In a message dated 2/2/06 11:30:25 PM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: > Indentured was the "politically correct" term for enslavement! > Not exactly, technically Infdentured Servants had rights that slaves did not. For one, they were not indentured for life , like slaves were. Two, they had recourse to relief if treated badly ( well on paper any way) three they were to be given sets of clothing and an amount of money (varied a bit in different places ) when their indenture was satisfied. and Fourth, they willingly sought out the indenture.. .now that 's where , the good people of Ma. were on shaky ground.. of course there was also local laws dealing with the poor. They could be indentured out against their will If they were healthy and able, so as to remove them from the poor roles and keep them from being a drain on the community. So it seems that this is what the good state of Ma was doing at this point. Slaves , we all know , had no recourse to relief from slavery .. They were slaves for life in most states. That didn't change until the early part of the 19th century when a form of limited slavery was adopted by some states as a compromise to ending slavery/ So some were slaves for life, and some were slaves for a period of time. The point with the Acadians is that as Prisoners of War, they should not have been indentured out according to British law Thje State did not want to accept this title for them, because it obligated the state to treat them in a far different way , and gave them options that the state did not want a French speaking people to have. Remember that at this point the French were as hated as the Indians .... which brings me to the War being fought on these lands at the time of the Derangement. ....The French and Indian war, This war too ended in 1763...The English colonies were not at all happy to have a huge number of displaced persons that were considered to be enemies of the state ( because they were French) This had the potential for creating trouble for the British colony... The fact that this group of Acadians considered themselves as Neutrals was totally lost on the Brits. Fran Wilcox