The early colonists flocked to the New World expecting to find their fortunes through discovery of gold, silver and iron. Although, it quickly became evident that these precious metals were not as plentiful and easy to obtain as they first thought. In finding ways to survive, the colonists took note that the natives used the soil to sustain their villages. They began planting and farming to create income. This caused the rise of tobacco plantations and tobacco soon becomes the main form of income for the colonists. Although, many of the settlers were men who were not willing or incapable of the hard work and long hours required to complete the tasks of farming and planting. The landowners quickly acknowledged the need for a large workforce of manual laborers. The numbers of men needed to grow large crops was difficult to come by, as labor in colonial America was scarce. This shortage of manpower for labor forced Colonists to find ways of increasing the workforce. This paper will discuss how indentured servitude began along with advantages and disadvantage of indentured servitude and why indentured servitude was abandoned. …show more content…
It took a large workforce to till, plant, and process the tobacco plant. In order to bring more people to the New World, landowner or sponsors, offered contracts to individuals who could not pay for the expensive trip to the America’s. Thus began indentured servants; men whose passage to the New World was paid for by wealthy colonists with the understanding that they would work for the sponsor to pay off this debt. Indentured servants became a primary source of labor in the American colonies during the seventeenth century. Advantages within Indentured