A redemptioner is an immigrant, generally from the 18th or early 19th century, who gained passage to America (most often Pennsylvania) by selling himself as an indentured servant. Redemptioners differed from indentured servants in that they had the right, upon arriving at their destination port, to seek prospective employers and negotiate the terms of their own employment. Indentured servants' contracts, on the other hand, were frequently sold without their consent. While indentured servants typically traveled alone, redemptioners often traveled in family groups; their right to negotiate terms of employment sometimes allowed entire families to find employment in the same household or at least in the same neighborhood. Many redemptioners were ethnic Germans who originated in the Palatinate of the Rhine.

Human migration