Indentured servitude
From Hobson's Choice
A condition of servitude in which the employer hires the worker for a very long term of service, such as five years; during this term, the worker is bound to total subservience and is virtually a slave. The contract of servitude imposes no restrictions on the holder of the contract, beyond an obligation to pay a fixed sum at the expiration of the contract, and (usually) some necessities. Indentured servitude is closely related to debt peonage, in which the employer secures the servant's labor indefinitely through legal, but treacherous, conduct.
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Context
Slavery in the Americas, particularly in the Caribbean, was phased out beginning in 1833.[1] As it became rarer, managers tended to seek workers who were virtually helpless and easy to exploit in an industrial setting.
As the practice spread, it began to have far-reaching demographic effects, especially in Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the Caribbean.
Notes
- ↑ The abolition of slavery was usually more dramatic on paper than in fact. Mexico's President Vicente Guerrero outlawed slavery in 1829, but did so as a revolutionary dictator; on paper, slavery had been proscribed by the 1824 Constitution. Still, peonage survived well into the 20th century. Britain outlawed slavery in 1833, but like US states who did the same voluntarily (1777-1804), it phased slavery out gradually and with caveats. Spain phased out slavery in Puerto Rico in 1873, and Cuba in 1879, but slave labor (i.e., occasional forced labor). The Netherlands and Denmark banned slavery at different times for different islands. After 1888, when slavery was illegal everywhere in the Americas, it became widespread under imperialism (e.g., in the Belgian Congo). Often, while chattel slavery was gone, the more conventional predatory slavery survived.
See Also
External Links
- Rosemarijn Hoefte, In Place of Slavery: A Social History of British Indian and Javanese Labourers in Suriname University Press of Florida (1998)
- Ron Ramdin, Arising From Bondage: A History of the Indo-Caribbean People NYU Press (2000)
