Good point, George. From what little I've been able to find on the subject, indentured servitude was often extremely harsh. So much of what was done "way back" would be considered barbaric by today's standards (hence, today's revulsion over the very idea of one human owning another).
Even the diagnosis and treatment of many illnesses is appalling by today's standards. Imagine being epileptic (known to be a completely physical condition today) and being locked up in an insane asylum because you were thought to be "dangerous". This happened. Certainly as late as the 1880s; and I don't know how much later.
Our notions of what's moral and humane were not theirs. Our "knowledge" was not theirs, either.
Penny