Indentured servitude is a system where labor is exchanged for needs such as food, shelter, property or money at the end of the service. It has been used historically in colonizing new regions, but can also lead to exploitation and abuse, resembling characteristics of slavery. Modern forms can lead to sex trafficking and poverty.
Indentured servitude is a system of exchanging a period of time and labor for needs such as food, shelter, property or money at the end of the service. While it is generally known that slavery uses an individual for labor or services against the individual’s will, indentured servitude has typically involved a contract and the exchange of labor for goods needed by the worker. While historically a length of servitude could be between three and seven years, this length of service can vary depending on terms and location internationally.
Indentured servitude dates back thousands of years, when men could trade years of labor for the promise of getting a landowner’s daughter at the end of their service. In the history of colonizing new regions, indentured servitude has filled a need in the development of emerging economies. Settlers and settlers needed help establishing roots in agriculture and farming, and many who left their lands needed work. These serfs joined the settlers and were in most cases worked very hard, but at the end of their indentured time, they were often given plots of land or goods with which to put down roots.
While the practice of indentured servitude may have a purpose and a use, it can also be a means of exploitation and abuse. Cases of children being exchanged into indentured servitude can lead to lifelong slavery for the child. Some workers work the land in exchange for shelter and food, but are generally not provided with the means to meet their terms of service as the costs of caring for themselves or their families are unfairly added up by their employers. Other workers may complete a contractual term without receiving the promised compensation.
Some modern forms of indentured servitude resemble characteristics of slavery. Internationally, people looking for work outside the economically deprived places where they live can be promised work, housing and income in another city or country. Once workers arrive at their destination, they may receive poor work and living conditions, but their identity documents and basic freedoms may be withheld indefinitely by self-declared employers. This practice has been popularized in sex trafficking as young women and men are traded or taken into slavery away from home. Promises of an indentured servitude arrangement can lead from one form of poverty to another, with no contract or end of contract in sight.
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