Indentured Servitude By Richard Frethorne

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Recommended: Indentured servitude and slavery in the British colonies of north america

The topic of indentured servitude isn’t exactly a hot one in terms of popular historical details, but it’s certainly one that tends to be neglected and overlooked when we glimpse into the past and discuss the people who helped build this country from the ground up. Many of these indentured servants suffered during the journey over and the handful that survived were treated poorly once they actually began to work. In Richard Frethorne’s case, the better opportunity he had looked forward to in America is stunted by the fact that his new lifestyle is arduous and grueling, which is also sympathized by Richard Hofstadter in his essay on the details of indentured servitude. Frethorne starts off his letter describing the conditions that ail the servants around him, going into detail about the diseases and malnutrition they had faced during and after the journey. Similarly, Hofstadter’s essay includes an excerpt saying “…the high mortality of crossing,” and “sometimes racked with fever…lying in their own vomit…” which support Frethorne’s claims of a miserable and disease laden lifestyle. Assuming that most indentured servants thought similarly to Frethorne, this would mean that most of them were suffering in these living conditions that were not …show more content…

Along with Hofstadter’s “there was so little at stake,” Frethorne tells of a life in England that was filled with poverty and hunger. To make a habit out of begging daily shows how little consideration was put into this transition from one country to the next, since there was nothing much to lose anyways. Hofstadter also includes in his essay that the degree of turbulence, crime, and exploitation that these men had left behind was incomparable to the new life they had to gain in the New World, even if they didn’t expect much from the new place they were to live

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