[bkbjones]

Indentured servitude goes back to the times of serfs and lords when a contract was written in duplicate on the same sheet of paper. The copies were separated by cutting along what we would today call a jagged line. It was called "indentured" because you could prove the two contract pieces were real by matching the "teeth" (jagged parts) when the two parts were later put together.

(apparently there was no carbon paper around England back then...but there was carbon stuff in other parts of the world...)

If memory serves me correctly, indentured servants were guaranteed some sort of basics, like shelter, food, and/or pay, in return for their work...contract laborers, if you will, while slaves (in the thinking of the day) were nothing but chattel and anything they were provided was simply because their owner wanted to protect their investment.

I'm not sure where all this fits into umpiring, although I have done some indentured servitude for an assignor or two through the years...