Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Indentured labor
(817 words)

Many of the impoverished laborers in Europe who wanted to try their luck in North American in the 17th and 18th centuries did not have sufficient means to do so (Emigration). One of the more common expedients was indentured servitude or indentured labor. Some legal systems, in particular in England, allowed for the practice of indentured servitude or labor, in which individuals contracted voluntarily to serve for a term with severely restricted personal rights (Personality, right of) in return for compensation (Employment law). The compensation could include a plot of land…

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Lucassen, Jan and Lucassen, Leo, “Indentured labor”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 25 September 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_021291>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180915



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