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Why would a European sign an indenture according to Howard Zinn in A People's History of the United States?
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According to Howard Zinn, Europeans signed indentures due to historical forces rather than free choice. Economic conditions, such as poverty and land enclosure in England, pushed many to cities in search of work, often leaving them with few options but to become indentured servants. Additionally, the high demand for labor in the New World made it profitable for recruiters to transport indentured servants, often through coercion or deception. These conditions compelled many to sign indentures.
Zinn explains that indentured servants were largely forced into coming to America. Many had to escape the impoverished conditions of their countries, and others were brought to the New World, he writes, "by forced exile, by lures, promises, and lies, by kidnapping" (43). The transport of indentured servants to America was highly profitable, and ship captains, merchants, and masters in the New World stood to profit. Zinn writes that after they signed their papers of indenture, in which they had to work for masters for five to seven years, indentured servants were often put in prison until their boats were ready to sail so that there was no possibility of their escape. Therefore, most indentured servants did not have a choice in their indentures, but were driven by larger forces. Their lots were bad, and they sometimes joined black slaves in planned revolts, such as in a foiled uprising in...
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Gloucester County, Virginia in 1663 (36). Zinn's argument is that the white elite imposed a strict color bar to make sure white indentured servants did not join black slaves in rebelling against the elite.
The answer to this, or at least hints about Zinn’s answer, can be found in Chapter 3 of the book. In that chapter, Zinn is discussing class conflicts in the American colonies. He clearly implies that he believes that it was historical forces, not free choice, that led European men and women to sign indentures.
From what Zinn says, we can infer that he thinks there were two main historical forces that drove white men and women to sign up to be indentured servants. The first of these forces was the beginning of capitalist commerce in England. Zinn talks about how this commerce drew poor people to cities where they tried to find work. Some of them were forced off the land that their families had lived on for centuries when landlords began to “enclose” their land, largely to raise sheep. As he says,
In England, the development of commerce and capitalism in the 1500s and 1600s, the enclosing of land for the production of wool, filled the cities with vagrant poor…
These poor people had very few options, leading many to sign on as indentured servants.
The second historical force was the demand for labor in the New World. Because so much labor was needed, landowners in the New World would pay well for indentured servants. This, Zinn says, created a situation where people could make a big profit by recruiting and shipping indentured servants.
Thus, Zinn implies that it was historical forces that drove European men and women to sign indentures.
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