Similarities Between Indentured Servitude

Indentured servitude and slavery existed in the ‘New World’ primarily for economic and population growth. In the book, Going to the Source, Slavery was defined as “hereditary” and “a lifetime status” and the slave must serve for life, however, on the other hand indentured servitude was “contractual” and “voluntary” although the servant is forced to serve for a fixed amount of years. Indentured servitude and slavery are strikingly parallel to each other from the fact that both parties participate in physically demanding labor and endure severe punishments induced by their master, nevertheless, the contractual agreement to each party is quite different, plus the primary skin color of the of party heavily impacts the treatment and escape punishments
(if caught). Indentured servitude and slavery coincide with each regarding the intensity and diversity of the type of labor preformed, and the severity and brutality of the punishments inflicted upon indentured servants and slaves. Indentured servants were involuntarily obligated to preform harsh physical labor comparable to slaves, for example, farming Tobacco. Tobacco farming was backbreaking physical labor and Eric Foner stated in Give Me Liberty!, that “Despite harsh conditions of work in the tobacco fields, a persistently high death rate, and laws mandating punishments from whipping to an extension of service for those who ran away or were unruly…”. The Increase demand for labor Tobacco industry in the Chesapeake region enticed many immigrants to become indentured servants and escape poverty from their origin country. Around 120,000 immigrants migrated to the ‘New World’ and three fourths of those immigrants became indentured servants in hope of procuring a better life for themselves and/or family.