An immigrant who had to work out his passage-money after landing. The N.E.D. gives examples 1775, 1796, 1805. See the account given of them by Bülow, translated in The Port Folio, ii. 354 (Phila., Nov. 13, 1802).
1784. Just arrived in the ship Harmony, from Cork, upwards of 200 Redemptioners and Servants, whose Times of Servitude are to be disposed of.—Advt., Maryland Journal, May 25.
1784. A man had for some time carried on a profitable traffic by purchasing redemptioners and driving them up the country.—Id., Oct. 5.
1784. Healthy German Redemptioners just arrived in the ship Capellen tot don Pol, from Rotterdam.—Advt., id., Nov. 9.
1788. [He] took with him a white servant, a recently purchased redemptioner.—Mass. Spy, Dec. 18.
1796. The system in question is described by Isaac Weld, ‘Travels through North America,’ pp. 69–70 (Lond. 1799).
See also Watson, ‘Historic Tales of Philadelphia,’ pp. 234–8 (1833).
1812. [Mr. Randolph] supposed another [instance] in the case of a redemptioner sold at Philadelphia.—Boston-Gazette, Nov. 30.
