Indentured Servitude as a Compromise?

What if some wiley, half backed 19th century southern democrat senator decided to introduce bill that converted the status of black chattel slaves to meerly Indentured Servants, dusting off the institution from 17th century colonial America? (Temporary enslavement with automatic freedom after a number of years)

If it passed, could it have been an effective comprise to the slavery debate in the US?
 
Actually, converting slaves into "apprentices" was commonplace in northern emancipation laws. "The 1804 statute and subsequent laws freed children born after the law was passed. African Americans born to slave mothers after July 4, 1804 had to serve lengthy apprenticeships to the owners of their mothers. Women were freed at 21, but men were not emancipated until the age of 25.[19] Slaves who had been born before these laws were passed were considered, after 1846, as indentured servants who were "apprenticed for life."[20]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_New_Jersey In 1860, New Jersey still had 18 "apprentices for life." http://slavenorth.com/newjersey.htm

But such schemes for gradual emancipation were repeatedly rejected even in Upper South states like Kentucky and Virginia and of course stood no chance at all further south. And even southerners who favored gradual, compensated emancipation (and there were some who did, even in the 1850's) insisted that it could only be done by the states, and that it was none of the federal government's business.
 
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