USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -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.

Detailed explanation-2: -Indentured servants were mostly young men between the ages of 15 and 25 years, who signed contracts in England to work in the colonies without wages. Up to 75 percent of all the individuals who came off the transatlantic ships in the 17th century were indentured servants.

Detailed explanation-3: -North America. Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was common in British America. It was often a way for Europeans to migrate to the American colonies: they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage.

Detailed explanation-4: -Indentured servitude differed from slavery in that it was a form of debt bondage, meaning it was an agreed upon term of unpaid labor that usually paid off the costs of the servant’s immigration to America. Indentured servants were not paid wages but they were generally housed, clothed, and fed.

Detailed explanation-5: -Indentured servitude was introduced by the Virginia Company in 1619 and appears to have arisen from a combination of the terms of two other types of labor contract widely used in England at the time: service in husbandry and apprenticeship (Galenson 1981).