Indentured Servants History
Anthony Sheehan
Primary Source Paper #1
2/10/15
The Life of Indentured Servants in Virginia
Hard work is what created the North American colonies, especially Virginia. The foundations of America started early in the sixteen hundreds. Indentured servants from England, Ireland, and Scotland did the work, but slaves from Africa later on helped create the beginning of America as well. A letter and a journal from two different indentured servants are two primary sources that tell us what it was like to come over to the colonies in the sixteen hundreds as well as the seventeen hundreds. The first primary source comes from Richard Frethorne, an Englishman looking to create a better life in the colony of Virginia. The other primary source comes from a Scotsman of the name John Harrower, who came to Virginia as a teacher of a colonel. The two men tell very different stories of their lives on board passage and then on the shores of the colony of Virginia. Frethorne deals with a very harsh life in Virginia, battling disease and starvation, while Harrower seemed to be much more privileged and taken care of.
His body riddled with scurvy and the flu, a very weak man to say at least. Trying to work, but he physically and mentally cannot. Forced to work merely as a slave because he signed a contract to be an indentured servant in North America. Looking for a new life away from his friends and family back in England like many others. That is a brief description of Richard Frethorne, an indentured servant in North America, more specifically Jamestown, Virginia. The water is full of disease, the food is scarce. Death is very common, almost welcomed because if the lack of food and water did not kill you, the thousands of hostile natives surrounding will kill you. In Richard Frethorne’s letter home to his parents, there is a detailed description of what the American colonies were actually like. Frethorne came to Virginia in the early sixteen hundreds, when settlers were still
Primary Source Paper #1
2/10/15
The Life of Indentured Servants in Virginia
Hard work is what created the North American colonies, especially Virginia. The foundations of America started early in the sixteen hundreds. Indentured servants from England, Ireland, and Scotland did the work, but slaves from Africa later on helped create the beginning of America as well. A letter and a journal from two different indentured servants are two primary sources that tell us what it was like to come over to the colonies in the sixteen hundreds as well as the seventeen hundreds. The first primary source comes from Richard Frethorne, an Englishman looking to create a better life in the colony of Virginia. The other primary source comes from a Scotsman of the name John Harrower, who came to Virginia as a teacher of a colonel. The two men tell very different stories of their lives on board passage and then on the shores of the colony of Virginia. Frethorne deals with a very harsh life in Virginia, battling disease and starvation, while Harrower seemed to be much more privileged and taken care of.
His body riddled with scurvy and the flu, a very weak man to say at least. Trying to work, but he physically and mentally cannot. Forced to work merely as a slave because he signed a contract to be an indentured servant in North America. Looking for a new life away from his friends and family back in England like many others. That is a brief description of Richard Frethorne, an indentured servant in North America, more specifically Jamestown, Virginia. The water is full of disease, the food is scarce. Death is very common, almost welcomed because if the lack of food and water did not kill you, the thousands of hostile natives surrounding will kill you. In Richard Frethorne’s letter home to his parents, there is a detailed description of what the American colonies were actually like. Frethorne came to Virginia in the early sixteen hundreds, when settlers were still