Description
Indentured is a status that applied to white Europeans who were under a voluntary labor contract to an employer in exchange for transportation to the New World, food, clothing, and lodging. Similar to apprentice, except that the latter usually connotes a learning period of on-the-job training until he or she (usually he) acquired the skills to set out on his own. Almost all of the females indentured were brought over as maids and servants.
The length of the indenture varied, in general from three to seven years. When the indentured person fulfilled the terms of his/her contract, he/she was free to go.