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Indentured Servants In The 17th And 18th Century

825 Words4 Pages

In the 17th & 18th century, when sailing overseas to living in America; life for most English civilians, was a tremendous suffering. Johannes Hänner and the Hundreds of Indentured Servants are, the treatment of indentured servants varied according to the master, the location the indentured served, and the German immigrants were able to pay for their passage to the American colonies, which was much easier than those who came as indentured servants. In 1619, the first indentured servants were introduced by the Virginia company. Since arriving, many indentures had to work from dusk to dawn out in the tobacco fields of Virginia and Maryland with no pay. The difference between indentured servants and slaves are unlike slaves; indentures servants eventually are freed from their masters after they’ve served their time. Although, slaves received better treatment than indentured servants, because slaves were …show more content…

While under contract, indentured servants must obey their master’s orders. Masters had every right to take their personal money, keep them from working for someone else, and could forbid you from traveling. Indentured servants were frequently overworked, especially in the south during harvesting season. Indentured servants rarely got enough to eat, depending on bread and water. Which resulted into their overall poor health. Corporal punishment towards indentured servants was expected for those who broke the rules. However, some servants were beaten so severely they died later that day. Masters were rarely punished for killing or severely injuring their servants. If indentured servants ran away to escape their horrible conditions, they

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