• DOI:10.1080/00236560123269
• Corpus ID: 153628561

Reconsidering Indentured Servitude: European Migration and the Early American Labor Force, 1600–1775

@article{Tomlins2001ReconsideringIS,
  title={Reconsidering Indentured Servitude: European Migration and the Early American Labor Force, 1600–1775},
  author={Christopher L. Tomlins},
  journal={Labor History},
  year={2001},
  volume={42},
  pages={43 - 5}
}

• Christopher L. Tomlins
• Published 1 February 2001
• History, Economics
• Labor History

In the literature of early American history, transatlantic European migrationÐ and more speci® cally the recruitment and deployment of European laborÐ is overwhelmingly identi® ed with the phenomenon of indentured servitude. Indentured servitude was a an important early solution to the labor problem in many parts of English America,o and was a widely adopted,o becoming a a central institution in the economy and society of many parts of colonial British America.o In the Southern colonies it furnished a the bulk of labor until slavery began to predominate.o 2 This essay offers new estimates, and an intensive synthesis of existing estimates, of the overall numbers and demographic characteristics of indentured servants landing in the three main regions of reception of 17thand 18th-century English and other European migration to the North American mainland (New England, the Chesapeake, and the Delaware Valley). The essay uses decade-by-decade measures of migration, numerical proportion of servants in migrant population, and mortality and contract length estimates, to chart the relative contribution of white servitude to early American labor force composition. It also distinguishes among regional cultures of work and social-economic conditions on both sides of the Atlantic in explaining propensity to