Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which an individual is under contract to work without a salary for a certain timeframe to repay a loan. "Our Plantation Is Very Weak": The Experiences of an Indentured Servant in Virginia, 1623.Runaway enslaved people and indentured servants were a persistent problem for enslavers and masters in colonial Virginia. In the early-to-mid seventeenth century, indentured servants were the dominant source of labor in the Virginia colony. Richard Smyth registered two contracts with the Provincial Court of Maryland before sending two servants from England on to Virginia. A). Apprenticeship was a common means of training artisans in the colonies. Indentured servitude in continental North America began in the Colony of Virginia in 1609. In 1670, Black Virginians made up about 5 ½ percent of the colony's population, and white indentured servants comprised 80 percent of the workforce. Mary Marshall Brewer, ed. Not everyone who wished to come to America could afford it.
