Between one-half and two-thirds of European immigrants to the
American Colonies between the 1630s and the American Revolution came under
indentures.
[2] However, while almost half the European immigrants to the
Thirteen Colonies were indentured servants, at any one time they were outnumbered by workers who had never been indentured, or whose indenture had expired, and thus free wage labor was the more prevalent for Europeans in the colonies.
[3] Indentured people were numerically important mostly in the region from Virginia north to
New Jersey. Other colonies saw far fewer of them. The total number of European immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 was about 500,000; of these 55,000 were involuntary prisoners. Of the 450,000 or so European arrivals who came voluntarily, Tomlins estimates that 48% were indentured.
[4]