[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Indentured servants weren't the same as slaves--though they could have been pushed harder than slaves for the duration of their indenture.

INDENTURED SERVANTS They voluntarily agreed to be indentured servants. They worked for a limited amount of years--they had the hope that they would one day be free. After their indenture, they were bequeathed a parcel of land, and in some cases, even some other property (such as an animal or seeds for planting). The children that they might have were not slaves or indentured servants (this is a biggy). Any family they might produce during their indenture wouldn't be separated (this is also a biggy).

SLAVES Slaves were often sold be others, with little or no say in their enslavement. Unless they were freed by their masters, slaves remained slaves for the duration of their lives on this Earth. Even if they were freed (something which was far from guaranteed), their former owners were under no legal obligation to give them land or other property. The children of slaves were also slaves. Families could be separated and individual members sold to various masters.

Indentured servitude was NOT slavery.

[aruanan]

Indentured servitude was NOT slavery.

Indentured servitude was something that became more prevalent later on in the scheme of things. But the scheme laid out above is idealized. Many indentured servants, and their children, were literally slaves for life, regardless of what was said in numbers 4 and 5. But aside from indentured servitude, there was also white slavery and it was as bad as black Southern slavery.

[JohnBovenmyer]

The claims that white "indentured servitude" was very different from black "slavery" is mostly an after the fact PC myth according to this book. It may not have started the same, but it often ended up the same. I can't independently verify all it says, but it is congruent with many odd bits of history I know from other sources.