Editing Redemptioner (section)

{{Short description|European indentured labourers}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=April 2009}}
{{slavery}}

'''Redemptioners''' were European [[immigrant]]s, generally in the 18th or early 19th century, who gained passage to the [[Thirteen Colonies|American Colonies]] (most often [[Pennsylvania]]) by selling themselves into [[Indentured servant|indentured servitude]], to pay back the shipping company which had advanced the cost of their [[Transatlantic crossing|transatlantic voyage]]. British indentured servants generally did not arrive as redemptioners, after the early colonial period, due to certain protections afforded to them by law. Redemptioners were at a disadvantage because they negotiated their indentures upon their arrival in America, after a long and difficult voyage, with no prospect to return to their homelands.