. As historian Richard Hofstadter pointed out, "Although efforts were made to regulate or check their activities, and they diminished in importance in the eighteenth century, it remains true that a certain small part of the white colonial population of America was brought by force, and a much larger portion came in response to deceit and misrepresentation on the part of the spirits [recruiting agents]."[6]
One "spirit" named William Thiene was known to have spirited away[7] 840 people from Britain to the colonies in a single year.
[8] Historian Lerone Bennett, Jr. notes that "Masters given to flogging often did not care whether their victims were black or white."[9]
Indentured servants could not marry without the permission of their master, were subject to physical punishment (like many young ordinary servants), and saw their obligation to labor enforced by the courts.
To ensure uninterrupted work by the female servants, the law lengthened the term of their indenture if they became pregnant.
But unlike slaves, servants were guaranteed to be eventually released from bondage. At the end of their term they received a payment known as "freedom dues" and became free members of society.[10]
One could buy and sell indentured servants' contracts, and the right to their labor would change hands, but not the person as a piece of property.
