Children could be indentured at almost any age, tho' I've never seen an
infant indured.  Indeed, 5 is the youngest I've seen.

And, no, indenture was NOT a form of adoption.  One was indented to serve
one's master until one reached the age of majority or served the time
specified in the indenture.  Most indentures for boys provided for
education: reading, writing, and "cyphering to the rule of three."  Girls
did not get the math; blacks got nothing.  At the end, indentured servants
generally were owed "freedom dues," i.e. money and a suit of clothes.  This
applied to free blacks as well.  Indentured servants had little more rights
than slaves in colonial and early republic America.

Jim Watkinson

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