Servitude had a long history in England, dating back to medieval serfdom. The Ordinance of Labourers, passed in June , declared that all men and women under the age of sixty who did not practice a craft must serve anyone requiring their labor.
Parliament updated the law in and , with the latter version, the Statute of Artificers , still being in effect when the English founded Jamestown. In fact, the founding of Virginia itself was partially in response to this problem.
Contracts generally lasted a year, after which terms were renegotiated. While there was not necessarily a strong stigma attached to indentured servitude, the institutionโfirst in England and then in Virginiaโtemporarily transformed free men and women into chattel, or property to be bought and sold. The Virginia Company of London always had more land than labor to work it. At first, the company attempted to entice investors by offering them shares in the company that were redeemable for land.
But when profits failed to materialize and the colony became infamous for its high mortality rate, the company began shipping servants to Virginia at its own expense and placing them on company-owned land.
With the introduction of marketable tobacco, however, demand for labor skyrocketed. Private investors who, alongside the company, had shipped servants at their own expense continued to do so while the company rid itself of its role as rental agent. Instead, it sold servants directly to planters at a price based on the cost of passage. Servants, who ranged from convicted criminals to skilled workers, in time came to occupy the lowest rung on the social ladder in Virginia.
