A freeper had a thread awhile ago. Back in the 1600’s it was common in the colonies to have people work for you for 7 years and then you would give them a parcel of land.
One owner didn’t want the guy to leave after the seven years, and won in court to have him stay on as a permanent slave. The first true slave. Both the owner and the slave were black!
That policy existed in Virginia. Only about one in seventeen indentured servants actually lived out his seven year indenture and collected his 50 acres. From the time they stepped of the boat they were worth more dead than alive to their masters since it was the master who collected the 50 acres if the servant died. Most of them died within two years.
The indentured servant model never really flourished in South Carolina. South Carolina, or more precisely "Charles Town", was settled by Englishmen from Barbados who had a generation of slave plantation management under their belts before they got here. They brought their slaves with them.
Some rebellious Scotsmen were sold here as slaves rather than indentured servants.