They Came Owing Everything: The Forgotten Story of Indentured Immigrants

When we think about immigration to America, we often imagine people arriving free to begin new lives. But for many early immigrants, freedom did not begin at the dock. It was something they had to earn.

Indentured immigrants came to America bound by contracts—agreements that required them to work for a set number of years in exchange for passage across the ocean, food, shelter, or the promise of land. For people fleeing poverty, famine, war, or land shortages, indenture was often the only path available.

These men and women arrived already in debt.

Life as an indentured servant could be harsh. Contracts were enforceable by law, and working conditions were often grueling. Servants had little control over where they lived or how they worked. Some endured abuse, extended terms, or broken promises. Yet many survived those years and emerged on the other side as free people—farmers, tradespeople, parents, and eventually landowners.

Their stories are easy to miss in genealogy. Indentured immigrants often appear briefly in records and then vanish for years. They might not own land right away. Their names might change. They might not appear in tax lists or censuses until their service ended.

But their impact was real.

These were people who began their American lives with nothing but obligation and endurance. They worked not just for themselves, but for the chance that their children would live free of debt. Many of the families who later prospered in America did so because someone, generations earlier, worked off their freedom one year at a time.

When we trace indentured ancestors, we are not just recovering forgotten names. We are acknowledging a form of courage that rarely makes it into textbooks: the courage to begin life in a new land already burdened, trusting that the future would be worth the cost.

Some known indentured ancestors:

• John Sinclair (~1630–1731) Prisoner of war against Oliver Cromwell.
• George Soule (~1595–bef 1679) Came on the Mayflower as servant to Edward Winslow.
• Duncan Stewart (~1629–1717) Prisoner of war against Oliver Cromwell.
• George Sutton (1613–1669) Servant to Nathaniel Tilden.
• Alice Eliss (~1618–1682) Not much is known about her indenture, but she was probably a convicted criminal set to the new world for punishment. Women were often imported as indentured servants, but rarely well-documented.