A servant is paid for his or her work and can quit at any time.
An endentured servant has a contract calling for him or her to provide service for a specified number of years and cannot leave until that time is passed. The contract, or indenture, may provide for some forms of payment to be made, or merely for room and board to be provided if the indenture was agreed to in exchange for something substantial such as transportation to the "New World." The children of an indentured servant are not bound by the terms of the contract.
An enslaved person, a slave, is property and must work for the owner, just like a horse or other animal property. The slave can never leave and the children of a slave is also slaves just as the foal of a horse you own is also your horse.
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Servants are typically hired or contracted to work for a period of time in exchange for wages or room and board, while indentured or enslaved people are forced to work without pay or under extremely exploitative conditions, often with no choice in the matter. Indentured servants may have agreed to work for a set period of time in exchange for passage to a new country, but still retained some rights and protections. Enslaved people had no choice in their status and were considered property with no rights.
The two social groups were the merchants/traders and the indentured servants. Merchants/traders were involved in commerce and trade, while indentured servants were individuals who worked under a contract for a certain period of time to pay off a debt or gain passage to the colonies.
Slaves were considered property and were owned for life, while indentured servants signed contracts to work for a specific period of time in exchange for passage to a new country or other benefits. Indentured servants had the possibility of gaining freedom after their contract ended, while slaves did not have the same opportunity for freedom or autonomy.
Servants are typically hired to work for a wage and have the freedom to leave their employment. Slaves, on the other hand, are considered property and do not have the freedom to leave their enslavement.
A free black person was not legally owned or controlled by another individual, while an enslaved black person was considered property and forced to work without pay under the ownership of someone else. Free blacks had more autonomy and rights than enslaved blacks, though both still faced discrimination and limited opportunities in society.
A slave is a person who is owned as property by another and has no personal freedom or rights. A servant is a person who is employed to perform duties for someone else but retains their personal freedom and rights.