Discuss the positive and negative arguments in the use if indenture as a means of Scottish migration in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
This essay will look at the use of both voluntary indentures as a means of emigration. It will give examples of how it worked and comment on some of the positive and negative aspects. It will conclude with the answer that although some, especially the elite did benefit through this the majority suffered and it had a negative effect upon the poorer and involuntary indented as well as the country of Scotland as a whole.
There were many push and pull factors for indenting through migration: social, economic, political, and religious all had varying influences throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As with its nature, the type of indenture varied but as a rule, it could be described as a legal contract between two people over a set period. This term usually lasted between one and seven years during which the indentured person would be supplied with food, clothes, lodging and possibly money in exchange for their labour. After this time depending on the type of contract the indented person had entered, they would become free from their contract and be given land, tools or money to enable them to start a new life in the colony.
The seventeenth century saw the beginning of the use of migration through indenture as a pawn in the game of national affairs. The period saw the use of both voluntary and involuntary indenture as a means of not only economic progress and personal; betterment but also a way of exporting some perceived ills that Scotland was experiencing.
Oliver Cromwell used the exporting of enemy prisoners captured at both Dunbar and Worcester during the civil war in 1651 as a means of ridding both Scotland and England of his enemies. While this at first may seem harsh, the alternative for many would have been execution or imprisonment, later of which would have probably meant death, as jail conditions were so diabolical.
