Indentured servitude
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Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a pre
An indenture signed by Henry Mayer, with an "X", in 1738. This contract bound Mayer to Abraham Hestant of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who had paid for Mayer to travel from Europe.
Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye of New France with a group of engagés (indentured servants)
Slaves having a stick fight. A white indentured servant is standing on the left.
Indian woman in traditional dress
Slavery
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Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regard to their labour. It is an economic phenomenon and its history resides in economic history. Slavery typically involves compulsory
Indentured servitude
…debt repayment. An indenture may also be imposed involuntarily as a judicial punishment. The practice has been compared to the similar institution of slavery, although there are differences. Like any loan, an indenture could be sold. Most masters had to depend on middlemen or ships' masters to recruit and…
Peter, a slave from Louisiana, in 1863. The scars are the result of a whipping by his overseer.
A poster for a slave auction in Georgia, U.S., 1860
13th-century slave market in Yemen
Portrait of an older woman in New Orleans with her enslaved servant girl in the mid-19th century