Editing Middle Colonies (section)

===Labor===
Labor was always in short supply. The most common solution was [[indentured servant|indentured servitude]] of young whites. These were teenagers in Britain or Germany whose parents arranged for them to work for families in the colonies until age 21, in exchange for their ocean passage. The great majority became farmers or farm wives.<ref>Marcus Jernegan, ''Laboring and Dependent Classes in Colonial America, 1607-1783'' (1931)</ref> By the mid-eighteenth century, African American slaves comprised 12% of the population of New York. Most were house servants in Manhattan, or farm workers on Dutch estates.<ref>Ira Berlin and Leslie Harris, ''Slavery in New York'' Some work in the fields of plantations.(2005)</ref>