Debt bondage , also known as debt slavery , bonded labour , or peonage , is the pledge of a person's services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation. Where the terms of the repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, or where the debt is excessively large, the person who holds the debt has thus some control over the laborer, whose freedom depends on the undefined or excessive debt repayment.
In , debt bondage was the most common method of enslavement, with an estimated 8. The practice is still prevalent primarily in South Asia and parts of Western and Southern Africa , although most countries in these regions are parties to the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery. Though the Forced Labour Convention of by the International Labour Organization , which included parties, sought to bring organised attention to eradicating slavery through forms of forced labor , formal opposition to debt bondage in particular came at the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery in Debt bondage, that is to say, the status or condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or of those of a person under his control as security for a debt if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined; [ 2 ].
When a pledge to provide services to pay off debt is made by an individual, the employer often illegally inflates interest rates at an unreasonable amount, making it impossible for the individual to leave bonded labour. Although debt bondage, forced labour , and human trafficking are all defined as forms or variations of slavery , each term is distinct. Debt bondage only applies to individuals who have no hopes of leaving the labor due to inability to ever pay debt back. Important to both East and West Africa, pawnship, defined by Wilks as "the use of people in transferring their rights for settlement of debt," was common during the 17th century.
After the abolition of slavery in many countries in the 19th century, Europeans still needed laborers. During the colonial history of the United States , persons bonded themselves to an owner who paid their passage to the New World. They worked until the debt of passage was paid off, often for years. Those captured were hauled to remote plantations In Peru , a peonage system existed from the 16th century until land reform in the s. One estate in Peru that existed from the late 16th century until it ended had up to 1, people employed and had a prison.
They were expected to work for their landlord a minimum of three days a week and more if necessary to complete assigned work. Workers were paid a symbolic two cents per year. Workers were unable to travel outside their assigned lands without permission and were not allowed to organise any independent community activity.
