Bound by contract to work for a specific period, typically 4-7 years, in exchange for passage to a new country or to pay off debts. Indentured servants had some legal protections but faced harsh working conditions and limited freedom during their term of service.
From Medieval Latin 'indentura,' referring to contracts with notched or 'indented' edges that could be matched to verify authenticity. The practice evolved from medieval European labor contracts to become a major source of colonial labor, bridging the gap between free and enslaved labor.
Indentured servitude was colonial America's version of the gig economy - over half of all European immigrants to America before 1776 came as indentured servants! Unlike slaves, they had an end date to their bondage, but the mortality rates were so high that many never lived to see freedom, making it a deadly gamble for a chance at a new life.
Indentured servitude bound women and men to exploitative contracts, but women faced additional sexual abuse and reproductory coercion invisible in legal records. The term obscures the gendered dimension of unfree labor.
When discussing indentured servitude, name gender-specific abuses women endured; avoid neutral language that erases gendered violence.
Women indentured servants, particularly in colonies, resisted and negotiated freedom; their agency deserves historical attention beyond servitude narratives.
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