bond-debtors

Updated: August 3, 2026

Those brought to Padang, are not, indeed, sold as slaves; but they are registered at the Resident's office, and held as bond-debtors for different terms of seven, fifteen, and even twenty years: during this servitude, they are treated as slaves, but are free at its expiration; they have also the option of buying their liberty in the meantime, if they can raise the means; and the proprietor is not at liberty to refuse a sum equivalent to the value of the unexpired term of service.

G. F. Davidson - Trade and Travel in the Far East: or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java,: Singapore, Australia and China.