Editing Indentured servitude (section)

{{Short description|Consensual or punitive unpaid labor}}
[[File:Indenturecertificate.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|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.]]
{{Forced labour}}
'''Indentured servitude''' is a form of [[Work (human activity)|labor]] in which a person is contracted to work without [[salary]] for a specific number of years. The contract called an "[[indenture]]", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid [[lump sum]], as payment for some good or service (e.g. travel), purported eventual compensation, or [[debt]] repayment. An indenture may also be imposed involuntarily as a [[Sentence (law)|judicial punishment]]. The practice has been compared to the similar institution of [[slavery]], although there are differences.

Historically, in an [[apprenticeship]], an apprentice worked with no pay for a master [[tradesman]] to learn a [[craft|trade]]. This was often for a fixed length of time, usually seven years or less. Apprenticeship was not the same as indentureship, although many apprentices were tricked into falling into debt and thus having to indenture themselves for years more to pay off such sums. {{Citation needed|reason=historical example of apprentices being tricked into indenture|date=May 2024}}

Like any [[loan]], an indenture could be sold. Most masters had to depend on middlemen or ships' masters to recruit and transport the workers, so indentureships were commonly sold by such men to planters or others upon the ships' arrival. Like slaves, their prices went up or down, depending on supply and demand. When the indenture (loan) was paid off, the worker was free but not always in good health or of sound body. Sometimes they might be given a plot of land or a small sum to buy it, but the land was usually poor.