indentured servants

NOUN

an unpaid immigrant servant

Synonyms

WEAK

articled servant bondslave bondsman chattel serf servant slave

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Obviously the banjo’s got African roots too. Country music came from people in the South and Appalachia, slaves and indentured servants from Europe, each gathering and trading stories.”

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 4, 2024

They and their families are expendable indentured servants on a rock enrobed in perpetual darkness.

From Salon • Aug. 16, 2024

Fifteen-year-old Joyce was captured along with everyone else onboard—a mix of other indentured servants, merchants, and crew–and taken to a slave market in Algiers to be sold at auction.

From National Geographic • Jan. 11, 2024

In her dissent, Jackson wrote: “Workers are not indentured servants, bound to continue laboring until any planned work stoppage would be as painless as possible for their master.”

From Seattle Times • Jun. 1, 2023

Nathaniel Bacon was a white property owner in Jamestown, Virginia, who managed to unite slaves, indentured servants, and poor whites in a revolutionary effort to overthrow the planter elite.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander