AMH 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Indentured Servant, Magna Carta, Asiento
Document Summary
Chapter 3 (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) Lecture 3 contracts and labor and slave trade in the new world. Minorities and women will still be seen through the lens of subject rights. Keep in mind the differences of subjecthood and citizenship: 2 ingredients for status as a subject. In both of these cases, the subject has no choice. Citizenship involves the act of choice; subjecthood does not. Indentured servitude provided a contractual (civil) solution to public problems (homelessness and need for labor in the new word). It organized labor, financed immigration, served as criminal punishment, and caring for and taking care of orphans. (cid:1) Indentured servants through their choice, and the legal device of indenture, became for all intents and purposes the personal property of their masters. European indentured servants were known as redemptioners. Contracts were negotiated out to cover passage to the nw in exchange for service (4-7 years).
