ABSTRACT

In the historiography of seventeenth-century English indentured servitude little is written about female indentured servants, even though they made up approximately a third of the servants crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the early modern period. 1 In part this is because female indentured servants were less likely than their male counterparts to be literate, and their speech was less likely to be recorded. Nonetheless, English parliamentary and government documents, including government records such as the Calendar of State Papers, the Proceedings of the Old Bailey (English Central Criminal Court), records from colonial courts, and early modern legal writings, demonstrate both the social expectations and realities of women’s experiences in contracting indenture. Such records highlight the additionally coercive nature of indenture contracts for women as well as women’s expressions of individual volition in shaping their employment and personal lives. 2 For instance, they demonstrate women’s decisions to accept or reject indentures, to negotiate terms of contracts, and to claim their legal rights, as well as to support other women in some instances. 3 Although evidence of women’s agency is often hidden within these kinds of sources, as the work of Hilda Smith demonstrates, there are many opportunities of recognizing women’s self-sufficiency, autonomous action, and social participation even in circumstances that conspired against independence. 4