(I put contract in single quotes to indicate I don't know a better word to use.)
Convict labor was also used and I vaguely remember there were white life-time slaves as well. Eventually (white) people became uncomfortable about owning white slaves and the practice died out.
[Note: repost of comment from the Open Thread.] A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
Since slaves traditionally (as in the roman tradition) has had the right to buy themselves free (though in practise this was limited to the higher groups of slaves) I do not see slaves and indentured servants as necessarily conceptually different groups in the 17th century.
I guess you could find cases of free black persons in america owning white slaves, if someone goes looking for it.
I have a lot of sympathy for the indentured servants but I think it's wrong -- and dismissive of the kind of horrific treatment dealt out to black and Indian captives -- to call them "slaves." The conditions of their servitude were limited by a body of laws, and most, if they survived, eventually earned their freedom. Black and Indian captives were slaves forever, as were their children and their children's children.
Terminology differs from time to time. What I meant was that the terminology of 17th century colonial affairs might not have differed so much between indentured servants and slaves. This might explain this:
Apparently, my distant ancestor Tormut Rose was deported to America by Cromwell and sold as a slave. I've always had the notion that slavery in America was a purely black African affair, but according to this copy of a page from an out of print book my father has, it was not.
I've always had the notion that slavery in America was a purely black African affair, but according to this copy of a page from an out of print book my father has, it was not.
And the fact that he was released after 10 years.
On the question of proper terminology to use today I think it is a bit americo-centric to reserve the term "slave" for the type of slavery suffered by black and indian captives in American history. Slavery has existed in various forms in different cultures and the term has usually covered anything from the short-lived and brutal existence of mine or galley slaves to the more privileged position of a roman house slave that could own property, had the right (by law or custom) to buy his or her freedom and had a week-night of that could be spent earning money.
