Indentured servitude was a labor system in which people paid for their passage to the New World by working for an employer for a fixed term of years. It was widely employed in the 18th century in the British colonies in North America and elsewhere. It was a way for the poor in Britain and the German states to obtain passage to the American colonies. After the term expired, they became free to work for themselves. The employer purchased the indenture from the sea captain who brought the people over. Most indentured servants worked as farmers or helpers for farm wives; some were apprenticed to craftsmen. Both sides were legally obligated to comply with the terms, but they were not always enforced by American courts. Runaways were sought out and returned. About half of the white immigrants to the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries were indentured. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, children from England and France were kidnapped and sold into indentured labor in the Caribbean for a minimum of five years, but usually their contracts were bought and sold repeatedly and some laborers never obtained their freedom.