History Main / IndenturedServitude

* ''TabletopGame/{{Malifaux}}'': The majority of the humans that come to Malifaux do so under a Guild contract, which they can supposedly work off within two years. Since Malifaux is a CompanyTown where the Guild controls everything, many find themselves going into even greater debt once they get there.

Of course, more predatory and oppressive economic systems shows a tendency to attempt to make this indenture ''indefinite'' through underhanded and shady means, usually by way of blatantly and constantly MovingTheGoalPosts. The most common method is that the owner makes sure to charge the indentured workers for their room, board, and other necessary services at an inflated price they cannot possibly pay, and then [[FinancialAbuse adding that cost to the debt they have to work off.]] While such a conduct actually is the very definition of "debt slavery", SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil after all, so expect the ruling class to insist that such a system is still "indentured servitude" [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord simply because it doesn't sound quite as bad as outright calling it slavery.]] As both real life history and the current state of affairs in some poorer countries readily show, this is disturbingly often TruthInTelevision.

* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': The {{Cyberpunk}} government takes a harsh view on debt, and servitude is the standard method of repaying it for hunters. Akira ends up selling HealingPotion to Revin, who can't pay for it, resulting in the ArmsDealer Katsuragi replacing Akira's medicine and taking on their debt, exploiting Revin and his teammates in a MovingTheGoalposts manner. After Babalodo can't pay the [[ShockinglyExpensiveBill 10-billion-aurum bill]] that Carol saddles him with for a night with her, he ends up paying it off as Viola's bodyguard. There's a long-standing arrangement between Carol and Viola, who trades indebted hunters in what's likened to {{human traffick|ers}}ing.

* The Ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco passed a law that any man who was owed a debt by another could claim the indebted party as a slave until the debt was paid off. This proved so unpopular and destabilizing to the Athenian system that when called upon to reform Draco's laws a few generations later, Solon abolished enslavement for debt. This probably helped drive the expansion of the Athenian maritime empire, as it meant that large landowners who wanted to use slave labor to work their lands either had to rely on the slaves they already had (and their descendants) or import them from elsewhere--and importing slaves was much easier if your country was fighting wars of conquest and taking prisoners. Fun fact: Draco's reformed and clarified legal code, which erred ''heavily'' on the side of brutal punitive measures wherever earlier laws were unclear, and used excessive punishments like the above debt slavery, is the reason we still refer to extremely harsh sets of rules as Draconian today.
* The Romans also had a system of debt slavery, which they abolished as part of the long struggle for rights for the plebeian class in 326 BCE. [[HistoryRepeats This probably helped drive the expansion of Rome's empire, as it meant that large landowners who wanted to use slave labor to work their lands either had to rely on the slaves they already had (and their descendants) or import them from elsewhere--and importing slaves was much easier if your country was fighting wars of conquest and taking prisoners]]. (The fact that both Athens and Rome's abolition of slavery for debt seemed to have factored into their respective rises as Great Powers led Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli to recommend that modern republics forbid the enslavement of their own citizens.)

* ''Literature/TheShipWhoSang'': [[DownplayedTrope Technically speaking]], the WetwareCPU of each "brainship" is indentured to the shipping line they work for. In practice, there are so many strict regulations about their pay and working conditions that the (admittedly hefty) cost of their training, equipping them with a life-support "shell" and then providing them with a ship is treated more like a glorified student loan in-universe.

** In "The Train Job" Inara extricates Mal and Zoe from the local sheriff by claiming he's a runaway indentured man whom she located after he embezzled money from her accounts.
** On Higgins' Moon ("Jaynestown") most of the ceramics workforce is indentured, which allows the magistrate owning their contracts to get filthy rich by keeping conditions in the CompanyTown as cheap and crappy as possible and paying them as little as possible. The RPG says his son has been working to improve things since the episode, though.

* ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'': In one story, Haara raids a chateau owned by a marquis who was intentionally driving commoner families into debt through his network of crooked toll roads, hiring their most attractive daughters into servitude at his chateau, and then charging them for room & board plus paying them exclusively through promissory notes to ensure they can never pay off their families debts. Haara murders him and then divides his money and treasure among the servants before they flee the mansion so their families can pay off his estate's outstanding debts.

* ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'': In one story, Haara raids a chateau owned by a lecherous marquis and murders him, then divides his money and treasure among the servants before they flee the mansion so their families can pay off his estate's outstanding debts.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': The CyberPunk government takes a harsh view on debt and servitude is the standard method of repaying it for hunters. Akira ends up selling HealingPotion to Revin who can’t pay for it, resulting in the ArmsDealer Katsuragi replacing Akira’s medicine and taking on their debt, exploiting Revin and his teammates in a MovingTheGoalPosts manner. After Babalodo can't pay the [[ShockinglyExpensiveBill 10 billion aurum bill]] Carol saddles him with for a night with her, he ends up paying it off as Viola’s bodyguard. There's a long-standing arrangement between Carol and Viola who trades indebted hunters in what's likened to HumanTrafficking.

* ''Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries''. This is standard behavior in the [[PrivatelyOwnedSociety Corporate Rim]]. The corporations use propaganda to convince their "citizens" that everywhere else in the galaxy is hopelessly primitive and they should be grateful for their indentures. Many corporates fully believe this, and dream not of leaving the companies that oppress them, but only of being able to buy their kids into management-track positions. In one novel Murderbot encounters some workers on the way to a colony whom it's implied have been tricked by the local years scam, and the plot in ''Fugitive Telemetry'' is centered around an UndergroundRailroad for those seeking to escape such a colony.