Labor was a key issue in colonial America. The American labor force consisted of
indentured servants, redemptioners from europe, slaves from africa and the colonists themselves.
Indentured servants were the first source of foriegn labor to arrive in America. Scores came
from England between 1698 an 1700. “Out of 3,257 people who left for America, 918 of them were
on their way to Maryland, a major port of indentured servants and redemptioners.”
The new world offer a great deal to the Europeans. Most Europeans desired the political and
economic freedoms of teh new world. The British capitalists offered those who wanted to come to
America, but could not aford it, the opportunity to do so by having them agree to surrender a portion
of there life to work as a laborer in return for having those expenses paid. THis was the beginning of
indentured servants.
The contract of servtude was simple. Europeans who were unable to pay their on passage
across the Atlantic became bondservanst for a period of years to some colonial master who paid for
them. “It was a legal contract by which the servants bound himself to serve the master in such
employments as the master might assign for a a given length of time usually in a specified
plantation.” The contract included other causes. A mor skilled worker might get wages and also be
excluded from field labor. Education was included in the children’s indenture. “Four years for each
adult was the average time of servitude. Children usually worked until they were 21.”
Servitude were cruel; it subjected large numbers of people to a hard, laborious, and
dangeruos way of life. Many who came found the work to dificult; they were not ready for this type
off life. “In the first few years, it killed fifty or seventy five out of every hundred.”
Why were people so willing to enter into a life of servitude in a new country? Conditions in
Europe during this period were poor. Political and economic problems existed. People were lured to
America by its promise for religous freedom and and opportunity for a better life.