Reply #17: They were employees under contract. [View All]

[Mairead]

I own an indenturement document from 1687. It's on actual sheep-skin parchment and except for the beautiful penwork 'Indenture' at the top, it's just written out in the formal handwritng of the day (which is hard, but not impossible to read).

Articles of indenturement were not unlike articles of apprenticeship, except that they typically did not involve learning a craft. They were nothing more or less than employment contracts.

The one I own specified that a certain person was to work for a period of 4 years for a certain other person 'and Alyce his wife and their heirs and assigns forever'. So, like a baseball player's contract, an indenturement could be sold (the 'assigns' part). The 'forever' simply meant that the contract wouldn't evaporate even if the master and mistress and all their family suddenly died, which was not impossible in those days. Whoever eventually inherited their property would also inherit this employment contract for whatever was left of its period.

The person being employed promised to do the bidding of the employers, and the employers promised to pay a small wage plus supply food, clothing, shelter, and pay all normal expenses such as the cost of transportation if they emigrated. The people lived in York, and apparently intended to keep on doing so, though. Down at the bottom on the back (the darn thing goes on forever, the clerk's handwriting getting worse as it goes) there are the signatures of everyone involved plus a magistrate and 4 witnesses, two on each side I suppose, though it doesn't say.

So it was a two-way deal: both sides committed themselves completely. There were no escape clauses, which while making it a lot like temporary slavery, also assured the indenturee that he was going to get his basic needs met for the next 4 years. If the employers failed to honor their side of the bargain, he could take them to court for breach of contract and win. Similarly, if they emigrated and he decided to duck out once they hit Baltimore or wherever, they could have him posted as a runaway bondsman, which would have the sheriffs looking for him as they would a runaway slave.

There's a lot of misinformation floating around about indenturement during colonial times.