indentured servant

[ in-den-cherd sur-vuhnt ]

noun

1. a person who agrees to work for another without pay, with or without a contract, in order to repay a debt or in exchange for food and shelter:

   By financing immigrants’ passage to this country, the farmer receives steady labor from the indentured servants obliged to pay off their large debts.

indentured servant

1. A person under contract to work for another person for a definite period of time, usually without pay but in exchange for free passage to a new country. During the seventeenth century most of the white laborers in Maryland and Virginia came from England as indentured servants.

Word History and Origins

Origin of indentured servant¹

First recorded in 1665–75

Example Sentences

Her father was a white indentured servant, a tailor named Andrew Judge, who had come to America from Leeds, England, in 1772 and gained his freedom after fulfilling the terms of his four-year contract at Mount Vernon.

From Literature

An indentured servant was typically someone who agreed to work for several years in exchange for his or her passage, eventual freedom, and the promise of some land.

From Literature

Sambo had learned his trade from a Scottish convict turned indentured servant.

From Literature

A son of a once wealthy merchant family, Joyce was being sent to the West Indies to start his new life as an indentured servant.

From National Geographic

Ashley McMahan, Hyunji Lee’s attorney, said her client was treated like an “indentured servant” by the other defendants.

From Seattle Times