ABSTRACT
There were two categories of voluntary servants in the servant class in Massachusetts prior to 1750: apprentices and indentured servants. Apprenticeship was essentially an educational institution in which a master imparted his skill or knowledge to a trainee in exchange for labor. Indentured servitude was essentially an economic institution in which a master provided certain economic goods—transportation, food, clothing, housing, and some end—payment-in exchange for labor. The reasons for the failure to define the apprenticeship system in the specific terms of the Statute of Artificers in New England are conjectural. There were several experimental solutions to the problem of a labor shortage which may be considered under the general heading of indentured servitude: company servants, servants on share, servants working for absentee masters, redemptioners, and servants drawn voluntarily from the white population in New England.
