What was an indentured servant working to achieve?

Question

What was an indentured servant working to achieve?

Answer 1

some indentured servants were people transported for their role in various uprisings, and they were farmed out so other settlers could pay for their board and lodging while they served their sentence of exile.

in the original in England, an indentured servant was just a person who had agreed to work for a specific amount of time. Poor parents indentured their children to ensure food and lodging, and so did orphanages and poorhouses.

In the middle ages, people went to hiring fairs every autumn to strike agreements about working for the next year. They were usually verbal, and the whole community watched the agreement and upheld it if challenged.

Answer 2

Their Freedom

"An indentured servant is a form of debt bondage worker. The laborer is under contract of an employer for some period of time, usually three to seven years, in exchange for their transportation, food, drink, clothing, lodging and other necessities. Unlike a slave, an indentured servant was required to work only for a limited term specified in a signed contract."

Answer 3

From my understanding most indentured servants came here to America, in order to find a new life.  They paid for the passage here by agreeing to work for someone for X amount of time.  I'm not sure if that's the case with all indentured servants, especially those from other countries.

Answer 4

Freedom from their employer.  

What most history books don't tell you is that the employer was not required to provide food, clothing, tools, or other supplies such as nails, paint, etc to the servant.  The employer could, and often did, charge the servant for every scrap of food, every stich of clothing, and even rent on the servants' living quarters.  That way, once the servant fulfilled his contract, he was still in debt to the employer, and would often stay that way until death, either his or the employer.