The Plantation in Southern America

The increase in the plantation economy in Southern English America resulted in a great need for labor. Because there were no machines at this time, manual labor was needed to plant and cultivate cash crops, such as tobacco and rice. Although there were slaves existed in these colonies, indentured servants was the way to go. Indentured servants first arrived in America a decade after the settlement of Jamestown. People who are in debt are usually indentured servants. The way indentured servitude works is that someone pays for the travel cost of a young worker from England to North America and the young worker would work off their debt to that person. Terms of servitude ranged from one to seven years, but were typically four or five years. Indentured servants were not paid wages but were provided with clothes, shelter, and food. When the servants completed their time, they were rewarded with some kind of termination bonus. It was usually land, money, clothes, or food. Now this might seem great, but that is often not the case. Only about forty percent of the indentured servants actually complete their terms. Female servants were often the object of harassment for the master. And if a woman got pregnant while working off her debt, time was added on to her contract. This is illustrated when Ann Parke a servant to Elizabeth Hatcher conceived a child. "It is therefore ordered that the said Ann shall double the time of her service" (page 43). Sometimes, indentured servants don't come willingly. Some were forced to travel to America and work because of a crime they committed. For example, James Revel was transported to Virginia and "sold for a slave because he prov'd a thief" (page 43).

The difference between a slave and an indentured servant is that servants have the chance to be free. After an indentured servant completes his or her time, he or she is free to do whatever he or she pleases. They can own land and vote like all the other settlers. Slaves, on the other hand, can never get a taste of freedom. Slaves have to work until their lives end. Plantation owners don't even consider them as human; they are just mere property. They can't own land or vote. In some ways, indentured servants and slaves are similar. Both servants and slaves had to do agricultural work. Indentured servants had to work just as hard as the slaves. In fact, indentured servants were basically just debt slaves.