I vaguely recall this being taught in my U.S. History class in high school, but not until college, many years later, did I learn the shocking details of indentured servitude. Oddly, I learned more about the subject in a popular culture class than in a history class.
The growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need for labor in Southern English America. Without the aid of modern machinery, human sweat and blood was necessary for the planting, cultivation, and harvesting of these cash crops. While slaves existed in the English colonies throughout the 1600s, indentured servitude was the method of choice employed by many planters before the 1680s. U.S. History website
I thought when signing up for pop culture, I would be studying the Beatles or American TV and film, but the main focus of the course was American hegemony. My text,
"Media Messages" by Linda Holtzman and M.E. Sharpe is described as a text that "reveals how the popular media contribute to widespread myths and misunderstanding about cultural diversity."
"While focused on the impact of television, feature film, and popular music, the authors reach far beyond media to explore how our understanding, values, and beliefs about race, class, gender and sexual orientation are constructed."
Little did I know that over half of English immigrants were indentured to pay for their passage to America. The contracts were from 5- 10 years. Many died before they were freed.
More things I didn't know below the fold
Holtzman cites a study of indentured workers in Maryland that points out that the servants worked six days a week in 10-14 hour shifts, and that some went on to be planters upon completion of their servitude.
However, 40 percent died before completing their contract.
Women also served as indentured servants and according to the U.S. History website,
Societal perception that women of this social class were inherently immoral meant that protestations of rape or seduction fell on deaf ears. If a woman became pregnant, the law automatically added three years to her indenture contract to compensate for loss of labor to the owner. Immigration in America
Initially, many worked in the tobacco fields of Virginia and Maryland and were rewarded with up to 25 acres of land if they survived, but when land became scarce and more valuable, plantation owners began importing blacks from Africa.
In 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in place, they were initially treated as indentured servants, and given the same opportunities for freedom dues as whites. However, slave laws were soon passed – in Massachusetts in 1641 and Virginia in 1661 –and any small freedoms that might have existed for blacks were taken away. PBS
As white workers were replaced by slaves, or fled from abusive masters, many moved westward in violation of treaties and were confronted by hostile native Americans and mountain land that was not suitable for farming. As a result...
A class of angry, impoverished pioneer farmers began to emerge as the 1600s grew old.
Eventually, the formerly indentured Scottish, Irish, and British migrated over the Appalachians and populated areas of the South, where many remain angry and impoverished to this day.