Indentured Servants The idea of indentured servants were not introduced until the settlement of Jamestown by the Virginia Company in 1607. The growth of new crops such as rice, tobacco and indigo demanded plantation workers. Without enough workers, the landowners would lose money because the cash crops would die before they could be harvested. Without the machinery that is present today, workers would have to work very long hours each day. Supposedly, indentured servants were not the same thing as being a slave. However, they were treated terribly, just like slaves were. Adults would work from four to seven years but, children would usually work for much longer. Children would mostly work in the tobacco fields. The servants would trade