned to their employer.

Between one-half and two-thirds of white immigrants to the American colonies between the 1630s and American Revolution had come under indentures. However, while almost half the European immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies were indentured servants, at any one time they were outnumbered by workers who had never been indentured, or whose indenture had expired, and thus free wage labor was the more prevalent for Europeans in the colonies. Indentured people 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 about 500,000; 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% of these were under the age of 25. The age of adulthood for men was 24 years (not 21); 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."

Several instances of trepanning for transportation to the Americas are recorded such as 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]." One "spirit" named William Thiene was known to have spirited away 840 people from Britain to the colonies in a single year. Historian Lerone Bennett, Jr. notes that "Masters given to flogging often did not care whether their victims were black or white."

Indentured servants could not marry without the permission of their master, were sometimes subject to physical punishment and did not receive legal favor from the courts. To ensure that the indenture contract was satisfied completely with the allotted amount of time, the term of indenture was lengthened for female servants if they became pregnant. Upon finishing their term they received "freedom dues" and were set free.

The American Revolution severely limited immigration to the United States, but economic historians dispute its long-term impact. Sharon Salinger argues that the economic crisis that followed the war made long-term labor contracts unattractive. His analysis of Philadelphia's population shows how the percentage of bound citizens fell from 17% to 6.4% over the course of the war. William Miller posits a more moderate theory, stating that "the Revolution (…) wrought disturbances upon white servitude. But these were temporary rather than lasting". David Galenson supports this theory by proposing that the numbers of British indentured servants never recovered, and that Europeans from other nationalities replaced them.

The American and British governments passed several laws that helped foster the decline of indentures. The UK Parliament's Passenger Vessels Act 1803 regulated travel conditions aboard ships to make transportation more expensive, so as to hinder landlords' tenants seeking a better life. An American law passed in 1833 abolished imprisonment of debtors, which made prosecuting runaway servants more difficult, increasing the risk of indenture contract purchases. The 13th Amendment, passed in the wake of the American Civil War, made indentured servitude illegal in the United States.

Contracts

Through its introduction, the details regarding indentured labor varied across import and export regions and most overseas contracts were made before the voyage with the understanding that prospective migrants were competent enough to make overseas contracts on their own account and that they preferred to have a contract before the voyage.

Most labor contracts made were in increments of five years, with the opportunity to extend another five years. Many contracts also provided free passage home after the dictated labor was completed. However, there were generally no policies regulating employers once the labor hours were completed, which led to frequent ill-treatment.

Caribbean

Coolie woman in traditional dress

In 1838, with the abolition of slavery at its onset, the British were in the process of transporting a million Indians out of India and into the Caribbean to take the place of the African slaves in indenture-ship. Women specifically, looking for what they believed would be a better life in the colonies, were sought after and recruited at a much higher rate than men due to the high population of men already in the colonies. However women had to prove their status as a single and eligible to emigrate, as married women could not leave without their husbands. Many women seeking escape from abusive relationships were willing to take that chance. The Indian Immigration Act of 1883 prevented women from exiting India as widowed or single in order to escape. Arrival in the colonies brought unexpected conditions of poverty, homelessness, and little to no food as the high numbers of emigrants overwhelmed the small villages and flooded the labor market. Many were forced into signing labor contracts that exposed them to the hard field labor on the plantation. Additionally, on arrival to the plantation, single women were 'assigned' a man as they were not allowed to live alone. The subtle difference between slavery and indenture-ship is best seen here as women were still subjected to the control of the plantation owners as well as their newly assigned 'partner'. Their status was closer to chattel property than human being.

A half million Europeans went as indentured servants to the Caribbean (primarily the south Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago, French Guiana, and Suriname) before 1840.

In 1643, the white population of Barbados was 37,200, in Barbados (86% of the population). During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, at least 10,000 Scottish and Irish prisoners of war were transported as indentured laborers to the colonies.

There were also reports of kidnappings of Europeans to work as servants. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, children from England and France were kidnapped and sold into indentured labor in the Caribbean.

India

Main article: Indian indenture system

Oceania

Main article: Blackbirding

Convicts transported to the Australian colonies before the 1840s often found themselves hired out in a form of indentured labor. Indentured servants also emigrated to New South Wales. The Van Diemen's Land Company used skilled indentured labor for periods of seven years or less. A similar scheme for the Swan River area of Western Australia existed between 1829 and 1832.

During the 1860s planters in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, and the Samoa Islands, in need of laborers, encouraged a trade in long-term indentured labor called "blackbirding". At the height of the labor trade, more than one-half the adult male population of several of the islands worked abroad.

Over a period of 40 years, from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, labor for the sugar-cane fields of Queensland, Australia included an element of coercive recruitment and indentured servitude of the 62,000 South Sea Islanders. The workers came mainly from Melanesia – mainly from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu – with a small number from Polynesian and Micronesian areas such as Samoa, the Gilbert Islands (subsequently known as Kiribati) and the Ellice Islands (subsequently known as Tuvalu). They became collectively known as "Kanakas".

It remains unknown how many Islanders the trade controversially kidnapped. Whether the system legally recruited Islanders, persuaded, deceived, coerced or forced them to leave their homes and travel by ship to Queensland remains difficult to determine. Official documents and accounts from the period often conflict with the oral tradition passed down to the descendants of workers. Stories of blatantly violent kidnapping tend to relate to the first 10–15 years of the trade.

Australia deported many of these Islanders back to their places of origin in the period 1906–1908 under the provisions of the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901.

Australia's own colonies of Papua and New Guinea (joined after the Second World War to form Papua New Guinea) were the last jurisdictions in the world to use indentured servitude.

Africa

A significant number of construction projects, principally British, in East Africa and South Africa, required vast quantities of labor, exceeding the availability or willingness of local tribesmen. Coolies from India were imported, frequently under indenture, for such projects as the Uganda Railway, as farm labor, and as miners. They and their descendants formed a significant portion of the population and economy of Kenya and Uganda, although not without engendering resentment from others. Idi Amin's expulsion of the "Asians" from Uganda in 1972 was an expulsion of Indo-Africans.

The majority of the population of Mauritius are descendants of Indian indentured labourers brought in between 1834 and 1921. Initially brought to work the sugar estates following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire an estimated half a million indentured laborees were present on the island during this period. Aapravasi Ghat, in the bay at Port Louis and now a UNESCO site, was the first British colony to serve as a major reception centre for slaves and indentured servants for British plantation labour.

Legal status

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948) declares in Article 4 "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms". More specifically, It is dealt with by article 1(a) of the United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery.

However, only national legislation can establish the unlawfulness of indentured labor in a specific jurisdiction. In the United States, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA) of 2000 extended servitude to cover peonage as well as Involuntary Servitude.

Political status

Within United Kingdoms, The person (commoner) was property of the lord, also known as Larid's and therefore "property" on which they have been vested. Historically, prior to the conquests and crusades, the lords had taken the land and rented the land to the "rightful user/owner" for a fee or return to himself (estate) or workers were paid in Loaves (bread or foods) in return for living and working the land. Prior to the black Plague, Pass law, would restrict the movements of the commoners within the lord bailiwick. Much debatement was made with regards the "vested" interest of the "properly" and therefore Pass Law was made and was at common law. A worker was a servant to the lord and was bound by byelaws in said areas of which he was borne. ( referred to in law as "the hundred")

Ordinance of Labourers 1349 act and similar acts were made to control the "worker" and the "costs" incurred by the lords (prior to central government). under The 1572 act "not belonging to any baron of this realm, or to any other honourable person of greater degree". While Slavery was made unpopular, the uses of laws in England was to "go around" the law as was carried out within "a tax with another name" approach. The Vagabond act was passed During the reign of Henry VIII, it has been estimated that 72,000 people were executed. much of the laws in the time were that a commoner if committed for any crime would lose everything he owned and therefore would be homeless then subject to law and then inturned, this maybe impressment (armed forces) or put to labour, or penal colony. There in the "commoner" held a debt of which there could be debt bondage. The Vagrancy Act. stated that any able-bodied person who was out of work for more than three days should be branded with a V and sold into slavery for two years. Other offences by the same individual would lead to a life of slavery.

In recompense, Statute of Cambridge 1388; it forbade servants to move out of their “hundred” (this was the administrative area of the time and may have consisted of several Manors and related Manorial lands.) without legal authorisation. This meant that roaming around the countryside in search of work, was no longer allowed and allocated responsibility to the leaders of a particular Hundred. It introduced a formal geographic basis for accountability for the poor which would be delegated down in time to the Parish. and lead in a few hundred years to the poor laws Following the revision of the Duke of Somerset’s Act of 1547, parliament passed the poor Act in 1552. This focused on using the parishes, which were the areas attached to a parish church, as a source of funds to combat the increasing poverty epidemic. Therefore, the law had been put into place that the "criminals" could be and would be sent to serve in areas of the British Empire. for free and was indentured.

The industrial age and migrations caused concern and therefore the "new tactic" was employed by the lords and government. After various revolts the "action" was to keep the commoner in good health and food, and due to the structure of society to educate some of them, known as apprenticeships or education al of which would have levy. Excise. The health acts, ensured that workers had a "home" on which they would invest sureties in the equity. The shift to "domestic markets" was due to the limit on which the global marks had, therefore the low profile and market required expanding and the growing population had costs which were considered wateful (see Waste in law) The Slave, was therefore burdened with Poll tax, land tax and rates which most would default, then have the costs of the home (sometimes provided) as well as the need to eat and sustain ones self, which would therefore amount to a sizable debt. Liberty is not the same a freedom, "Every man being granted freedom" is not as granting liberty (actual freedom).

According to the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence, all men have a natural right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". But this declaration of liberty was troubled from the outset by the presence of slavery. Slave owners argued that their liberty was paramount, since it involved property, their slaves, and that the slaves themselves had no rights that any White man was obliged to recognize. The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott decision, upheld this principle. It was not until 1866, following the Civil War, that the US Constitution was amended to extend these rights to persons of color, and not until 1920 that these rights were extended to women.[24] By the later half of the 20th century, liberty was expanded further to prohibit government interference with personal choices. In the United States Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut, Justice William O. Douglas argued that liberties relating to personal relationships, such as marriage, have a unique primacy of place in the hierarchy of freedoms.

All persons (commoners) who will be aware of social class and structure, The social structure of the United Kingdom was not "changed" until the 1980 under rule of Margaret Thatcher There at the time was three classes, the owners, the working class and the poor, which had been historical. Opportunities resulting from consistent economic growth and the expanding British Empire also enabled some from much poorer backgrounds (generally men who had managed to acquire some education) to rise through the class system. However much was required in the terms of "student Loans" and educational fees. The Freeman and "Benefit system" of the UK was to be a Factor in the Ownership of a person and the debts which they would have.

"it is easier to make a slave work who believes that they can earn there freedom or appear to be free and have freedoms while working".

For much of the matter the indenture is through Economics in the modern time though wage slavery, and increasing prices and costs of living. Much of which is controlled by Government through taxes, budgets, duties, fines, fees, and more. much is focal on Agenda 21, which also has "hidden" control measures, one theory, is that the UK government fluoridation of water. this is "sold" under the good teeth prerogative, and others would say it is a mind numbing and poison as classed by the FDA (see Fluoride toxicity)

It was murder that was the threat, and now poverty, homelessness, A recent publication found that the Government "cuts" were responsible for more than 80 deaths due to poverty and the "benefits system". there is a Keen Threat to work in the UK. and sanctions fi you do not work for no reason, having shown and proven that you are working or looking for work. ( see Job seekers)

See also

• Bracero program
• Coolie
• Coolitude
• Debt Bondage
• Human trafficking
• Home Children
• History of Guyana
• Indenture (document)
• Indentured servitude in Pennsylvania
• Involuntary servitude
• Padrone system
• Penal transportation
• Redemptioner
• Slavery
• Khal Torabully
• Irish indentured servants
• United States labor law

References

• Bahadur, Gaiutra: Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture. The University of Chicago (2014) ISBN 978-0-226-21138-1
• Higman, B. W. (1997). Knight, Franklin W., ed. General History of the Caribbean: The slave societies of the Caribbean. 3 (illustrated ed.). UNESCO. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-333-65605-1. 
• Galenson, David W. (March 1981). "White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in Colonial America". The Journal of Economic History. 41 (1): 39–47. doi:10.1017/s0022050700042728. 
• Galenson, David W. (June 1981). "The Market Evaluation of Human Capital: The Case of Indentured Servitude". Journal of Political Economy. 89 (3): 446–467. doi:10.1086/260980. 
• Galenson, David (March 1984). "The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis". The Journal of Economic History. 44 (1): 1–26. doi:10.1017/s002205070003134x. 
• Grubb, Farley (July 1985). "The Incidence of Servitude in Trans-Atlantic Migration, 1771–1804". Explorations in Economic History. 22 (3): 316–39. doi:10.1016/0014-4983(85)90016-6. 
• Grubb, Farley (Dec 1985). "The Market for Indentured Immigrants: Evidence on the Efficiency of Forward-Labor Contracting in Philadelphia, 1745–1773". The Journal of Economic History. 45 (4): 855–868. doi:10.1017/s0022050700035130. 
• Grubb, Farley (Spring 1994). "The Disappearance of Organized Markets for European Immigrant Servants in the United States: Five Popular Explanations Reexamined". Social Science History. 18 (1): 1–30. doi:10.2307/1171397. 
• Grubb, Farley (Dec 1994). "The End of European Immigrant Servitude in the United States: An Economic Analysis of Market Collapse, 1772–1835". The Journal of Economic History. 54 (4): 794–824. doi:10.1017/s0022050700015497. 
• Tomlins, Christopher. "Reconsidering Indentured Servitude: European Migration and the Early American Labor Force, 1600–1775," Labor History (2001) 42#1 pp 5–43. new statistical estimates
• Khal Torabully,Coupeuses d'azur, Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, Mauritius, 2014.
• Jackson, Gaines Bradford (June 2014). "Indentured Servitude Revisited" Xlibris Corporation

Further reading

• Abramitzky, Ran; Braggion, Fabio. "Migration and Human Capital: Self-Selection of Indentured Servants to the Americas," Journal of Economic History, (2006) 66#4 pp 882–905, in JSTOR
• Ballagh, James Curtis. White Servitude In The Colony Of Virginia: A Study Of The System Of Indentured Labor In The American Colonies (1895) excerpt and text search
• Brown, Kathleen. Goodwives, Nasty Wenches & Anxious Patriachs: gender, race and power in Colonial Virginia, U. of North Carolina Press, 1996.
• Hofstadter, Richard. America at 1750: A Social Portrait (Knopf, 1971) pp 33–65 online
• Jernegan, Marcus Wilson Laboring and Dependent Classes in Colonial America, 1607–1783 (1931)
• Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. (Norton, 1975).
• Nagl, Dominik. No Part of the Mother Country, but Distinct Dominions - Law, State Formation and Governance in England, Massachusetts und South Carolina, 1630-1769 (LIT, 2013): 515–535, 577f., 635–689.online
• Salinger, Sharon V. To serve well and faithfully: Labor and Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania, 1682–1800. (2000)
• Tomlins, Christopher. Freedom Bound: Law, Labor, and Civic Identity in English Colonization, 1580–1865 (2010); influential recent interpretation online review
• Torabully, Khal, and Marina Carter, Coolitude: An Anthology of the Indian Labour Diaspora Anthem Press, London, 2002, ISBN 1-84331-003-1
• Torabully, Khal, Voices from the Aapravasi Ghat - Indentured imaginaries, poetry collection on the coolie route and the fakir's aesthetics, Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, AGTF, Mauritius,November 2, 2013.
• Wareing, John. Indentured Migration and the Servant Trade from London to America, 1618-1718. Oxford Oxford University Press, February 2017
• Whitehead, John Frederick, Johann Carl Buttner, Susan E. Klepp, and Farley Grubb. Souls for Sale: Two German Redemptioners Come to Revolutionary America, Max Kade German-American Research Institute Series, ISBN 0-271-02882-3.
• Zipf, Karin L. Labor of Innocents: Forced Apprenticeship in North Carolina, 1715–1919 (2005).

Historiography

• Donoghue, John. "Indentured Servitude in the 17th Century English Atlantic: A Brief Survey of the Literature," History Compass (Oct. 2013) 11#10 pp 893–902, DOI: 10.1111/hic3.12088

External links

• https://uk.news.yahoo.com/unfree-irish-caribbean-were-indentured-servants-not-slaves-072226285.html#8TTqXzc
• https://medium.com/@Limerick1914/we-had-it-worse-eebe705c41a#.or9hof7pm
• GUIANA 1838 – a film about indentured laborers
• Voices from the Aapravasi Ghat, Khal TOrabully, https://web.archive.org/web/20150617164151/http://www.potomitan.info/torabully/voices.php