Difference Between Indentured Servants

At first, slaves and indentured servants were closely similar in stature. The lives of indentured servants and slaves, in many ways were very similar to one another. However, overtime these two groups grew apart and changed drastically. During the later part of the 16th century, colonists relied on other Europeans for labor and service. These people who did labor and service were called "indentured servants". These indentured servants worked on contract had to serve somewhere between 4 to 7 years (Indentured Servant). All the labor and service,they did was free, but they worked in exchange for free passage from Europe to America. This became a problem because after the indentured servants were free, there was competition between the colonists. This was a major reason why the colonists turned to African slaves. This was a turning point in history because indentured servants were the primary source for the colonists, but now colonists were turning to African slaves instead. These two groups were always similar, but now they were becoming different and growing apart. In the beginning, the differences between the two groups were minor, but more and more differences arose as time past. A major difference between the two was that slaves were slaves their whole life …show more content…
They were kidnapped and sold into slavery. A reason for this was most likely because of the prejudices during that time. Slaves were mostly African American, while indentured servings were white men. Most slaves were also born into slavery so they really had no other choice to do anything else. However, Indentured servants wanted to work and had signed contracts in order to work. It is important to realize, that even though indentured servants were contracted they still could be bought and sold, just like slaves (Douglass