What role did indentured servitude play in the early economy of the Chesapeake colonies
Abstract Indentured servitude appeared in Virginia by 1620. Initially a device used to transport European workers to the New World, over time servitude dwindled as black slavery grew in importance in the British colonies. Indentured servitude reappeared in the Americas in the mid-nineteenth century as a means of transporting Asians to the Caribbean sugar islands and South America following the abolition of slavery. Servitude then remained in legal use until its abolition in 1917. This paper provides an economic analysis of the innovation of indentured servitude, describes the economic forces that caused its decline and disappearance from the British colonies, and considers why indentured servitude was revived for migration to the West Indies during the time of the great free migration of Europeans to the Americas. Show
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LoginIndentured ServitudeMichael GuascoLAST REVIEWED: 12 April 2019LAST MODIFIED: 25 May 2011DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0113 (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});IntroductionAlthough it most famously appeared during the 17th century as a means for facilitating transatlantic migration and providing labor in England’s early American colonies, indentured servitude has manifested itself in many forms during its long history. Indentured servants were individuals who bargained away their labor for a period of four to seven years in exchange for passage to the New World. In the 17th century, indentured servants made up the mass of English immigrants to the Chesapeake colonies and were central to the development of the tobacco economy. Large numbers of indentured servants could also be found in the English West Indian colonies, but they were replaced by enslaved African laborers by the end of the century as cash-crop agriculture (particularly sugar) and plantation slavery gradually minimized the overall demographic and economic importance of indentured servitude as a labor system. Regardless, indentured servitude continued to be an important institution in the Atlantic world through the 19th century. Debates persist about the general characteristics of early indentured servants, but they were certainly primarily younger English men in search of new opportunities for wealth and advancement that were unavailable to them at home. Some people achieved this goal, but many more either died before their contract expired or were unable to rise above a relatively moderate status in the colonies. In the 17th century, most indentured servants were of English origin and migrated to the Chesapeake and West Indies. Of the 120,000 emigrants to the Chesapeake during this era, roughly 90,000 arrived as bound laborers. Another 50,000 to 75,000 white indentured servants went to the islands, although these numbers included many Irish servants, political prisoners, and convict laborers. A few indentured servants, or engagés, appeared in the French colonies, but the institution was much more common in the British colonies. Indentured servitude did eventually become much more diverse, particularly during the 18th century when increasing numbers of German redemptioners arrived and an increasing percentage of people chose to locate themselves in nonplantation zones, especially Pennsylvania. Perhaps 150,000 non-English migrants arrived as servants during the late colonial period. After the American Revolution, however, the system virtually disappeared in the United States. In the West Indies, however, indentured servitude revived in many places after the abolition of slavery in the 1830s and 1840s. During the 19th century, large numbers of Indian and Chinese migrant laborers were bound into servitude to perform tasks once the responsibility of enslaved Africans. Scholars disagree about whether or not this new system was simply a new form of slavery. Regardless, as late as the first decades of the 20th century, unfree laborers—effectively the descendants of the mass of indentured servants who first appeared nearly four hundred years earlier—could still be found toiling in subjugation in the old plantation zones of North America and the Caribbean. General OverviewsIndentured servitude is often equally well treated in scholarly articles as it is in book-length studies. Salinger 1997 and Tomlins 2001 are good examples of brief essays that provide readers with a good introduction to the topic. The essays that appear in Emmer 1986 and Menard 2001 are exceptionally useful and provide an overview of the key issues and debates. Galenson 1981 is still the authoritative monograph on the subject and is important for its economic perspective. Smith 1971 is old but still valuable for its narrative treatment and attention to legal matters. More recently, Morgan 2001 is a nice survey that considers indentured servitude in comparison with slavery, although it does not cover the Caribbean. Allen 1994–1997 and Jordan and Walsh 2008 are good examples of more polemical studies inclined to emphasize the degree to which indentured servitude was often just another system of slavery.
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Down What role did indentured servants play in the transformation of the Chesapeake in the early seventeenth century?80% of the immigrants coming to the Chesapeake region during the 17th century were indentured servants. In Maryland and Virginia, these immigrants provided the early colonies with needed laborers to support the new and growing tobacco production.
How did indentured servitude work in the Chesapeake?After the failed experiment with Indians, the Chesapeake land owners turned to indentured servants. Indentured servants were usually young men who signed a contract of four to seven years to work for the master who paid for their trip. After that, they would be free to marry and work for themselves.
What was the role of indentured servants in the colonies?Indentured servants were men and women who signed a contract (also known as an indenture or a covenant) by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia and, once they arrived, food, clothing, and shelter.
How did indentured servitude affect the economy?Indentured servants solved the problem of labor scarcity in the short run but once their contracts were up, they were free to be landowners and funneled out. With the increase in demand for workers rising, their wages were higher.
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