indentured labour

Work under a restrictive contract of employment for a fixed period in a foreign country in exchange for payment of passage, accommodation, and food. Indentured labour was the means by which many British people emigrated to North America during the colonial era, and in the 19th–early 20th centuries it was used to recruit Asian workers for employment elsewhere in European colonial empires.

Conditions for indentured workers were usually very poor. Many died during the passage, and during the term of indenture (usually between four and seven years) the worker was not allowed to change employer, although the employer could sell the remaining period of indenture, much as a slave could be sold. Indentured labour was widely used as a source of workers from India for employment on sugar plantations in the Caribbean from 1839, following the abolition of slavery.