Irish indentured servants

Irish indentured servants were Irish people who became indentured servants in territories under the control of the British Empire, such as the Caribbean (particularly Barbados, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands), British North America and later Australia.

Some came willingly, agreeing to provide up to seven years of labor in return for passage to the New World and food, housing, and shelter during their indenture. At the end of this period, their masters were legally required to grant them "freedom dues," in the form of either land or capital.

Many were transported unwillingly: as political prisoners, vagrants, or people who had been defined as "undesirable" by the British state.Penal transportation of Irish people was at its height during the 17th century, during the Cromwellian conquest and settlement of Ireland. During this period, thousands of Irish people were sent to the Caribbean, or "Barbadosed", against their will. Similar practices continued as late as the Victorian period where Irish political prisoners were sent to imperial British penal colonies in Tasmania.

Like the movement of other European people to the Americas, Irish migration to the Caribbean and British North America had complex causes. The late sixteenth and early seventeenth were a time of upheaval in Ireland, as crop failures, religious persecution, and English settlement drove many Irish people to seek a better life - and survival - elsewhere. Like their English and Scottish counterparts, Irish people were active participants in the "rush for American colonies" during the early seventeenth century. Most travelled to the new world as indentured servants, but others were merchants and landholders who were key players in a variety of different trade and settlement enterprises.

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