Indentured servants first arrived in America in the decade following the settlement of Jamestown by the Virginia Company in 1607. The idea of indentured servitude was born of a need for cheap labor.

The status of blacks in Virginia slowly changed over the last half of the 17th century. The black indentured servant, with his hope of freedom, was increasingly being replaced by the black slave.

On average, in exchange for passage across the Atlantic, Grubb has shown that a male indentured servant arriving in Philadelphia in the mid-18th century could expect to give up 4.4 years of his ...