All 4 Uses of
bondservant
in
The Scarlet Letter
- It might be that a sluggish bond-servant, or an undutiful child, whom his parents had given over to the civil authority, was to be corrected at the whipping-post.
p. 47.5bond-servant = indentured servant
- Lifting the iron hammer that hung at the portal, Hester Prynne gave a summons, which was answered by one of the Governor's bond servants—a free-born Englishman, but now a seven years' slave.
p. 96.7 *
- "Yea, forsooth," replied the bond-servant, staring with wide-open eyes at the scarlet letter, which, being a new-comer in the country, he had never before seen.
p. 96.9
- "Nevertheless, I will enter," answered Hester Prynne; and the bond-servant, perhaps judging from the decision of her air, and the glittering symbol in her bosom, that she was a great lady in the land, offered no opposition.
p. 97.1
Definition:
someone bound to serve another without pay -- such as a slave, serf, or indentured servant
(An indentured servant is someone who is bound by a signed or forced contract to work without wages for a period of time. This could result from an unpaid debt or be a way to pay for transportation to a new place. Though common in the American colonies, today it is illegal.)
(An indentured servant is someone who is bound by a signed or forced contract to work without wages for a period of time. This could result from an unpaid debt or be a way to pay for transportation to a new place. Though common in the American colonies, today it is illegal.)