Indentured servants were primarily transported to the New World in exchange for labor.

Indentured servants were primarily transported to the New World in exchange for labor.

• A. Gold
• B. Education
• C. Labor for passage to the New World
• D. Land

Answer: (C)

Indentured servitude worked as a labor-for-passage system. People who could not afford the voyage to the New World agreed to work for a fixed number of years in return for being transported, fed, and housed during the journey and term of service. The colony needed steady labor to grow crops like tobacco and rice, so the promise of labor was what made migration possible and financed the trip. After completing their term, many earned freedom and sometimes minor rewards, but the shipping themselves happened because of the obligation to work. Gold or education weren’t the basis for these arrangements, and while land could accompany freedom, it wasn’t the reason people were sent in the first place.

Indentured servitude worked as a labor-for-passage system. People who could not afford the voyage to the New World agreed to work for a fixed number of years in return for being transported, fed, and housed during the journey and term of service. The colony needed steady labor to grow crops like tobacco and rice, so the promise of labor was what made migration possible and financed the trip. After completing their term, many earned freedom and sometimes minor rewards, but the shipping themselves happened because of the obligation to work. Gold or education weren’t the basis for these arrangements, and while land could accompany freedom, it wasn’t the reason people were sent in the first place.