The Path to Labor: Indentured Servants to Slaves

Slavery is…well it is not quite that simple. Everyone has various definitions of what exactly slavery is. To some, it may be the system extant in the American South. This system has been called by some to cruelest in history. Yet, to others, slavery that existed in South America or in the Ottoman Empire is worse. This feeling is heightened by the apparent lack of scholarship of the subject. Though, that is changing. Still others see the laager of South African Boers and hearken back to the feeling of being surrounded and yet still being able to eek out existence.

South Africa used a system not unlike American Slavery [called Apartheid or "legal separation"] wherein African movements were tracked and passbooks were issued to control their population flow. For example, an African could be issued a passbook to work in the mines of Johannesburg to work in the diamond mines, and only be allowed there. If he were caught outside of his working area, he could face arrest and deportation back to his “homeland” by the Afrikaner government.

However, I digress, this book is not about slavery systems and comparing each in an end all be all grudge match to determine the winner. No, this book is about an even less talked about phenomenon. That is indentured slavery. Even in my courses, it was a footnote.

Indentured slavery, think about that for a moment. What images come to mind? For most, the image of someone seeking safe passage across the Atlantic Ocean but lacking sufficient funds to do so. Ship-owners, the Fed-Ex of their day, would take people across the Atlantic, even if they lacked money. These people had one thing that proved more valuable, labor. After reaching the “New World” the passengers would serve out a term [or debt] for 7 years. After this debt was paid they were released to do whatever they choose. Often, they were given small gifts in appreciation of their service. These often included land or money.

Indentured servants proved a valuable commodity in the New World. However it soon became apparent that this would not fill the high labor goals that settlers required. Frantic, they searched for a suitable replacement. Soon, the discussion turned to slavery. But who could you enslave?

The first peoples up for enslavement were Native Americans. After all, they proved ineffectual stewards of their land, they could work it for nothing and repay their debt. However, a powerful factor rose to keep them from slavery. Europeans, sometimes purposefully, brought with them diseases. Native Americans, recently enslaved, were dying of diseases they had never heard of such as smallpox and fever. In the end, they proved to be unreliable and temporary labor.