Indentured servant

An Indentured servant is an unfree labourer under contract to work (for a specified amount of time) for another person or a company/corporation, often without any monetary pay, but in exchange for accommodation, food, other essentials, training, or passage to a new country. After working for the term of the contract (traditionally seven years) the servant was then free to farm or take up trade of his own. The term comes from the medieval English "indenture of retainer" — a contract written in duplicate on the same sheet, with the copies separated by cutting along a jagged (toothed, hence the term "indenture) line so that the teeth of the two parts could later be refitted to confirm authenticity.

Related Topics:
Unfree labour - Contract

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It is the legal basis of the apprenticeship system by which skilled trades were learned.

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Indentured servitude comparable to involuntary servitude and slavery.

Related Topics:
Involuntary servitude - Slavery

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There have been multiple occasions where the indentured servatude has been abused, an example, where an indentured servant needs goods or services not available or supplied at a cost within the terms of the indenture finds that to obtain such goods or services requires the period of their indenture to be extended.

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