Old Ben’s Kraut ancestor came to NY as an indentured servant. Lucky thing for him (or unlucky), the Brit who was running the operation was incompetent and the whole thing went belly up.
Rather than feed his German laborers he “set them free” at the edge of the wilderness.
Not NY, Chester Pennsylvania. When he served out his indenture he bought a 700 acre farm in Tennessee where he met, bought, and married an Irish slave woman.