Many white immigrants arrived in colonial America as indentured servants, usually as young men and women from Britain or Germany, under the age of 21. Typically, the father of a teenager would sign the legal papers, and work out an arrangement with a ship captain, who would not charge the father any money. [ 20 ]

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.

Feb 5, 2025 · One third to half of the European population in Colonial Era America came in as indentured servants, apprentices, or convicts. Those searching for family history stories can find documents to help identify ancestors who immigrated in this way.

Indentured servitude was a constitutive factor in the development of colonial America and helped shape patterns of immigration, labor relationships, citizenship, and the economy of the colonies.

While slaves existed in the English colonies throughout the 1600s, indentured servitude was the method of choice employed by many planters before the 1680s. This system provided incentives for both the master and servant to increase the working population of the Chesapeake colonies.

Colonial Americans engaged in many forms of unfree labor, with great numbers of youths moving away from their families to become servants or apprentices. The terms of their service were spelled out in contracts called indentures, legal agreements that were entered into by the child’s parent (s) and the child’s new master.

To preserve the history of indentured servitude through (1) conservation of historical documents, (2) publication and/or abstracting of primary source materials, (3) partnering with organizations to further public awareness acknowledge the contributions of our immigrant indentured servant ancestors, who brought their talents, skills, and labor ...

The colonial elite realized the problems of indentured servitude. Landowners turned to African slaves as a more profitable and ever-renewable source of labor and the shift from indentured...

May 21, 2018 · Colonial laws ensured servants would fulfill the term of their obligation; any servant who ran away was severely punished. Laws also protected the servants, whose masters were obligated to provide them with housing, food, medical care, and even religious training.

Oct 28, 2024 · During the Great Migration, thousands of English immigrants arrived in America, with roughly 80% coming as indentured servants. This system was born out of economic need: the cost of travel to America was prohibitive, so many English men and women signed contracts agreeing to labor in exchange for passage, shelter, and the hope of land and freedom.