Indentured Servitude in Virginia essays

Indentured Servitude in Virginia essays Colonial America began as people from Europe chose to journey to the New World. These immigrants were searching for the tales of opportunity as well as escape the grasp of the king and the Church of England. As the population increased in the New World, so did the need of a larger and more broad labor force. The southern colonies in America typically needed more manual labor to farm rice, indigo, tobacco, and needed people to work the robust plantations. As a result of the increase in the demand for more manpower several different methods were used to acquire people from Europe to America. The head right system, indentured servitude, and eventually slavery were used successfully to jump start the southern colonies economy along with forming a social structure. During the 17th and 18th centuries, countless numbers of immigrants, mostly from Europe, sold themselves into bondage in exchange for passage to America. Drifters, drunks, and orphans were kidnapped or deceived by English recruiting agents who worked for merchants and ship captains. But most indentured servants willingly sold themselves into bondage for a term of five to seven years. Their hope was that, once free, in land-rich America, they would rise in the world. About four of every five immigrants to the Chesapeake region in the 17th century came as indentured servants. Unfortunately because of disease and brutally harsh treatment, 40% of the servants would not survive their term of service. Most women servants worked in the masters' household, where many of them were sexually abused and harshly mistreated. If a woman servant had an unexpected child, she had to serve an extra year or so for time lost for pregnancy and childbirth. There was little sense of community or stability in Virginia. Even the family was a precarious thing in a place where there were three times as many men as women, where most husbands and wives died within seven years of their marriage, and wher...