The
Cost Was High |
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| Although most
colonists came looking for economic opportunity, many could not afford the passage and
arrived as indentured servants with signed contracts to
work for others (sponsors) for a period of four to seven years to repay the cost of their
ocean voyage. The sponsor paid for travel, then provided food/clothing/shelter, and
sometimes small wages to the servant. Indentured women often took care of children, cooked
and did housework, while men worked on farms, in mines, at lumbering and other kinds of
heavy labor. Boys often worked as helpers to craftsmen. Indenturing people as servants and/or apprentices was a common practice throughout the world, including the U.S. and Shelby County, Ohio. It was a way for parents to ensure a future for their children, encouraging them to learn a skilled craft through indentured service, or for an orphan to receive foster care, a forerunner to today’s social programs. Other immigrants sold all their real and personal property, using family savings and inheritances. Some borrowed against the value of a future inheritance. The average price of passage mentioned in autobiographies of early Ft. Loramie settlers ranged from $22 to $30. [At that time, wages were as low as $.50 a week for unskilled, indentured labor to $6 a week for craftsmen and skilled builders]. Africans first arrived from West Africa involuntarily as indentured servants and later as slaves. Many of these blacks were captives of West African tribal wars who were sold to white slave traders in exchange for European goods. They came over on ships where they were wedged into holds so tightly that they could barely move. In 1808, Congress passed a law making it illegal to bring slaves into the United States. |
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