White Servitude in Colonial America
An economic analysis

White servitude was one of the major institutions in the economy and society of early colonial British America.

David W. Galenson (Author)

9780521273794, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 March 1982

304 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

White servitude was one of the major institutions in the economy and society of early colonial British America. In fact more than half of all the white immigrants to the British colonies sold themselves into bondage for a period of years in order to migrate to the New World. Professor Galenson's study of the system of indentured servitude analyses rigourously the composition of this labour force and provides a quantitative description of the demographic, social and economic characteristics of more than 20,000 indentured immigrants. The author examines the interactions between indentured, free and slave labour and provides a framework for analysing why black slavery prevailed over white servitude in the British West Indies and the southern mainland colonies and why both types of bound labour declined to insignificance in the northern colonies of the mainland.

Preface
Part I. Introduction: 1. The significance and origins of the colonial indenture system
Part II. Characteristics of the servant population
2. The age and sex distributions of the indentured servants
3. The occupations of the indentured servants in the seventeenth-century
4. Occupations of the eighteenth-century indentured servants
5. Literacy and the occupations of the indentured servants
Part III. Migration and the transatlantic market for indentured servants
6. Patterns of servant migration from England to America
7. The market for indentured servants
Part IV. White servitude in the colonial labour market: 8. The role of the indenture system in the colonial labour market
9. The indenture system and the colonial labour market
Part V. Indentured servitude in American history: 10. Indentured labour in the Americas
Appendices
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], History of the Americas [HBJK]