Immigrant Indentured Servant

Julio A. Sanchez

HIST: 1301-043

June 22, 2014

What were the opportunities for indentured servants, once free, to improve their lot in this society?

        The idea of indentured servitude was born of a need for cheap labor by 1600. The earliest settlers realized that they had lots of land to care for, but no one to care for it. The demands for labor grew and that situation moved the Masters to bring people from Europe in order to start developing the lands. They called those immigrant “Indenture Servant”.

        The Indenture Servants typically worked in the tobacco field and in the agriculture up to seven years in exchange for passage, room, board, lodging and freedom dues. Typically they worked with their Masters until their debt was paid. During that time their life was not an easy one, they were treated as property subject to overwork and beatings and the punishments meted out to people who wronged were harsher than those for non-servants. Most of them died from diseases and the punishment received from their masters. Also their contract could be extended as punishment for breaking a law, such as running away, or in the case of female servants, becoming pregnant. In some cases if the Servant died during the contract, their contract is inherited by their children until it’s completed.          

        Those who survive the hard work and received their freedom package, receive with them an amount of land and the opportunity to build a life in the New World. An investment percentage was entitled to a sum of money to help the servant established as an independent citizen. Usually they receive at least 25 acres of land, a year's worth of corn, arms, a cow and new clothes. Some servants did rise to become part of the colonial elite, but for the majority of indentured servants that survived the treacherous journey by sea and the harsh conditions of life in the New World, satisfaction was a modest life as a freeman in a burgeoning colonial economy.