Indentured servants and slaves were brought from outside America to work in plantations in the colony. These people faced cruel punishment for petty crimes. They were poorly housed, ill-clothed, ill-fed, bought, and sold (Smedley, 2007). Furthermore, indentured servants and slaves had high mortality due to poor working conditions. Their ideas were born of the necessity for cheap labor. Slaves and indentured servants lived difficult lives, and it was usual to see abuse of such groups, as they were regarded inferior. Indentured servants and slaves played a prominent role in the colonial economy, as they could be inherited, at least in the course of the period of their contract terms.
The main distinction between slaves and indentured servants is that the latter had at least some legal rights, unlike the former. Indentured servants had agreements of their own free choice, unlike slaves who were captured forcefully. Masters’ treatment of indentured servants varied widely. Some lords viewed their indentured servants as personal property and forced them to labor hard tasks before their contracts ended. Another type of owner treated his slaves better than his indentured servants because slaves were seen as an investment that would last a lifetime. Indentured servants arrived way before slavery in the early 1600s, unlike slaves who came from 1619.
Indentured servants labored between four and seven years for a passage fee, bed and board fee, and freedom dues, unlike slaves who labored for a lifetime. Slaves came from Africa, whereas indentured servants originated from Europe. Slaves’ circumstances were worse than indentured servants’ (Smedley, 2007). Slaves were never paid, whereas indentured servants labored in exchange for an agreed-upon perk, such as free accommodation.
Reference
Smedley, A. (2007). The history of the idea of race. In Race, Human Variation and Disease: Consensus and Frontiers (pp. 1-9). American Anthropological Association.