USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In some sense the colonies’ early experience with indentured servants paved the way for the transition to slavery. Like slaves, indentured servants were unfree, and ownership of their labor could be freely transferred from one owner to another.

Detailed explanation-2: -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-3: -Indentured persons were numerically important mostly in the region from Virginia north to New Jersey. Other colonies saw far fewer of them. The total number of European immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 was 500, 000–550, 000; of these, 55, 000 were involuntary prisoners.

Detailed explanation-4: -The life of an indentured servant was difficult and filled with heavy physical labor. In the Chesapeake Colonies, this was usually field work. It has been estimated that an indentured servant working four acres of corn and tending 1, 000 tobacco plants would bend over at least 50, 000 times during servitude.