Editing Indentured servitude (section)

==Americas==
{{Main|Indentured servitude in British America|l1 = Indentured servitude in British America}}

Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was common in [[British America]]. It was often a way for Europeans to migrate to the American colonies: they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage. However, the system was also used to exploit many of them, as well as Asians (mostly from India and China) who wanted to migrate to the New World. These Asian people were used mainly to construct roads and railway systems. After their indenture expired, the immigrants were free to work for themselves or another employer. At least one economist has suggested that "indentured servitude was an economic arrangement designed to iron out imperfections in the capital market".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Whaples|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Whaples|journal=[[The Journal of Economic History]]|volume=55|issue=1|pages=139–154|jstor=2123771|title=Where Is There Consensus Among American Economic Historians? The Results of a Survey on Forty Propositions|date=March 1995|doi=10.1017/S0022050700040602|quote=...[the] vast majority [of economic historians and economists] accept the view that indentured servitude was an economic arrangement designed to iron out imperfections in the capital market.|citeseerx=10.1.1.482.4975|s2cid=145691938 }}</ref>
In some cases, the indenture was made with a ship's master, who 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 European immigrants to the [[Thirteen Colonies|American Colonies]] between the 1630s and the American Revolution came under [[indenture]]s.{{sfn|Galenson|1984|p=1}} 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Donoghue |first1=John |title=Indentured Servitude in the 17th Century English Atlantic: A Brief Survey of the Literature: Indentured Servitude in the 17th Century English Atlantic |journal=History Compass |date=October 2013 |volume=11 |issue=10 |pages=893–902 |doi=10.1111/hic3.12088 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Tomlins |first=Christopher |title=Reconsidering Indentured Servitude: European Migration and the Early American Labor Force, 1600–1775 |journal=Labor History |year=2001 |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=5–43 |doi=10.1080/00236560123269 |s2cid=153628561 }}</ref> 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 three years.<ref>Tomlins (2001) at notes 31, 42, 66</ref> Regarding the children who came, Gary Nash reports that "many of the servants were nephews, nieces, cousins, and children of friends of emigrating Englishmen, who paid their passage in return for their labor once in America."<ref>Gary Nash, '' The Urban Crucible: The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution'' (1979) p 15</ref>
[[File:La Vérendrye.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye]] of [[New France]] with a group of ''[[engagé]]s'' (indentured servants)]]
Several instances of [[kidnapping]]<ref>"trepan | trapan, n.2". OED Online. June 2017. Oxford University Press</ref> for transportation to the Americas are recorded, such as that of [[Peter Williamson (Indian Peter)|Peter Williamson]] (1730–1799). Historian [[Richard Hofstadter]] pointed out that "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 European 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]."<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Hofstadter|title=America at 1750: A Social Portrait|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zO4ulIkeKX8C&pg=PA36|year=1971|publisher=Knopf Doubleday |page=36|isbn=978-0-307-80965-0}}</ref> One "spirit" named William Thiene was known to have spirited away<ref>{{cite book|first=Lerone|last=Bennett Jr.|title=White Servitude in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFDqAUi7h-QC&pg=PA31|date=November 1969|publisher=Ebony Magazine |pages=31–40|author-link=Lerone Bennett Jr.}}</ref> 840 people from Britain to the colonies in a single year.<ref>{{cite book|title=Calendar of State Papers: Colonial series|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F68MAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA521|year=1893|publisher=Great Britain. Public Record Office |page=521}}</ref> Historian [[Lerone Bennett Jr.]] notes that "Masters given to flogging often did not care whether their victims were black or white."<ref>{{cite book|title=Calendar of State Papers: Colonial series|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F68MAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA521|year=1893|publisher=Great Britain. Public Record Office |page=36}}</ref>

Also, during the 18th and early 19th centuries, children from the UK were often kidnapped and sold into indentured labor in the American and Caribbean colonies (often without any indentures).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2014/02/21/the-transported-child/|title=The transported child|first=Judy G.|last=Russell|date=February 21, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/irish-historical-studies/article/abs/horrid-and-infamous-practices-the-kidnapping-and-stripping-of-children-c1730c1840/0C9BEC209D344ABAC56C4ADD43992BF0|title=' Horrid' and 'infamous' practices: the kidnapping and stripping of children, c.1730–c.1840|first=James|last=Kelly|date=November 10, 2018|journal=Irish Historical Studies|volume=42|issue=162|pages=265–292|via=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/ihs.2018.33|s2cid=159797724 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Indentured servitude was also used by governments in Britain for captured [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] in rebellions and civil wars. [[Oliver Cromwell]] sent into indentured service thousands of prisoners captured in the 1648 [[Battle of Preston (1648)|Battle of Preston]] and the 1651 [[Battle of Worcester]]. [[James II of England|King James II]] acted similarly after the [[Monmouth Rebellion]] in 1685, and the use of such measures continued into the 18th century.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Indentured servants [[Barbados Servant Code|could not marry]] without the permission of their master, were frequently subject to physical punishment, and did not receive legal favor from the courts. Female indentured servants in particular might be raped and/or sexually abused by their masters. If children were produced the labour would be extended by two years.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Race, gender, and power in America: the legacy of the Hill-Thomas hearings|date=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press |editor=Hill, Anita |editor2=Jordan, Emma Coleman |isbn=0-19-508774-7|location=New York|oclc=32891709}}</ref> Cases of successful prosecution for these crimes were very uncommon, as indentured servants were unlikely to have access to a magistrate, and social pressure to avoid such brutality could vary by geography and cultural norm. The situation was particularly difficult for indentured women, because in both low social class and gender,{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}} they were believed to be particularly prone to vice, making legal redress unusual.

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. Her analysis of [[Philadelphia]]'s population shows that the percentage of bound citizens fell from 17% to 6.4% throughout the war.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Salinger|first=Sharon V.|title=Colonial Labor in Transition: The Decline of Indentured Servitude in Late Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia|journal=Labor History|year=1981|volume=22|issue=2|series=2|pages=165–191 [181]|doi=10.1080/00236568108584612}}</ref> William Miller posits a more moderate theory, stating that "the Revolution...wrought disturbances upon white servitude. But these were temporary rather than lasting".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=William |title=The Effects of the American Revolution on Indentured Servitude |journal=Pennsylvania History |date=1940 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=131–141 [137] |jstor=27766414 |url=https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/21251 }}</ref> David Galenson supports this theory by proposing that the numbers of British indentured servants never recovered, and that Europeans of  other nationalities replaced them.{{sfn|Galenson|1984|p=13}}

Indentured servitude began its decline after [[Bacon's Rebellion]], a servant uprising against the government of Colonial Virginia.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Ethan |title=The Divided Dominion: Social Conflict and Indian Hatred in Early Virginia |publisher=University Press of Colorado |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-60732-308-2 |pages=149–176}}</ref> This was due to multiple factors, such as the treatment of servants, the government's refusal to expel native tribes from the surrounding area, refusal to expand the amount of land an indentured servant could work by the colonial government, and inequality between the upper and lower class in colonial society.<ref name=":02" /> Indentured servitude was the primary source of labor for early American colonists until the rebellion.<ref>McCurdy, J. G. Bacon's Rebellion {{full citation needed|date=March 2023}}</ref> Little changed in the immediate aftermath of Bacon's Rebellion; however, the rebellion did cause a general distrust of servant labor and fear of future rebellion.<ref name=":1">Riggs, Thomas (2015) Bacon's Rebellion{{full citation needed|date=March 2023}}</ref> The fear of indentured servitude eventually cemented itself into the hearts of Americans, leading towards the reliance on enslaved Africans.<ref>Stevenson, K. Bacon's Rebellion{{full citation needed|date=March 2023}}</ref> This helped to ingrain the idea of racial segregation and unite white Americans under race rather than economic or social class.<ref name=":1" /> Doing so prevented the potential for future rebellion and changed the way that agriculture was approached.

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, and to hinder landlords' tenants seeking a better life. An American law passed in 1833 abolished the imprisonment of debtors, which made prosecuting runaway servants more difficult, increasing the risk of indenture contract purchases. The [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], passed in the wake of the [[American Civil War]], made involuntary indentured servitude illegal in the United States, except for imprisonment, such as in for-profit prisons.