History Of Indentured Servants

The most commonly used labor system used in Virginia prior to the 1670’s was indentured servants. Indentured servants were the most common form of labor because during this time period slaves were too expensive. Indentured servants were generally too poor to afford a ticket to afford a ticket to the New World. In exchange for servitude they were offered passage to the New World, where upon arrival world sold by the ship’s captain to a landowner. As time went on the gap between the rich and the poor, who were mostly freed servants, became larger and larger. By the 1670’s tensions were at a climax causing landowners to seek alternate forms of labor. The main source of labor in the Chesapeake region prior to the 1670’s was indentured servants. Indentured servants consisted of people that were too poor to afford the cost of a voyage to the New World. They signed a contract with a ship’s captain, where in exchange for passage the captain could sell their

Indentured servants during the early seventeenth century cost much less than the average slave did at the time. The average slave cost three to five times as much as the term of indenture for a servant. Indentured servants also had a longer life span than the average slave, keeping them working for their master longer. This was also improved with the headright that was included with the purchase of every indentured servant. During this time as an incentive to move to the New World a headright was offered to anyone that would move to the colonies. A headright was fifty acre plot which you received upon arrival to the colonies. When a landowner purchased an indentured servant they received the servant’s headright, which they used to expand their farms to grow more crops. All of these factors made purchasing an indentured servant more profitable than a slave in the early seventeenth