Discussion of academic freedom usually focuses on faculty, and it usually refers to speech. That is the gist of the 1915 "General Report of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure," appearing in the inaugural AAUP "Bulletin" as a kind of mission statement. Given the conditions of the American system of higher education--decentralized and meeting diverse needs, with liberal admissions requirements and relatively low tuition, and subject to ordinary speech protections--it was assumed that students had a good deal of freedom. That assumption has persisted through most of the century, as higher education has opened to an expanding body of students. However, over the past thirty years, students' freedom has been progressively curtailed--not in their immediate rights to speech but in their material circumstances. Now, two-thirds of American college students graduate with substantial debt, averaging nearly $30,000 in 2008 and rising, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics and other sources. The author argues that the growth in debt has ushered in a system of bondage similar in practical terms, as well as in principle, to indentured servitude. Student debt binds individuals for a significant part of their future work lives. It violates the spirit of American freedom in leading those less wealthy to bind their futures. The author offers some ways that college student loan debt revives indentured servitude.