Indentured Servitude

Definition

Indentured servitude was a labor system where people paid for their passage to the New World by committing to work for an employer for a certain number of years.

Related terms

Headright System: A legal grant of land given to settlers during colonial times; often used as incentive for encouraging indentured servitude.

Debt Peonage: A system where an employer compels a worker into paying off debt with work; similar conceptually but typically more exploitative than indentured servitude.

Convict Leasing: An arrangement whereby private businesses paid state authorities for control over prisoners' labor; another form of forced labor akin to indentured servitude.