Primary Source Analysis: Indentured Servant Richard Frethorne Laments His Condition in Virginia, 1623
Richard Frethorne’s letter of 1623 provides a key insight into the life of indentured servants in early colonial Virginia. At the time the British were using propaganda to attract many physical workers to the colonies, such as Frethorne. However Frethorne portrays a life that is riddled with hardship and horrors, a far cry from the image described by British propaganda.
Malnutrition, disease, exposure to the elements, threat of native raids, hard labour and death were all common in the life of an indentured servant according to Frethorne. Since arrival in the colonies Frethorne had seen two thirds of his shipmates die due to the conditions endured by the indentured servant. Those without capitol suffered due to lack of supplies and inadequate housing for the preservation of the labourer’s health. Frethorne goes as far to say he would be better off living as a crippled beggar back in England rather than continuing life as an indentured servant, and pleads his parents to buy him out of his indenture. The indentured servants’ freedoms appear to be so limited that Frethorne describes the presence of fowl and other wildlife, but due to restrictions placed upon them coupled with the extensive labour expectations they are unable to hunt. It is clear that this system was established to keep the indentured servants reliant on their masters for life’s necessities. Although the position of indentured servant was theoretically temporary and dignified, Frethorne reveals that the life of an indentured servant in early 17th Century Virginia was not far from that of a slave. Since the first African slaves only arrived in 1619 and slavery was not perpetual until 1670, it appears this was very much the case. The fact that indentured servants and slaves revolted together during Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 illustrates how similar their condition were, with the only difference...