Indentured Servants

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the history of redemptioners and indentured servants in the US. The paper looks at the various methods used to entice immigrants to colonial America and how the immigrants were treated once they arrived in American and during their passage. The paper notes that indentured servitude, while not exactly the same, was very similar to slavery and that conditions under which the white servant and the black slave labored were practically identical, except for the greater possibility of freedom for white indentured servants. The paper concludes that no servitude is just, especially in a country that is founded on democracy and the notion that "all men are to be created equal."

From the Paper:

"In 1901, Karl Frederick Geiser wrote the book Redemptioners and Indentured Servants of Pennsylvania, to "in the hope of throwing some new light upon an important phase of our Colonial history upon which comparatively little has been written." One hundred years later, Geiser could easily publish his book again, since most people in the United States do not know about servitude during early America except for the African slaves. Terms such as redemptioners, embarkation, debarkation, and even indentured servants are not detailed often, yet this was--for good or bad--a major aspect of Colonial history."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Emancipation in Pennsylvania. Slavery in the North. Website retrieved August 4, 2007. http://www.slavenorth.com/paemancip.htm
• Geiser, K. (1901) Redemptioners and Indentured Servants in the Colony and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania . New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Harrower, J. "Diary" (of Indentured Servant) in Amer. Hist. Rev., VI, 77.
• Illick, J.E. (1976). Colonial Pennsylvania: A History. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Jernegan, M.W. (1931). Laboring and Dependent Classes in Colonial America, 1607- 1783: Studies of the Economic, Educational, and Social Significance of Slaves, Servants, Apprentices and Poor Folk. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

More papers on Indentured Servants:

• Essay # 87483 : "Slaves and Indentured Servants"
• Essay # 55397 : "Indentured Servants and Company Towns"
• Essay # 15358 : "Rebellion of Oppressed Groups In the New World"

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