Indentured Servitude By Richard Frethorne

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

ideal for the average person, much less for people constantly working. Unfortunately for these people, who had expected an easier and more financially stable lifestyle, they had run into a life that is not entirely pleasant at all.
Also likewise to Hofstadter, Frethorne mentions the fact that there was no benefit for him to stay in England, for the chances of a good life there were next to none.

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

in.
It is certainly regrettable that indentured servants had to face these terrible conditions amidst the New World, but one must also not forget the background they had come from. Most of these people were poor and desperate, with many coming from criminal backgrounds and wanting to leave them behind. They were separated from families and loved ones, but still had to push on working just for the sake of living. Both Frethorne and Hofstadter reflect these sentiments with their writings, but to each his own in terms of personal experience or opinion. Frethorne duly regrets his choice and wishes to be back with his mother and father, while Hofstadter chooses to comment on the aspirations and struggles of servants in America. Either way, both men tell of how difficult it truly is to try and prosper in a foreign land.