For the history-ignorant, the Irish
weren't the only Europeans brought to America as Indentured Servants. None were brought as slaves whose labor was free for life and whose children were considered property of the slaver:
Between one-half and two-thirds of white immigrants to the American colonies between the 1630s and American Revolution had come under indentures.
[2] However, while
half the European migrants to the 13 colonies were indentured servants, at any one time they were outnumbered by workers who had never been indentured, or whose indenture had expired. Free wage labor was the more common (in this sense) for Europeans in the colonies.
[3] Indentured persons were numerically important mostly in the region from Virginia north to New Jersey. Other colonies saw far fewer of them. Of the 450,000 or so European arrivals who came voluntarily, Tomlins estimates that 48% were indentured.
[4] About 75% were under the age of 25. The age of adulthood for men was 24 years (not 21); those over 24 generally came on contracts lasting about 3 years.
[5] Regarding the children who came, Gary Nash reports that, "many of the servants were actually nephews, nieces, cousins and children of friends of emigrating Englishmen, who paid their passage in return for their labor once in America."
[6]
Terms of indenture ranged from one to seven years with typical terms of four or five years.
[8]
Most white immigrants arrived in Colonial America as indentured servants, usually as young men and women from Britain or Germany, under the age of 21. Typically, the father of a teenager would sign the legal papers, and work out an arrangement with a ship captain, who would not charge the father any money.
[10] The captain would transport the indentured servants to the American colonies, and sell their legal papers to someone who needed workers. At the end of the indenture, the young person was given a new suit of clothes and was free to leave. Many immediately set out to begin their own farms, while others used their newly acquired skills to pursue a trade.