Editing Indentured servitude

{{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.

==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.

==Contracts==
Through its introduction, the details regarding indentured labor varied across import and export regions and most overseas contracts were made before the voyage with the understanding that prospective migrants were competent enough to make overseas contracts on their own account and that they preferred to have a contract before the voyage.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar|last=Walton|first=Lai|pages=50–70}}</ref>

Most labor contracts made were in increments of five years, with the opportunity to extend another five years. Many contracts also provided free passage home after the dictated labor was completed. However, there were generally no policies regulating employers once the labor hours were completed, which led to frequent ill-treatment.<ref name=":0" />

===Caribbean===
{{Seealso|Redleg}}
[[File:West Indian Slaves Stick Fight.jpg|right|thumb|Slaves having a stick fight. A white indentured servant is standing on the left.]]
In 1643, the European population of Barbados was 37,200<ref>{{Cite book|title=Language Contact in Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas: In honor of John V. Singler|first=Cecilia|last=Cutler|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|date=12 July 2017|isbn=978-90-272-5277-7|page=178}}</ref> (86% of the population).<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/barbados_03.shtml Population], ''Slavery and Economy in Barbados'', BBC.</ref> During the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]], at least 10,000 Scottish and Irish prisoners of war were [[Penal transportation|transported]] as indentured laborers to the colonies.{{sfn|Higman|1997|p=108}}

A half million Europeans went as indentured servants to the Caribbean (primarily the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean) before 1840.<ref>Michael D. Bordo, Alan M. Taylor, Jeffrey G. Williamson, eds. ''Globalization in historical perspective'' (2005) p. 72</ref><ref>Gordon K. Lewis and Anthony P. Maingot, ''Main Currents in Caribbean Thought: The Historical Evolution of Caribbean Society in Its Ideological Aspects, 1492–1900'' (2004) pp 96–97</ref>

In 1838, with the abolition of slavery at its onset, the British were in the process of transporting a million Indians out of India and into the Caribbean to take the place of the recently freed Africans (freed in 1833) in indentureship. Women, looking for what they believed would be a better life in the colonies, were specifically sought after and recruited at a much higher rate than men due to the high population of men already in the colonies.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}} However, women had to prove their status as single and eligible to emigrate, as married women could not leave without their husbands. Many women seeking escape from abusive relationships were willing to take that chance. The Indian Immigration Act of 1883<ref>{{cite web|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/43470807 |title=12 Feb 1883 – THE INDIAN IMMIGRATION ACT. – Trove |newspaper=South Australian Register |publisher=Trove.nla.gov.au |date= 12 February 1883|access-date=2022-03-18}}</ref> prevented women from exiting India as widowed or single in order to escape.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture|last=Bahadur|first=Gaiutra|publisher=Chicago Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-226-21138-1|location=United States|page=22}}</ref>  Arrival in the colonies brought unexpected conditions of poverty, homelessness, and little to no food as the high numbers of emigrants overwhelmed the small villages and flooded the labor market. Many were forced into signing labor contracts that exposed them to the hard field labor on the plantation. Additionally, on arrival to the plantation, single women were 'assigned' a man as they were not allowed to live alone.  The subtle difference between slavery and indenture-ship is best seen here as women were still subjected to the control of the plantation owners as well as their newly assigned 'partner'.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture|last=Bahadur|first=Gaiutra|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-226-21138-1|location=United States|page=123}}</ref>

Indentured servitude of Irish and other European peoples occurred in seventeenth-century Barbados, and was fundamentally different from enslavement: an enslaved African's body was owned, as were the bodies of their children, while the labour of indentured servants was under contractual ownership of another person.{{sfn|Handler|Reilly|2017|p=39}}<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last1=Hogan |first1=Liam |last2=McAtackney |first2=Laura |last3=Reilly |first3=Matthew |title=The Irish in the Anglo-Caribbean: Servants or Slaves? |journal=History Ireland |date=March 2016 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=18–22 |doi=10.17613/M61Z41S48 }}</ref> Laws and racial hierarchy would allow for the "indentured" and "slaves" to be treated differently, as well as their identities to be defined differently.{{sfn|Shaw|2013|p=15}}<ref name=":2" /> &nbsp;

Barbados is an example of a colony in which the separation between enslaved Africans and "servants" was codified into law.{{sfn|Shaw|2013|p=15}} Distinct legal "acts" were created in 1661 treating each party as a separate group.{{sfn|Shaw|2013|p=15}}

The British ruling class anxieties over Irish loyalties would lead to harsh policing of Irish servants' movements, for instance, needing "reason" to leave the plantations from which they were employed.{{sfn|Shaw|2013|p=39}} Similarly, the laws regarding slavery would prevent enslaved Africans from doing the same.{{sfn|Shaw|2013|p=39}}<ref>"Barbados Side-by-Side Transcription - Slavery Law & Power in Early America and the British Empire". 2022-02-08.</ref> While enslaved Africans - and for a period, free Africans - were not allowed to use the court system in any manner, even to act as a witness, Barbados would allow "white servants" to go to court if they felt that they had received poor treatment.{{sfn|Handler|Reilly|2017|p=40}} Additionally, children of African descent were offered no supplementary protection, while children of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh extraction who were sent to Barbados as indentured servants could not work without a parent's consent.{{sfn|Handler|Reilly|2017|p=42}}

Such differences in social classes would ensure that alliances between the two groups would not lead to revolts towards plantation owners and managers.{{sfn|Shaw|2013|p=22}}

As well, during periods of mass indentured servitude of Irish peoples in the Caribbean, certain Irish individuals would use enslaved labour to profit financially and climb the ladder of social class.{{sfn|Block|Shaw|2011|p=60}}{{sfn|Shaw|2013|p=157}} Historians Kristen Block and Jenny Shaw write that: "the Irish — by virtue of their European heritage — gained […] greater social and economic mobility."{{sfn|Block|Shaw|2011|p=60}} An example is a former indentured servant in Barbados, Cornelius Bryan, would go on to own land and enslaved people himself, demonstrating the tiers between servant and slave classes.{{sfn|Shaw|2013|pp=1–2}}

==South Asia==
{{main|Indian indenture system}}
[[File:Coolie woman.jpg|alt=Indian woman in traditional dress|thumb|200px|Indian woman in traditional dress]]
The Indian indenture system was a system of indenture by which two million<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.striking-women.org/module/map-major-south-asian-migration-flows/indentured-labour-south-asia-1834-1917|title=Indentured labour from South Asia (1834-1917) &#124; Striking Women|website=www.striking-women.org}}</ref> [[India]]ns called [[coolie]]s were [[transport]]ed to various colonies of [[Europe]]an powers to provide labour for the (mainly sugar) plantations. It started from [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|the end of slavery]] in 1833 and continued until 1920. This resulted in the development of a large [[Indian diaspora]], which spread from the Indian Ocean (i.e. [[Réunion]] and [[Mauritius]]) to Pacific Ocean (i.e. [[Fiji]]), as well as the growth of [[Indo-Caribbean]] and [[Non-resident Indian and person of Indian origin|Indo-African]] population.

[[File:Île de la Réunion, Saint-Denis, dépôt des immigrants (Comoriens).jpg|thumb|Depot of Comorian Indentured Servants in Saint-Denis, Reunion, second half of the 19th century]]

The British wanted local black Africans to work in [[Colony of Natal|Natal]] as workers. But the locals refused, and as a result, the British introduced the Indian indenture system, resulting in a permanent [[Indian South African]] presence. On 18 January 1826, the Government of the [[France|French]] [[Indian Ocean]] island of [[Réunion]] laid down terms for the introduction of Indian labourers to the colony. Each man was required to appear before a [[magistrate]] and declare that he was going voluntarily. The contract was for five years with pay of ₹8 (12¢ US){{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} per month and rations provided labourers had been transported from [[Pondicherry district|Pondicherry]] and [[Karaikal district|Karaikal]]. The first attempt at importing Indian labour into [[Mauritius]], in 1829, ended in failure, but by 1834, with abolition of slavery throughout most of the [[British Empire]], transportation of Indian labour to the island gained pace. By 1838, 25,000 Indian labourers had been transported to Mauritius.

[[File:Newly arrived coolies in Trinidad.jpg|thumb|Newly arrived coolies in Trinidad in 1897]]

After the end of slavery, the [[West Indian]] sugar colonies tried the use of [[emancipated]] [[slave]]s, families from [[Ireland]], [[Germany]] and [[Malta]] and [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] from [[Madeira]]. All these efforts failed to satisfy the labour needs of the colonies due to high mortality of the new arrivals and their reluctance to continue working at the end of their indenture. On 16 November 1844, the British Indian Government legalised emigration to [[Colony of Jamaica|Jamaica]], [[Trinidad]] and [[Demerara]] ([[Guyana]]). The first ship, {{ship||Whitby|barque|2}}, sailed from [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] for British Guiana on 13 January 1838, and arrived in Berbice on 5 May 1838. Transportation to the [[Caribbean]] stopped in 1848 due to problems in the sugar industry and resumed in Demerara and Trinidad in 1851 and Jamaica in 1860.

This system of labour was coined by contemporaries at the time as a "new system of slavery", a term later used by historian Hugh Tinker in his influential book of the same name.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tinker |first1=Hugh |title=A New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour Overseas 1830–1920 |date=1974 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |location=London}}</ref>

The Indian indenture system was finally banned in 1917.<ref name="eco" >{{cite news|title=The legacy of Indian migration to European colonies|url=https://www.economist.com/news/international/21727896-century-after-india-ended-system-indentured-labour-its-diaspora-building|access-date=2 September 2017|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|date=2 September 2017}}</ref> Although the system was officially suspended, those who were serving indentures at that time were required to complete their terms of service, thereby extending the system into the early 1920s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sturman |first=Rachel |date=1 December 2014 |title=Indian Indentured Labor and the History of International Rights Regimes |url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/119/5/1439/44606 |access-date=2024-02-09 |website=academic.oup.com}}</ref> According to ''[[The Economist]]'', "When the [[Imperial Legislative Council]] finally ended indenture...it did so because of pressure from [[Indian nationalists]] and declining profitability, rather than from humanitarian concerns."<ref name="eco" />

==China==
During the [[mid-19th century]], thousands of [[Chinese people|Chinese]] laborers were contracted, often under [[deceptive]] or [[coercive]] means by slavers called crimps, to work in plantations across the [[Caribbean]], [[Peru]], and [[Hawaii]]. These migrations were a direct consequence of colonial powers seeking cheap labor post-slavery abolition, with Chinese trade docks being forced open by the unequal treaties following the [[Opium Wars]].<ref name="ding 2001">{{cite AV media |last=Ding |first=Loni |date=2001 |title=Ancestors in the Americas  |url=https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/ancestors-americas?frontend=kui |url-access=registration |format=Streaming video |work= |type=Documentary |language=en |publisher=CET Films |access-date=2025-02-02 |via=Kanopy}}</ref>

These workers endured grueling labor conditions.<ref name="ding 2001"/> A [[Yankee]] [[plantation]] manager in Hawaii is quoted as saying, "They have to work all the time — and no regard is paid to their complaints for food, etc., Slavery is nothing compared to it."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans|last=Takaki|first=Ronald|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|year=1998|location=United States|page=21}}</ref> These laborers were part of a larger post-abolition system that replaced [[chattel slavery]] with contract slavery. Testimonies from Chinese workers in Cuba document abuse, overwork, and limited legal recourse.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Coolie Speaks: Chinese Indentured Laborers and African Slaves in Cuba|last=Yun|first=Lisa|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2009|location=United States}}</ref>

==Oceania==
{{Main|Blackbirding}}

[[Convicts in Australia|Convicts transported to the Australian colonies]] before the 1840s often found themselves hired out in a form of indentured labor.<ref>
{{cite book
| last                  = Atkinson
| first                 = James
| title                 = An account of the state of agriculture & grazing in New South Wales
| url                   = https://archive.org/details/anaccountstatea00atkigoog
| access-date            = 2012-11-14
| year                  = 1826
| publisher             = J. Cross
| location              = London
| page                  = [https://archive.org/details/anaccountstatea00atkigoog/page/n123 110]
| quote                 = On Sir [[Thomas Brisbane]] assuming the Government, it was ordered, that all persons should, for every 100 acres of land granted to them, take and keep one convict until the expiration or remission of his sentence.
}}
</ref>
Indentured servants also emigrated to [[New South Wales]].<ref>
{{Citation
| last    = Perkins
| first   = John
| editor-last   = Nicholas
| editor-first  = Stephen
| publication-date = 1988
| title    = The Convict Workers: Reinterpeting Australia's Past
| contribution = Convict Labour and the Australian Agricultural Company
| series  = Studies in Australian History
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| page  = 168
| isbn = 978-0-521-36126-2
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PX2hli7W8WkC
| access-date  = 2012-11-14
| quote      = A feature of the [[Australian Agricultural Company]]'s operation at [[Port Stephens (New South Wales)|Port Stephens]] was the simultaneous employment [...] of various forms of labour. The original nucleus of the workforce consisted of indentured servants brought out from Europe on seven-year contracts.
| year   = 1987
}}
</ref>
The [[Van Diemen's Land Company]] used skilled indentured labor for periods of seven years or less.<ref>p.15 Duxbury, Jennifer ''Colonia Servitude: Indentured and Assigned Servants of the Van Diemen's Land Company 1825–1841'' Monach Publications in History 1989</ref> A similar scheme for the [[Swan River (Western Australia)|Swan River]] area of Western Australia existed between 1829 and 1832.<ref>Fitch, Valerie ''Eager for Labour:The Swan River Indenture'' Hesperian Press 2003</ref>

During the 1860s planters in [[Australia]], [[Fiji]], [[New Caledonia]], and the [[Samoa]] [[Island]]s, in need of laborers, encouraged a trade in long-term indentured labor called "blackbirding". At the height of the labor trade, more than one-half the adult male population of several of the islands worked abroad.{{citation needed|date = April 2012}}<!--need better cite-->

[[File:Groupe de Kanakas dans une exploitation de canne à sucre du Queensland.jpg|thumb|[[Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)|Kanaka workers]] in a sugar cane plantation in Queensland, late 19th century.]]

Over a period of 40 years, from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, labor for the sugar-cane fields of [[Queensland]], Australia included an element of coercive recruitment and indentured servitude of the 62,000 [[South Sea Islanders]]. The workers came mainly from [[Melanesia]] – mainly from the [[Solomon Islands]] and [[Vanuatu]] – with a small number from [[Polynesia]]n and [[Micronesia]]n areas such as [[Samoa]], the [[Gilbert Islands]] (subsequently known as [[Kiribati]]) and the [[Ellice Islands]] (subsequently known as [[Tuvalu]]). They became collectively known as "[[Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)|Kanakas]]".{{citation needed|date = April 2012}}

Indentured labour existed in [[Papua New Guinea]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hawthorne |first1=Harry |title=Indentured labour in New Guinea |journal=Institute of Pacific Relations |date=13 March 1946 |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=74–78 |location=JStor|doi=10.2307/3022147 |jstor=3022147 }}</ref>

It remains unknown how many Islanders the trade controversially kidnapped. Whether the system legally recruited Islanders, persuaded, deceived, coerced or forced them to leave their homes and travel by ship to Queensland remains difficult to determine. Official documents and accounts from the period often conflict with the [[oral tradition]] passed down to the descendants of workers. Stories of blatantly violent kidnapping tend to relate to the first 10–15 years of the trade.{{citation needed|date = April 2012}}

[[Australia]] deported many of these Islanders back to their places of origin in the period 1906–1908 under the provisions of the [[Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901]].<ref>
{{cite web
 |url=http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?sdID=86 
 |title=Documenting Democracy 
 |publisher=Foundingdocs.gov.au 
 |access-date=2009-07-04 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026225820/http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?sdID=86 
 |archive-date=October 26, 2009 
}}</ref>

==Africa==
A significant number of construction projects in [[British East Africa]] and [[Cape Colony|South Africa]], required vast quantities of labor, exceeding the availability or willingness of local tribesmen. Indentured Indians from India were imported, for such projects as the [[Uganda Railway]], as farm labor, and as miners.  They and their descendants formed a significant portion of the population and economy of Kenya and Uganda, although not without engendering resentment from others. [[Idi Amin]]'s [[Expulsion of Asians from Uganda|expulsion of the "Asians" from Uganda]] in 1972 was an expulsion of Indo-Africans.<ref name="Amin-Indophobia">{{cite journal |title=General Amin and the Indian Exodus from Uganda |first=Hasu H. |last=Patel |journal=Issue: A Journal of Opinion |volume=2 |issue=4 |year=1972 |pages=12–22 |doi=10.2307/1166488 |jstor=1166488 }}</ref>

The majority of the population of [[Mauritius]] are descendants of Indian indentured labourers brought in between 1834 and 1921. Initially brought to work the sugar estates following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire an estimated half a million indentured laborers were present on the island during this period. [[Aapravasi Ghat]], in the bay at [[Port Louis]] and now a [[UNESCO]] site, was the first [[British Empire|British colony]] to serve as a major reception centre for indentured Indians from India who came to work on [[plantation]]s following the abolition of slavery.<ref name="govt">{{cite news|url=http://www.govmu.org/English/ExploreMauritius/Pages/History.aspx#dutch|title=History|publisher=[[Government Portal of Mauritius]]|access-date=22 January 2015|archive-date=16 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161016015207/http://www.govmu.org/English/ExploreMauritius/Pages/History.aspx#dutch}}</ref>

==Legal status==
The [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] (adopted by the [[United Nations General Assembly]] in 1948) declares in Article 4 "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights |publisher=United Nations |access-date=2011-10-14}}</ref> More specifically, it is dealt with by article 1(a) of the United Nations 1956 [[Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery]].

However, only national legislation can establish the unlawfulness of indentured labor in a specific jurisdiction. In the United States, the [[Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000|Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act]] (VTVPA) of 2000 extended servitude to cover [[peonage]] as well as Involuntary Servitude.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/1581fin.php |title=US Peonage and involuntary servitude laws |publisher=justice.gov |access-date=2011-10-14}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col}}
* [[Bracero program]]
* [[Coolie]]
* [[Debt Bondage]]
* [[English Poor Laws]]
* [[Human trafficking]]
* [[Home Children]]
* [[Indenture]] (document)
* [[Indentured servitude in Pennsylvania]]
* [[Involuntary servitude]]
* [[Irish indentured servants]]
* [[List of indentured servants]]
* [[Padrone system]]
* [[Penal transportation]]
* [[Redemptioner]]
* [[Scottish poorhouse]]
* [[Slavery]]
* [[United States labor law]]
* [[Unpaid work]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|32em}}

==References==
*{{cite book |last=Bahadur |first=Gaiutra |author-link=Gaiutra Bahadur |title=Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture |publisher=The University of Chicago |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-226-21138-1 |title-link=Coolie Woman }}
*"[https://slaverylawpower.org/barbados-side-by-side/ Barbados Side-by-Side Transcription]". Slavery Law & Power in Early America and the British Empire. 
* {{cite journal |last1=Block |first1=Kristen |last2=Shaw |first2=Jenny |title=Subjects without Empire: The Irish in the Early Modern Caribbean |journal=Past & Present |date=2011 |issue=210 |pages=33–60 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtq059 |jstor=23015371 }}
*{{cite book|last=Higman |first=B. W.  |year=1997 |editor-first=Franklin W. |editor-last=Knight |title=General History of the Caribbean: The slave societies of the Caribbean |volume=3 |edition=illustrated |publisher=UNESCO |isbn=978-0-333-65605-1|page=108}}
*{{cite journal|last=Galenson|first=David W.|title=White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in Colonial America|journal=The Journal of Economic History|date=March 1981|volume=41|issue=1|pages=39–47|doi=10.1017/s0022050700042728|s2cid=154760626 |url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/82103/1/sswp318.pdf}}
*{{cite journal|last=Galenson|first=David W.|title=The Market Evaluation of Human Capital: The Case of Indentured Servitude|journal=Journal of Political Economy|date=June 1981|volume=89|issue=3|pages=446–467|doi=10.1086/260980|s2cid=44248111|url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/82322/1/sswp316.pdf}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Galenson |first1=David W. |title=The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis |journal=The Journal of Economic History |date=March 1984 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1017/s002205070003134x |s2cid=154682898 }}
*{{cite journal|last=Grubb|first=Farley|title=The Incidence of Servitude in Trans-Atlantic Migration, 1771–1804|journal=Explorations in Economic History|date=July 1985|volume=22|issue=3|pages=316–39|doi=10.1016/0014-4983(85)90016-6}}
*{{cite journal|last=Grubb|first=Farley|title=The Market for Indentured Immigrants: Evidence on the Efficiency of Forward-Labor Contracting in Philadelphia, 1745–1773|journal=The Journal of Economic History|date=Dec 1985|volume=45|issue=4|pages=855–868|doi=10.1017/s0022050700035130|s2cid=36848963 }}
*{{cite journal|last=Grubb|first=Farley|title=The Disappearance of Organized Markets for European Immigrant Servants in the United States: Five Popular Explanations Reexamined|journal=Social Science History|date=Spring 1994|volume=18|issue=1|pages=1–30|doi=10.2307/1171397|jstor=1171397}}
*{{cite journal|last=Grubb|first=Farley|title=The End of European Immigrant Servitude in the United States: An Economic Analysis of Market Collapse, 1772–1835|journal=The Journal of Economic History|date=Dec 1994|volume=54|issue=4|pages=794–824|doi=10.1017/s0022050700015497|s2cid=153945665 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Handler |first1=Jerome S. |last2=Reilly |first2=Matthew C. |title=Contesting 'White Slavery' in the Caribbean: Enslaved Africans and European Indentured Servants in Seventeenth-Century Barbados |journal= New West Indian Guide |date=2017 |volume=91 |issue=1/2 |pages=30–55 |doi=10.1163/22134360-09101056 |jstor=26552068 |s2cid=164512540 |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Hogan |first1=Liam |last2=McAtackney |first2=Laura |last3=Reilly |first3=Matthew |title=The Irish in the Anglo-Caribbean: Servants or Slaves? |journal=History Ireland |date=March 2016 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=18–22 |doi=10.17613/M61Z41S48 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Shaw |first1=Jenny |title=Everyday Life in the Early English Caribbean: Irish, Africans, and the Construction of Difference |date=2013 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-4634-2 |oclc=864551346 }}
*{{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 }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last1=Abramitzky |first1=Ran |last2=Braggion |first2=Fabio |title=Migration and Human Capital: Self-Selection of Indentured Servants to the Americas |journal=The Journal of Economic History |date=2006 |volume=66 |issue=4 |pages=882–905 |doi=10.1017/S0022050706000362 |jstor=4501107 |s2cid=46777744 |url=https://research.tilburguniversity.edu/en/publications/706160f4-2a30-4832-856d-676e8f4c705e }}
* Ballagh, James Curtis. ''White Servitude In The Colony Of Virginia: A Study Of The System Of Indentured Labor In The American Colonies'' (1895) [https://books.google.com/books?id=wmhj5_BEKkwC excerpt and text search]
* Brown, Kathleen. ''Goodwives, Nasty Wenches & Anxious Patriachs: gender, race and power in Colonial Virginia'', U. of North Carolina Press, 1996.
* Hofstadter, Richard. ''America at 1750: A Social Portrait'' (Knopf, 1971) pp 33–65 [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930043503/http://www.mc.cc.md.us/departments/hpolscrv/whiteser.html online]
* Jernegan, Marcus Wilson ''Laboring and Dependent Classes in Colonial America, 1607–1783'' (1931)
* Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia.'' (Norton, 1975).
* Nagl, Dominik. ''No Part of the Mother Country, but Distinct Dominions – Law, State Formation and Governance in England, Massachusetts und South Carolina, 1630–1769'' (LIT, 2013): 515–535, 577f., 635–689.[https://web.archive.org/web/20071023013255/http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm online]
* Salinger, Sharon V. ''To serve well and faithfully: Labor and Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania'', 1682–1800.'' (2000)
* Tomlins, Christopher. ''Freedom Bound: Law, Labor, and Civic Identity in English Colonization, 1580–1865'' (2010); influential recent interpretation [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32263 online review]
* Torabully, Khal,  and Marina Carter, ''Coolitude: An Anthology of the Indian Labour Diaspora'' Anthem Press, London, 2002, {{ISBN|1-84331-003-1}}
* Torabully, Khal, Voices from the Aapravasi Ghat – Indentured imaginaries, poetry collection on the coolie route and the fakir's aesthetics, Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, AGTF, Mauritius, November 2, 2013.
* Wareing, John. ''Indentured Migration and the Servant Trade from London to America, 1618–1718''. Oxford Oxford University Press, February 2017
* Whitehead, John Frederick, Johann Carl Buttner, Susan E. Klepp, and Farley Grubb. ''Souls for Sale: Two German Redemptioners Come to Revolutionary America'', Max Kade German-American Research Institute Series, {{ISBN|0-271-02882-3}}.
*Zipf, Karin L. ''Labor of Innocents: Forced Apprenticeship in North Carolina, 1715–1919'' (2005).

===Historiography===
* {{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 }}

==External links==
{{Commonscatinline}}
* [https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/472077983/ GUIANA 1838 – a film about indentured laborers]
* Voices from the Aapravasi Ghat, Khal TOrabully, [https://web.archive.org/web/201506171264151/http://www.potomitan.info/torabully/voices.php Potomitan - Voices from the Aapravasi Ghat]

{{Poverty}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Indentured servitude| ]]
[[Category:Debt bondage]]
[[Category:Apprenticeship]]
[[Category:Colonization history of the United States]]
[[Category:Colonial United States (British)]]