Indentured servitude
Indentured servitude is a form of 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.
At least one economist has suggested that "indentured servitude was an economic arrangement designed to iron out imperfections in the capital market".
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].
[citation needed] Indentured servants could not marry without the permission of their master, were frequently subject to physical punishment, and did not receive legal favor from the courts.
[14] 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] 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.
[15] William Miller posits a more moderate theory, stating that "the Revolution...wrought disturbances upon white servitude.
[16] David Galenson supports this theory by proposing that the numbers of British indentured servants never recovered, and that Europeans of other nationalities replaced them.
[17] Indentured servitude began its decline after Bacon's Rebellion, a servant uprising against the government of Colonial Virginia.
[20] The fear of indentured servitude eventually cemented itself into the hearts of Americans, leading towards the reliance on enslaved Africans.
[21] This helped to ingrain the idea of racial segregation and unite white Americans under race rather than economic or social class.
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.
[29] 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.
[39][40] Historians Kristen Block and Jenny Shaw write that: "the Irish — by virtue of their European heritage — gained […] greater social and economic mobility.
The contract was for five years with pay of ₹8 (12¢ US)[citation needed] per month and rations provided labourers had been transported from Pondicherry and Karaikal.
After the end of slavery, the West Indian sugar colonies tried the use of emancipated slaves, families from Ireland, Germany and Malta and 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.
[45] 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.
At the height of the labor trade, more than one-half the adult male population of several of the islands worked abroad.
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.
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 colony to serve as a major reception centre for indentured Indians from India who came to work on plantations following the abolition of slavery.
