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History
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Literature Review on Rich-Poor Relations: Indentured Servitude

Essay Instructions:

This essay should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. In the introduction, you should tell the reader what your argument (thesis) is and how you are going to support it.

In the body of your essay, you will demonstrate your argument in a balanced manner and in paragraphs (three or four paragraphs per page). A paragraph is composed of a topic sentence (e.g., the discovery of America changed the lives of most Europeans), a justification (e.g, because the riches from the New World affected the lives of most Europeans), and an example (e.g., For example, in Spain, the silver mines of Mexico and of Potosi in present-day Bolivia brought greater wealth and an increase in population).

Make sure to use a transitional word like therefore, consequently, or however between paragraphs. Your essay should have a conclusion almost equal in size to your introduction. Conclusions restate the argument and the main evidence.

For this assignment, you will use specific primary and secondary sources. You will also cite your sources in the way described below (rather than according to the historian's Chicago or Turabian Style). Be sure to read the rubric for this assignment as there are other details you need to be aware of.

The only secondary source you will use is our textbook (Remember, a secondary source is a source like you or a historian that did not directly witness the event but writes about it after reading a primary account of someone who witnessed the original event).

Note: For the citation of our textbook, use the following format: (Textbook, p.#).

Name of textbook: US: A Narrative History, Combined Volume 1 and Volume 2

James West Davidson

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Indentured Servitude
Student Full Name
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Introduction
Colonial Americans were engaged in paid labor, where many young adults moved from their families to become servants or apprentices. The terms of their contract were enlisted in indentures, which were co-signed legal documents by their parents and their new employers or masters (Reid, 1742). Such agreements lacked a form of standardization because terms differed depending on the nature of work after the contract was signed.
Indenture Agreement (1742) highlights a case study of John Reid Jr. of New Jersey, who was bound to Robert Livingstone Jr., a member of a prominent merchant New York Family, to learn the trade (Reid, 1742). The terms of their contracts are highlighted to include John Reid being provided with sufficient meat, drinks, and lodging for five years before he could learn and become skilled in the art and mystery of the family's trade. The existing scholarly research on colonial indentured servants lacks a dominant interpretation. Empirical research by historians on colonial court records of regions as Chesapeake unraveled that indentured servants had the legal right to sue their masters on different occasions, the liberty they exercised (Reid, 1742). The researchers thus concluded that servants enjoyed the legal protection from their masters and were therefore equal in the eyes of the law. On the other hand, other historians examining newspaper runaway advertisements found that their masters did not highly regard servants. Indentured servants were treated harshly by their masters despite historians arguing they were considered equal in the eyes of the law.
Literature Review
Evidence suggests that they were abused and, in other times, killed after being tortured, leading to my report concluding that indentured servitude was nearly worse than slavery. For instance, in our case, John Reid was in exchange to not harm his master Robert Livingstone (Reid, 1742). He was also not allowed to be absent on the day of his servitude as he was to obey the master's lawful commands.
Records from New York courts and Virginia affirms this idea that servants many times sued their masters and won; however, they were regularly charged in court for punitive actions. The reports have also revealed that there was social stratification among the servants, a notion previously identified. The progression of the 18th century saw many servants becoming skilled and advanced and thus enjoyed an elevated status compared to their counterparts who were still in training (Reid, 1742). Such servants sued their masters regularly and were rarely punished by the legal system. Notably, unskillful and convicted laborers suffered from repeated degraded status. Such individuals faced the wrath of the legal system, a phenomenon witnessed today in contemporary societies.
The indenture Agreement (1742) also supports my thesis that indentured servitude was nothing further from slavery. Benjamin Franklin was treated much harshly by his big brother, having entered into servitude by signing the indenture contract. Benjamin, in his autobiography, reiterates that the harsh treatment was to suppress his dreams of ever g...
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