History Main / IndenturedServitude

* ''VideoGame/HardspaceShipbreaker'' gives the player a front row seat to the sheer insidiousness of this practice. Right out of the gate you're saddled with a ''billion'' dollar debt due to the costs of getting you to outer space and it's just the tip of the iceberg: equipment and habitation rental fees, interest, and other miscellaneous fees end up costing you $500k a day. You also have to buy your own oxygen, tether charges, suit repairs, equipment repair kits, and thruster fuel on site. Once your certification level is high enough, you can start using your LYNX tokens to purchase all your Cutter gear from the company, removing the associated rental fees and reducing your bill to $75,000 a day before interest on your ever-decreasing debt kicks in.

* 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 as a compromise solution: the company rep doesn't support indenture and so won't take her directly, but Shepard suggests buying the contract, freeing the quarian, and then garnishing a smaller part of her wages to pay off the debt. (Related conversations also touch on some CultureClash about the practice: the asari assume that humans' low opinion of slavery or indenture comes from their conflicts with batarian slavers rather than [[TheAtoner humans' past slavery of each other]].)

* 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.
* 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.
* The majority of the humans that come to ''TabletopGame/{{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.
* Given ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' borrows heavily from Gibson the perjorative "Wageslave" is frequently quite literal. Many corps set up extraterritorial {{Company Town}}s that use their exclusive scrip. Extraction of contract-locked scientists is a common runner job, but [[{{Munchkin}} some]] runners skip the "persuasion" stage and just drug the target before carrying them out.

* Literature/TheBible: Indentured servitude was common in Israel. To prevent it from becoming too permanent, the year of shemita was established in the Book of Leviticus; every seven 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. These "permanently" enslaved Hebrew slaves were freed in the Year of the Jubilee, which occured every fifty years, whether they liked it or not. One suspects the masters likely gave indentured men wives just to coerce them into this...

* ''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 (it’s a longstanding arrangement between the two as Viola encouraged Carol to be a PredatoryProstitute). Viola also trades indebted hunters in what's likened to HumanTrafficking.

* ''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 (it’s a longstanding arrangement between the two as Viola encouraged Carol to be a PredatoryProstitute).

* 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.

* ''VideoGame/HardspaceShipbreaker'' gives the player a front row seat to the sheer insidiousness of this practice. Right out of the gate you're saddled with a ''billion'' dollar debt due to the costs of getting you to outer space and it's just the tip of the iceberg: equipment rental fees, habitation rental fees, interest, and other miscellaneous fees end up costing you $500k a day. You also have to buy your own oxygen, tether charges, suit repairs, equipment repair kits, and thruster fuel on site. Once your certification level is high enough, you can start using your LYNX tokens to purchase all your Cutter gear from the company, removing the associated rental fees and reducing your bill to $75,000 a day before interest on your ever-decreasing debt kicks in.

* 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...

* In reminiscence to new world immigration in RealLife section, ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'' has the Broker charging Liminals who wished to get into Japan but isn't selected for the exchange program, and they will have to work the debt off. While they can choose any work they want, his company does provide them with work if needed, and pays well enough that most Liminals choose to keep working for him even after their debt is paid off.

* Gar in ''Videogame/{{Arcanum}}'' considers himself to be an indentured servant of H.T. Parnell, who paid Gar enough money to rescue his family from poverty in return for Gar performing as a [[LivingMuseumExhibit freak-show attraction]] in Parnell's museum of oddities.

* 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).

* In ''Videogame/EliteDangerous'', the Empire practices indentured servitude, and criticizes the unregulated and black market slave trafficking in Federation space. Empire stations will even offer missions to players to rescue slaves to be made into Imperial 'slaves' for a duration, which have a much higher quality of life. As they value honor above all else, Imperials consider it more honorable to sell yourself into temporary slavery than to default on a debt.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Gar in ''Videogame/{{Arcanum}}'' considers himself to be an indentured servant of H.T. Parnell, who paid Gar enough money to rescue his family from poverty in return for Gar performing as a [[LivingMusemExhibit freak-show attraction]] in Parnell's museum of oddities.

* Gar in ''Videogame/{{Arcanum}}'' considers himself to be an indentured servant of H.T. Parnell, who paid Gar enough money to rescue his family from poverty in return for Gar performing as a freak-show attraction in Parnell's museum of oddities.

* 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.

** 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 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.)