Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 89 (click to see context) from:
* During the American colonial era poor Englishmen would often sell their labor to colonial landowners for a set number of years in exchange for the landowner paying their fare across the Atlantic. The practice fell into disuse as African slavery became more prominent but was still occasionally seen as late as 1917.
to:
* During the American colonial era poor Englishmen would often sell their labor to colonial landowners for a set number of years in exchange for the landowner paying their fare across the Atlantic. The practice fell into disuse as African slavery became more prominent but prominent--in fact, one of the reasons for its introduction in the Colonies was ex-indentures causing their former owners political problems--but was still occasionally seen as late as 1917.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 34 (click to see context) from:
* Institutionalized indenture is constant in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' universe. All new intelligent life is created when a starfaring race genetically engineers a wild species to add sapience. In the laws of the Five Galaxies, the "client" race is then required to serve their "patron" race for 100,000 years[[labelnote:*]]approximately, in Earth time[[/labelnote]] of "indenture," which ranges from subordinate but dignified positions to brutal slavery. Indentured clients are legally attached to their patrons, have very few civil rights, and are "spoils of war" if their patrons are conquered or exterminated. Humanity is in constant danger due to being a "wildling" species that has not gone through this period of indenture itself, so they've freed chimpanzees and dolphins from indenture even though their {{Uplift|edAnimal}} isn't even finished yet.
to:
* Institutionalized indenture is constant in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' universe. All new intelligent life is created when a starfaring race genetically engineers a wild species to add sapience. In the laws of the Five Galaxies, the "client" race is then required to serve their "patron" race for 100,000 years[[labelnote:*]]approximately, in Earth time[[/labelnote]] of "indenture," which ranges from subordinate but dignified positions to brutal slavery. Indentured clients are legally attached to their patrons, have very few civil rights, and are "spoils of war" if their patrons are conquered or exterminated. Humanity is in constant danger due to being a "wildling" "[[ParentalAbandonment wolfling]]" species that has not gone through this period of indenture itself, so they've freed chimpanzees and dolphins from indenture even though their {{Uplift|edAnimal}} isn't even finished yet.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 34 (click to see context) from:
* Institutionalized indenture is constant in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' universe. All new intelligent life is created when a starfaring race genetically engineers a wild species to add sapience. In the laws of the Five Galaxies, the "client" race is then required to serve their "patron" race for 100,000 years[[labelnote:*]]approximately, in Earth time[[/labelnote]] of "indenture," which ranges from subordinate but dignified positions to brutal slavery. Indentured clients are legally attached to their patrons, have very few civil rights, and are "spoils of war" if their patrons are conquered or exterminated. Humanity is in constant danger, so they've freed chimpanzees and dolphins from indenture even though their {{Uplift|edAnimal}} isn't even finished yet.
to:
* Institutionalized indenture is constant in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' universe. All new intelligent life is created when a starfaring race genetically engineers a wild species to add sapience. In the laws of the Five Galaxies, the "client" race is then required to serve their "patron" race for 100,000 years[[labelnote:*]]approximately, in Earth time[[/labelnote]] of "indenture," which ranges from subordinate but dignified positions to brutal slavery. Indentured clients are legally attached to their patrons, have very few civil rights, and are "spoils of war" if their patrons are conquered or exterminated. Humanity is in constant danger, danger due to being a "wildling" species that has not gone through this period of indenture itself, so they've freed chimpanzees and dolphins from indenture even though their {{Uplift|edAnimal}} isn't even finished yet.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* The majority of the humans that come to ''{{Maifaux}}'' 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.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[folder:Fanfic]]
* In ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'' fanfic, Diaval's servitude to Maleficent is often treated as this, with her setting him free when she has achieved her goals.
[[/folder]]
* In ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'' fanfic, Diaval's servitude to Maleficent is often treated as this, with her setting him free when she has achieved her goals.
[[/folder]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
added Schooled In Magic reference
Added DiffLines:
* The ''Literature/SchooledInMagic'' series takes place in a medieval world type setting. While not directly applicable to any of the main characters in the series, there is plenty to imply that this practice is a normal part of life in the Nameless World (such as the description of Lords and the serfs that live on their land, or the description of servants in magical households who are spelled into a mindless obedient state even though they are not slaves technically).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* In ''Film/TheFlowerGirl'', Kotpun's mother has basically become a slave, because she is so far in debt to the evil, explotative Pae family that she has no chance to work it off.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 77 (click to see context) from:
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife. Throughout history, most societies have permitted enslavement of debtors; in many ancient societies, debt slavery was the primary form of involuntary labor.
to:
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife. Throughout history, most societies have permitted enslavement of debtors; in many ancient societies, debt slavery was the primary form of involuntary labor. In general, some form of debt servitude is one of only two realistic options for dealing with insolvency, the other being the modern solution--bankruptcy protection and discharge of debt. (Debt servitude favors creditors; bankruptcy favors debtors.)
Changed line(s) 79 (click to see context) from:
** 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]]. (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.)
to:
** The Romans also had a system of debt-slavery, 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]]. (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.))
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 77,79 (click to see context) from:
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife.
** 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.
** The Romans did the same thing in 326 BCE. This probably helped drive the expansion of Rome, 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.
** 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.
** The Romans did the same thing in 326 BCE. This probably helped drive the expansion of Rome, 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.
to:
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife.
RealLife. Throughout history, most societies have permitted enslavement of debtors; in many ancient societies, debt slavery was the primary form of involuntary labor.
** 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. \n** The Romans did the same thing in 326 BCE. This probably helped drive the expansion of Rome, 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.elsewhere.
** 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]]. (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.)
** 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.
** 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]]. (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.)
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ''Series/{{Earth2}}'' has the mechanic mention that he's still paying off his grandparents' debt for getting to the stations from Earth, and that he only took a dangerous mission because the pay would allow him to clear the debt and ensure his daughter wasn't burdened with it.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ''Webcomic/EscapeFromTerra'': Belter criminal punishments tend towards fines or indentures. Some would-be pirates are almost sold to a pig farm but their bleeding-heart advocate manages to get them to pay their fines off on their own terms, one gets a job at a pig farm, another growing cannabis (no prohibition), and the third hustles cards until he gets into a fight and disappears, raising the others' shares. Later a juvie is given a choice between the pig farm or the Space Scouts, the idea being the latter would teach him a lesson.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 53 (click to see context) from:
* Literature/TheBible: Indentured servitude was common in Israel. To prevent it from becoming too permanent, the year of Jubilee was established in the Book of Leviticus; every fifty years all debts were forgiven and slaves set free. This only applied to Hebrew slaves, though-foreign slaves could be [[MoralDissonance held for life]], as inherited property.
to:
* Literature/TheBible: Indentured servitude was common in Israel. To prevent it from becoming too permanent, the year of Jubilee was established in the Book of Leviticus; every fifty years all debts were forgiven and slaves set free. This only applied to Hebrew slaves, though-foreign slaves could be [[MoralDissonance held for life]], as inherited property. Women were also not included. Additionally, indentured Hebrew men could become permanently enslaved "voluntarily" if they wanted to remain with a slave wife their master had given them and any children they had with her, who otherwise would stay when they were freed. One suspects the masters likely gave indentured men wives just to coerce them into this...
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* In ''TabletopGame/MyriadSong'' many of the Myriad worlds practice indentured servitude for a variety of means, though outright slavery is officially banned since the [[AbusivePrecursors Syndics]] vanished.
Added DiffLines:
* In ''Webcomic/{{Terinu}}'' criminals are commonly sold into indentured servitude, in the first chapter the titular character, a former unwilling SpacePirate, is auctioned off to an unethical Biotech company.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Adding another example
Added DiffLines:
* This is how Wulfgar met Bruenor Battlehammer in ''Literature/TheIcewindDaleTrilogy''. After being captured during the barbarian attack on Ten-Towns, Wulfgar is indentured to Bruenor for five years.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 52 (click to see context) from:
* Literature/TheBible: Indentured servitude was common in Israel. To prevent it from becoming too permanent, the year of Jubilee was established in the Book of Leviticus; every fifty years all debts were forgiven and slaves set free.
to:
* Literature/TheBible: Indentured servitude was common in Israel. To prevent it from becoming too permanent, the year of Jubilee was established in the Book of Leviticus; every fifty years all debts were forgiven and slaves set free. This only applied to Hebrew slaves, though-foreign slaves could be [[MoralDissonance held for life]], as inherited property.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Per How To Write An Example: State the source.
Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
* While slavery is illegal in [[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Valdemar]], indentures are legal. A "bonded" child has to serve the bond holder until he's 16 for no payment; Skif's mother "forgot" to bond Skif to his uncle Londer. Prisoners can also be sentenced to indentured servitude on farms (would have happened to Kalchan if he'd survived his head injury) or mines (Master Cole tries to claim Mags and the other mine-slaves are indentured criminals).
to:
* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': While slavery is illegal in [[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Valdemar]], Valdemar, indentures are legal. A "bonded" child has to serve the bond holder until he's 16 for no payment; Skif's mother "forgot" to bond Skif to his uncle Londer. Prisoners can also be sentenced to indentured servitude on farms (would have happened to Kalchan if he'd survived his head injury) or mines (Master Cole tries to claim Mags and the other mine-slaves are indentured criminals).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* While slavery is illegal in [[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Valdemar]], indentures are legal. A "bonded" child has to serve the bond holder until he's 16 for no payment; Skif's mother "forgot" to bond Skif to his uncle Londer. Prisoners can also be sentenced to indentured servitude on farms (would have happened to Kalchan if he'd survived his head injury) or mines (Master Cole tries to claim Mags and the other mine-slaves are indentured criminals).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* In ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger'' Turing-level AIs have to serve a period of indentured servitude to pay off the cost of their manufacture. After that they're free citizens. But some unscrupulous owners tamper with their clocks so they think they still have decades left on their term, or replace their cortex with a copy printed off their MatterReplicator that thought it was fresh from the factory.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 44 (click to see context) from:
* In one episode of ''Series/BarneyMiller'' a [[DiplomaticImmunity diplomat]] has a slave. The slave's grandfather borrowed money from the diplomat's grandfather and he's still working off the debt.
to:
* In one episode of ''Series/BarneyMiller'' a [[DiplomaticImmunity [[DiplomaticImpunity diplomat]] has a slave. The slave's grandfather borrowed money from the diplomat's grandfather and he's still working off the debt.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* Simone, from ''Literature/TheSaints'', threatens Tori and Sonia with a life time of servitude if they [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse fail to accomplish her request]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ''Literature/BardicVoices'' makes the statement that indentured service was worse than slavery because slavery had rules to prevent exploitation of the workers that indentured service didn't have, and those who owned the debt were free to rack up spurious charges to extend the length of service.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Example Indentation, people.
Changed line(s) 68 (click to see context) from:
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife. 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.
to:
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife. RealLife.
** 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.
** 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.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 68 (click to see context) from:
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife. 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.
to:
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife. 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.
** The Romans did the same thing in 326 BCE. This probably helped drive the expansion of Rome, 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.
** The Romans did the same thing in 326 BCE. This probably helped drive the expansion of Rome, 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.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 28 (click to see context) from:
* Indentured servitude is legal in the eponymous nation of Tamora Pierce's ''Literature/TortallUniverse''. In one quartet, the protagonist buys the two-year indenture of a servant boy who was being abused by his current master.
to:
* Indentured servitude is legal in the eponymous nation of Tamora Pierce's ''Literature/TortallUniverse''. In one quartet, ''The Protector of the Small'', the protagonist buys the two-year indenture of a servant boy who was being abused by his current master.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
diacritics
Changed line(s) 32 (click to see context) from:
* ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'': Terre d'Ange has Houses which take in children, training them and then having them [[SexSlave serve for sex]] until their servitude is completed (signified by the completion of a tattoo that runs the length of their backs). Both Phedre and Alcuin are bonded as this, and Phedre once buys out the indenture of a girl who suffered a facial injury before she could complete her term of service and couldn't get any more customers because of it.
to:
* ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'': Terre d'Ange has Houses which take in children, training them and then having them [[SexSlave serve for sex]] until their servitude is completed (signified by the completion of a tattoo that runs the length of their backs). Both Phedre Phèdre and Alcuin are bonded as this, and Phedre Phèdre once buys out the indenture of a girl who suffered a facial injury before she could complete her term of service and couldn't get any more customers because of it.the scar.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** She then keeps breaking things at a higher pace than she's paying the debt off, with it reaching more than double her initial debt at one point.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 48 (click to see context) from:
* Literature/TheBible: Indentured servitude was common in Israel. To prevent it from becoming too permanent, the year of Jubilee was established; every fifty years all debts were forgiven and slaves set free.
to:
* Literature/TheBible: Indentured servitude was common in Israel. To prevent it from becoming too permanent, the year of Jubilee was established; established in the Book of Leviticus; every fifty years all debts were forgiven and slaves set free.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
repoint to correct series title
Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* A.N. Roquelaure's (PenName for Creator/AnneRice) ''Literature/{{Beauty}}'' series features a sexual indentured servitude. Before they're permitted to take rulership, young nobility and royalty are sent into training as [[SexSlave sexual slaves]]. It's also a means of social mobility, as commoners and lesser nobles may also submit themselves for the same treatment. Slaves may also beg to remain so for life.
to:
* A.N. Roquelaure's (PenName for Creator/AnneRice) ''Literature/{{Beauty}}'' series ''Literature/TheSleepingBeautyTrilogy'' features a sexual indentured servitude. Before they're permitted to take rulership, young nobility and royalty are sent into training as [[SexSlave sexual slaves]]. It's also a means of social mobility, as commoners and lesser nobles may also submit themselves for the same treatment. Slaves may also beg to remain so for life.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 22 (click to see context) :
* In ''Film/MemoirsOfAGeisha'', Saiyuri is sold to an okiya to become a geisha. She works there and her service pays off the expenses of her sumptuous kimono, wigs, and other items she needs to become a full geisha.
Added DiffLines:
* In ''Literature/MemoirsOfAGeisha'', Saiyuri is sold to an okiya to become a geisha. She works there and her service pays off the expenses of her sumptuous kimono, wigs, and other items she needs to become a full geisha.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant Indentured servitude]] is a historical form of slavery where the worker is required to serve a set length of time to pay a debt to their owner. The indenture has some form of term limit and rights as specified in a contract or law. In some cases the arrangement is entered into voluntarily, while in others it may be court-ordered.
Indentured workers tend to be treated better than traditional slaves and are contracted for a set length of time. They are not allowed to change jobs except on the agreement of the holder of their indenture, and running away is usually considered a crime. Once the term of their indenture expires, however, they're free to live as they please.
This is sometimes used in SpeculativeFiction, often as part of a SchizoTech setting.
Subtrope of MadeASlave. Compare WorkOffTheDebt, which is typically a shorter-term, informal arrangement. Also compare CompanyTown, which in bad cases leads to a permanent cycle of debt for the workers.
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'': After the title character is abandoned by his parents to work off their massive debts, he is "hired" by Nagi, a rich heiress, to work it off.
* In the {{yaoi}} manga ''Manga/OkaneGaNai'' the main character Ayase is auctioned off by his cousin to repay family debts and is purchased by a rich yakuza named Kanou. Because Kanou is in love with Ayase, he agrees to change the terms of their relationship from slavery to indentured servitude, giving Ayase a wage and allowing him to start earning his freedom.
* In ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' the protagonist, Haruhi, is forced to join the host club to work off her debts after she breaks a ridiculously expensive vase in the first chapter.
* ''Manga/HeIsMyMaster'': In the first episode Izumi breaks a vase worth 5 million yen. She becomes a maid to the vase's owner to pay off her debt to him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film]]
* This is the plot driver for the European film ''Film/{{Acla}}'', also known as ''Acla's Descent'', when the title character is sold into indentured servitude. Has a DownerEnding albeit with a BittersweetEnding taste.
* In ''Film/MemoirsOfAGeisha'', Saiyuri is sold to an okiya to become a geisha. She works there and her service pays off the expenses of her sumptuous kimono, wigs, and other items she needs to become a full geisha.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* The "Vats", humans grown from cloned tissue, in ''Literature/RatsBatsAndVats'' will have to start their adult life with paying off the debts accrued from being "[g]rown in a Company Vat, raised in a Company Nursery, and educated in a Company School".
* Institutionalized indenture is constant in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' universe. All new intelligent life is created when a starfaring race genetically engineers a wild species to add sapience. In the laws of the Five Galaxies, the "client" race is then required to serve their "patron" race for 100,000 years[[labelnote:*]]approximately, in Earth time[[/labelnote]] of "indenture," which ranges from subordinate but dignified positions to brutal slavery. Indentured clients are legally attached to their patrons, have very few civil rights, and are "spoils of war" if their patrons are conquered or exterminated. Humanity is in constant danger, so they've freed chimpanzees and dolphins from indenture even though their {{Uplift|edAnimal}} isn't even finished yet.
* Indentured servitude is legal in the eponymous nation of Tamora Pierce's ''Literature/TortallUniverse''. In one quartet, the protagonist buys the two-year indenture of a servant boy who was being abused by his current master.
* In the ''Literature/ChildrenOfSteel'' series [[PettingZooPeople animen]] are indentured to their parent company for 50 years or until they've paid off the cost of their gestation and upbringing. Few survive that long.
* [[DesignerBabies Azi]] in Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/AllianceUnion'' universe have the rights of minors but they can be made citizens under certain circumstances, and their children are citizens. Considering the original point of azi was to increase the Union's genetic diversity.
* A.N. Roquelaure's (PenName for Creator/AnneRice) ''Literature/{{Beauty}}'' series features a sexual indentured servitude. Before they're permitted to take rulership, young nobility and royalty are sent into training as [[SexSlave sexual slaves]]. It's also a means of social mobility, as commoners and lesser nobles may also submit themselves for the same treatment. Slaves may also beg to remain so for life.
* ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'': Terre d'Ange has Houses which take in children, training them and then having them [[SexSlave serve for sex]] until their servitude is completed (signified by the completion of a tattoo that runs the length of their backs). Both Phedre and Alcuin are bonded as this, and Phedre once buys out the indenture of a girl who suffered a facial injury before she could complete her term of service and couldn't get any more customers because of it.
* In ''Renegades of Literature/{{Gor}}'' the protagonist meets a free woman caught in indenture after she ran up a large bill at an inn and couldn't pay. Her actual plan was an ExploitedTrope: She would attempt to dine 'n dash but let herself get caught by the manager and be chained up outside, where she would beg passersby to redeem her debts, promising to pay them back later. She would then run off and do the same thing all over again. Such women are dubbed "debtor sluts" and it's usually a workable scam, but at the moment there's a major war going on and nobody was interested in buying her out, so she's stuck.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Paradox}} Earthrise]]'' Harat-sharin slaves sign themselves into temporary contracts. During their terms as slaves they have a lot of protections under the law and their savings accrue much higher interest than normal. Indentured servants on the other hand are convicts who have practically no rights.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Present in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' as part of the setting's massive SchizoTech.
** 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.
* In one episode of ''Series/BarneyMiller'' a [[DiplomaticImmunity diplomat]] has a slave. The slave's grandfather borrowed money from the diplomat's grandfather and he's still working off the debt.
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'':
** This is a plot device that Jerry and George [[ConversationalTroping use for the pilot they write]] for Creator/{{NBC}}, in which, Jerry gets into a car accident with another man, and since said other man didn't have car insurance, the judge ordered the man to become Jerry's butler.
** The above inspires Frank to do the same to George when his car is ruined while in George's possession (George had parked the car in a handicap spot, and a wheelchair-bound woman ended up having a serious accident because of it).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* Literature/TheBible: Indentured servitude was common in Israel. To prevent it from becoming too permanent, the year of Jubilee was established; every fifty years all debts were forgiven and slaves set free.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' indentured servitude was revived once BrainUploading was developed. {{Mega Corp}}s would hire people from third-world countries and upload their Egos to cheap synthmorphs on their mining colonies throughout the solar system in exchange for some years of labor. Then came the Fall and billions uploaded themselves seeking to escape the [[AIIsACrapshoot TITANs]], most became disembodied [[VirtualGhost infomorphs]]. The newly emerged Hypercorps began exploiting this massive "infugee" population with indenture contracts promising them new bodies, which often have built-in dependencies on expensive treatments that only the corps can provide. Naturally most of the Autonomist Alliance condemns this practice, with the exception of the anarcho-capitalist Extropians (the rest of the Alliance being collectivists).
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' indentured servitude is one of the more serious penalties that can be applied to commoners in Calebria. And the Phelan normally impose fines for all crimes but if the accused cannot pay they are sold into slavery. The price list for Labor in the equipment chapter lists slaves with an indenture of one year or for life.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' the asari planet Ilium practices this, though many (including possibly Shepard) still consider it slavery. Unlike with [[TheEmpire the batarians]] the practice is strictly regulated as to the treatment of the indentures, work conditions, what types of work are permitted, and the length of service allowed. There's even agencies that match indentured workers with employers. In one sidequest Shepard encounters a quarian software engineer who ended up selling herself into indenture to cover gambling debts. Shep can talk a computer company's rep into buying the quarian's contract from an indenture agency.
* In one quest in ''VideoGame/HalfMinuteHero'', you're forced to enter into one of these arrangements via ButThouMust means. The town you're sent to is a scam with a system that makes it impossible to make enough money to leave, ideally keeping you a slave forever. Of course, your TimeyWimeyBall abilities make the scam breakable.
* In ''Videogame/{{Colonization}}'', criminals and indentured servants emigrate from Europe. These people are ineffective at any skilled job, but may eventually become a free colonist through labor or military service (criminals become indentured servants first before turning into free colonists).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'' Cale saves a slave ship full of bankers who ruined their kingdom's economy, and were sentenced to five years of servitude as punishment.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Real Life]]
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife. 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.
* During the American colonial era poor Englishmen would often sell their labor to colonial landowners for a set number of years in exchange for the landowner paying their fare across the Atlantic. The practice fell into disuse as African slavery became more prominent but was still occasionally seen as late as 1917.
[[/folder]]
----
Indentured workers tend to be treated better than traditional slaves and are contracted for a set length of time. They are not allowed to change jobs except on the agreement of the holder of their indenture, and running away is usually considered a crime. Once the term of their indenture expires, however, they're free to live as they please.
This is sometimes used in SpeculativeFiction, often as part of a SchizoTech setting.
Subtrope of MadeASlave. Compare WorkOffTheDebt, which is typically a shorter-term, informal arrangement. Also compare CompanyTown, which in bad cases leads to a permanent cycle of debt for the workers.
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'': After the title character is abandoned by his parents to work off their massive debts, he is "hired" by Nagi, a rich heiress, to work it off.
* In the {{yaoi}} manga ''Manga/OkaneGaNai'' the main character Ayase is auctioned off by his cousin to repay family debts and is purchased by a rich yakuza named Kanou. Because Kanou is in love with Ayase, he agrees to change the terms of their relationship from slavery to indentured servitude, giving Ayase a wage and allowing him to start earning his freedom.
* In ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' the protagonist, Haruhi, is forced to join the host club to work off her debts after she breaks a ridiculously expensive vase in the first chapter.
* ''Manga/HeIsMyMaster'': In the first episode Izumi breaks a vase worth 5 million yen. She becomes a maid to the vase's owner to pay off her debt to him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film]]
* This is the plot driver for the European film ''Film/{{Acla}}'', also known as ''Acla's Descent'', when the title character is sold into indentured servitude. Has a DownerEnding albeit with a BittersweetEnding taste.
* In ''Film/MemoirsOfAGeisha'', Saiyuri is sold to an okiya to become a geisha. She works there and her service pays off the expenses of her sumptuous kimono, wigs, and other items she needs to become a full geisha.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* The "Vats", humans grown from cloned tissue, in ''Literature/RatsBatsAndVats'' will have to start their adult life with paying off the debts accrued from being "[g]rown in a Company Vat, raised in a Company Nursery, and educated in a Company School".
* Institutionalized indenture is constant in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' universe. All new intelligent life is created when a starfaring race genetically engineers a wild species to add sapience. In the laws of the Five Galaxies, the "client" race is then required to serve their "patron" race for 100,000 years[[labelnote:*]]approximately, in Earth time[[/labelnote]] of "indenture," which ranges from subordinate but dignified positions to brutal slavery. Indentured clients are legally attached to their patrons, have very few civil rights, and are "spoils of war" if their patrons are conquered or exterminated. Humanity is in constant danger, so they've freed chimpanzees and dolphins from indenture even though their {{Uplift|edAnimal}} isn't even finished yet.
* Indentured servitude is legal in the eponymous nation of Tamora Pierce's ''Literature/TortallUniverse''. In one quartet, the protagonist buys the two-year indenture of a servant boy who was being abused by his current master.
* In the ''Literature/ChildrenOfSteel'' series [[PettingZooPeople animen]] are indentured to their parent company for 50 years or until they've paid off the cost of their gestation and upbringing. Few survive that long.
* [[DesignerBabies Azi]] in Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/AllianceUnion'' universe have the rights of minors but they can be made citizens under certain circumstances, and their children are citizens. Considering the original point of azi was to increase the Union's genetic diversity.
* A.N. Roquelaure's (PenName for Creator/AnneRice) ''Literature/{{Beauty}}'' series features a sexual indentured servitude. Before they're permitted to take rulership, young nobility and royalty are sent into training as [[SexSlave sexual slaves]]. It's also a means of social mobility, as commoners and lesser nobles may also submit themselves for the same treatment. Slaves may also beg to remain so for life.
* ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'': Terre d'Ange has Houses which take in children, training them and then having them [[SexSlave serve for sex]] until their servitude is completed (signified by the completion of a tattoo that runs the length of their backs). Both Phedre and Alcuin are bonded as this, and Phedre once buys out the indenture of a girl who suffered a facial injury before she could complete her term of service and couldn't get any more customers because of it.
* In ''Renegades of Literature/{{Gor}}'' the protagonist meets a free woman caught in indenture after she ran up a large bill at an inn and couldn't pay. Her actual plan was an ExploitedTrope: She would attempt to dine 'n dash but let herself get caught by the manager and be chained up outside, where she would beg passersby to redeem her debts, promising to pay them back later. She would then run off and do the same thing all over again. Such women are dubbed "debtor sluts" and it's usually a workable scam, but at the moment there's a major war going on and nobody was interested in buying her out, so she's stuck.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Paradox}} Earthrise]]'' Harat-sharin slaves sign themselves into temporary contracts. During their terms as slaves they have a lot of protections under the law and their savings accrue much higher interest than normal. Indentured servants on the other hand are convicts who have practically no rights.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Present in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' as part of the setting's massive SchizoTech.
** 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.
* In one episode of ''Series/BarneyMiller'' a [[DiplomaticImmunity diplomat]] has a slave. The slave's grandfather borrowed money from the diplomat's grandfather and he's still working off the debt.
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'':
** This is a plot device that Jerry and George [[ConversationalTroping use for the pilot they write]] for Creator/{{NBC}}, in which, Jerry gets into a car accident with another man, and since said other man didn't have car insurance, the judge ordered the man to become Jerry's butler.
** The above inspires Frank to do the same to George when his car is ruined while in George's possession (George had parked the car in a handicap spot, and a wheelchair-bound woman ended up having a serious accident because of it).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* Literature/TheBible: Indentured servitude was common in Israel. To prevent it from becoming too permanent, the year of Jubilee was established; every fifty years all debts were forgiven and slaves set free.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' indentured servitude was revived once BrainUploading was developed. {{Mega Corp}}s would hire people from third-world countries and upload their Egos to cheap synthmorphs on their mining colonies throughout the solar system in exchange for some years of labor. Then came the Fall and billions uploaded themselves seeking to escape the [[AIIsACrapshoot TITANs]], most became disembodied [[VirtualGhost infomorphs]]. The newly emerged Hypercorps began exploiting this massive "infugee" population with indenture contracts promising them new bodies, which often have built-in dependencies on expensive treatments that only the corps can provide. Naturally most of the Autonomist Alliance condemns this practice, with the exception of the anarcho-capitalist Extropians (the rest of the Alliance being collectivists).
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' indentured servitude is one of the more serious penalties that can be applied to commoners in Calebria. And the Phelan normally impose fines for all crimes but if the accused cannot pay they are sold into slavery. The price list for Labor in the equipment chapter lists slaves with an indenture of one year or for life.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' the asari planet Ilium practices this, though many (including possibly Shepard) still consider it slavery. Unlike with [[TheEmpire the batarians]] the practice is strictly regulated as to the treatment of the indentures, work conditions, what types of work are permitted, and the length of service allowed. There's even agencies that match indentured workers with employers. In one sidequest Shepard encounters a quarian software engineer who ended up selling herself into indenture to cover gambling debts. Shep can talk a computer company's rep into buying the quarian's contract from an indenture agency.
* In one quest in ''VideoGame/HalfMinuteHero'', you're forced to enter into one of these arrangements via ButThouMust means. The town you're sent to is a scam with a system that makes it impossible to make enough money to leave, ideally keeping you a slave forever. Of course, your TimeyWimeyBall abilities make the scam breakable.
* In ''Videogame/{{Colonization}}'', criminals and indentured servants emigrate from Europe. These people are ineffective at any skilled job, but may eventually become a free colonist through labor or military service (criminals become indentured servants first before turning into free colonists).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'' Cale saves a slave ship full of bankers who ruined their kingdom's economy, and were sentenced to five years of servitude as punishment.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Real Life]]
* The practice is OlderThanFeudalism in RealLife. 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.
* During the American colonial era poor Englishmen would often sell their labor to colonial landowners for a set number of years in exchange for the landowner paying their fare across the Atlantic. The practice fell into disuse as African slavery became more prominent but was still occasionally seen as late as 1917.
[[/folder]]
----
