Indentured Servants

I am working on an article for the StarFrontiersman about Indentured Servants. I am looking for feedback and ideas to add to what I have so far. Please feel free to make suggestions.<br /><br />My research was done on Colonial American indentured servants. <br /><br />An indentured servant is a person/ being who is bound by a labor contract for a certain number of years.<br /><br />There are three type:<br /><br />1) The freewillers, someone who has chosen to bind themselves for labor for a specific passage to somewhere.<br /><br />2) Kidnapped persons for political/religious reasons, and the poor who are driven to this as a way out of their circumstances.<br /><br />3) Convicts who are given the choiceof labor verses time in jail.<br /><br />So my first question was why would anyone do this? Each catagorie answers that question. <br /><br />Next is, Which races would be more likely to enter into one of these types of contracts?<br />Humans of course, yazirians too. Vrusk society as I see it really would not have this, because they are already beholden to their house for everything. Maybe vrusk who have entermingled with human/yazirian society might though. Dralasite I don't see doing this unless they are in a bad place maybe.<br /><br />Who would use these types of contracts?<br />Megacorps for sure. Government too. I can see both entities using this type of contract to establish a colony, whether it is farming, mining, or population building. Then you might have colonists on some planets who hire Indentured labor to work their farms/mines or whatever. It would be a way to get labor to whatever planet you are on.<br /><br />What would the contract entail?<br />In our past, the indentured servant was given land, a gun and some grain to start out. I can see frontier IS being given the same. It says though in history that only about half on the indentured servants ever lived to reach the end of their contracts. Also, punishment was harsh for them, even harsher than slaves in some cases.<br /><br />Term of service? It appears that it ranges from 5-10 years. I think in the frontier it should depend on the type of contract. <br />For criminals, it is easy to see the choice given. Go be labor for the length of your term or even have a shorter term due to the hazardous labor they must face.<br />The other types would depend on the type of labor needed. Farming may have longer contracts than mining. Colony building would entail long term contracts, but with a freedom clause at the end possibly. That way they are not beholden to the contractor after the colony has started up.<br /><br />The Family of One would be an entity who might use kidnapping and creating an indentured class to create a new colony. Pirates also could do this. There is a fine line between slavery and indentured servitude. The big difference is there is an end to the time served.<br /><br />Any thought or ideas?<br />