Were white ever brought to th U.S. in any other way than free?

Answer 1

Yes, actually there were indentured servants (mainly white Europeans male and female) who in exchange for paid passage to the colonies would work for years and sometimes even indefinitely until the debt was paid in full. In many cases, indentured servants were subject to violence at the hands of their employers in the homes or fields in which they worked. Women could and would often be raped by their "masters." Most of the indentured servants were of low social class and due to their low social status, they were believed to be particularly prone to vice, making legal redress unusual. Although the indentured servants did have a choice, either to become an indentured servant and try to build a better life or starve to death on the streets of London, they were never truly free until their "masters" decided it was time for them to be granted their freedom. The whole seven years until freedom could be changed to suit the master as well.

Answer 2

Many Europeans were brought to the Americas as indentured servants, no quite slaves but not free either. Some were sent to the colonies as punishment, criminals that were kicked out of their country and the only place for them to go was the new world. A very few were actual slaves, individuals who were owned by their masters and had to go where they were told.

Answer 3

Of course, sort of...

In the 1700s we had "indentured servants". These were white (mostly Cornish or Scotch). They were 'indentured' (or enslaved) to their sponsor for 7 years in order to pay for the passage and the room and board during their 7 year stay. After 7 years, they were free to do as they pleased. That's why I said "sort of"... Africans did not enjoy the 7 year clause, but were enslaved for live.

Answer 4

Apart from indentured servants, who usually went into it voluntarily, the American colonies were also penal colonies with convicts transported from England. The War of Independence closed off this traffic and led to the founding of a colony in Australia to take the unwanted convicts. Many thousands of Americans have a British convict in their ancestry.

Answer 5

Oh yes... before anyone else white people (the upper classes mainly) had other white people as slaves. Or the fancy term "indentured servants," same thing.

Edit: http://www.revisionisthistory.org/forgottenslaves.html
"Before British slavers traveled to Africa's western coast to buy Black slaves from African chieftains, they sold their own White working class kindred ("the surplus poor" as they were known) from the streets and towns of England, into slavery. Tens of thousands of these White slaves were kidnapped children."

Answer 6

Prisoners and debtors were forcibly brought over, many as indentured servants. LOL! The first time I heard that term (indentured), I thought it meant they had false teeth!

Answer 7

Yes, a couple of my ancestors came over (by boat) from England as a sentence for crimes committed, to serve as indentured servants for 14yrs. Afterward they were freed and decided to stay in the US.

Answer 8

Many whites were brought to North America as bond slaves. But I don't know if it continued after we became the USA.

Answer 9

Yes indeed. Europe sent many to the US who were political outcasts, criminals and debtors. Debt in many parts of Europe had to be worked off, either in debtor's prisons or in the colonies. Georgia was a prison state, full of debtors and other kinds of 'criminals', and its first governor was Warden Governor James Oglethrope.

Answer 10

Yes. My ancestor came as a bond-servant in 1640.
Worked as a hat-maker. Probably went mad because they used mercury to block hats and the fumes from the mercury damaged their brains.