Sugar has been one of the Caribbean’s primary crops for centuries. Sugar cultivation required grueling work in hot and humid fields, so many 16th-century plantation owners contracted indentured servants.
Indentured Servants
Indentured servants were people who worked without pay. Europeans who owed money they could not repay were often imprisoned. The servants signed contracts that required them to work for three to seven years in exchange for paying off their debts. The services of these immigrants were sold to the highest bidders upon their arrival in the colonies. The living conditions for many indentured servants on Caribbean plantations were often inhumane and involved exhausting physical labor and abusive treatment. By the 17th century, many colonial settlers in the Caribbean were indentured servants or redemptioners. Redemptioners were immigrants who indentured themselves to pay for their voyage. Those servants who survived their brutal indenture were then absorbed into the general population.
The Shift to Enslaved Labor
During the 18th century, indentured contracts became less necessary as the costs of immigration to America went down. Additionally, plantation owners lowered labor costs by importing people with no rights—enslaved Africans who were captured and brought to America against their will.
Resources
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Mr. Donn has an excellent website that includes a section on the Caribbean.