Indentured labour was the practice of binding individual workers to a set term of service in a specific country for any employer who would purchase his or her contract of indenture. The contractual agreement under which an individual migrated could be established either by the governments of respective countries or between private organisations within those countries, although these arrangements were often subject to government scrutiny. The term “indenture” itself came to be used because the skin on which contracts were traditionally written in duplicate were divided with an indented edge, so that each side would fit into the other. The institution had been used by poor European settlers as early as 1620, who would work for colonial planters in exchange for their transportation to the colonies and the chance to acquire land of their own. From the 1630’s to the American Revolution in 1776, it is estimated that between three and four hundred thousand Europeans travelled to the New World as indentured servants, usually serving a five year labour contract which could be renewed or rescinded after that time. In contrast, about twelve million individuals were taken to the New World as slaves. This first period of European indentured labour had ended by the early nineteenth century, however the abolition of slavery within the next few decades by European countries created a labour shortage in most of their overseas colonies, and planters looked primarily to Asia to fill the gap. This later period of indentured labour involved roughly 12 million people, and lasted roughly from the 1830s to the 1930s. Other forms of low-paying, harsh labour were also undertaken by migrants, both during this period and after, which still continue in some forms today.
