Frethornes letter assignment PDF

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essay about freethornes letter he wrote. can be used to gain new ideas...

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Briana Ramos Richard Frethorne Letter

History 1301.002

The day of March 20 – April 2, and 3, 1623. Indentured servant Richard Frethorne was set out and signed to a contract, slaved into doing work for what turned out to be the deterring remainder of his life. The letter paints out a scary and traumatizing life of an indentured servant and has proved what we learned in class is confirmed. Richard Frethorne gives enough dreadful evidence, in what might have been his last letter to the Frethorne family. After reading the letter he seemed to be begging for food from his family. In which they seem to have cared very little about the well-being of their son. His last words were sent out in hopes to be rescued from the starvation, and torture his unhealthy body went through. Our discussion in class was describing that indentured servants which is a free person who agrees to work for someone else for a certain amount of time. They are signed into a contract for five to seven years; this contract is called indenture. Unfortunately, they do not live for that long due to being extremely over worked and being malnourished. With that being said with some of these slaves being so young their body is still growing; without proper nutrition their body will be starving beyond measures. They were promised food and shelter, but by the proof of Frethorne’s letter he describes being only fed “anything but peas and lobilee” which is a type of water gruel, and by the sounds of it is nothing that will nourish their body properly with the amount of work and hard labor they are being put through. Thus, leading to these young kids to living only one to two years once they start their contract. Not only were they worked till death. We discussed that they were sent out to Jamestown, Virginia in hopes to gain wealth and land to help their family ranking. As well as during their journey, the servants were battling a sickness, with no source of medication. Frethorne wrote, “the scurvy and the bloody flux and

diverse other diseases, which maketh the body very poor and weak.” As this path for him continued Richard Frethorne only lived a couple months after this letter was sent. Life as an indentured servant does not sound pleasant at all. Even though they are promised a lifetime of supplies, the extreme labor they are put through is not worth it. For example Frethorne writes “On Monday at noon, and come there by night, [and] then load the next day by noon, and go home in the afternoon, and come there by night, [and] then load the next day by noon..” Frethorne continues on and even though this is only a letter you can still feel the exhaustion that he went through. Richard Frethornes letter was described in a way that no one should have to live a day by day. Another example that would not be worth being an indentured servant is that they are provided with very little clothes to supply themselves with. Richard Frethorne explains having not even a shirt to put on his back, he writes “nor clothes but one poor suit, nor but one pair of shoes, but one pair of stockings, but one cap, [and] but two bands.” Referring back to the indenture contract the clothes that they are provided with would not last someone to work the hard labor for five to seven years, soon they would be worn out. Another example as to why it would not be pleasant to live as an indentured servant. During our class discussion we described how these slaves live as “ every man for themselves” an example from the letter is given when he describes having his cloak stolen from him, “and till his dying hour he would not tell me what he did with it; but some of my fellows saw him have butter and beef out of a ship, which my cloak, I doubt [not] paid for.” He later saw him with more food than usual. Therefore, this would leave the other person with nothing to sell for food for themselves. He describes himself as being strong and well-nourished before he had stepped

foot into being an indentured servant and now, he is what seems to be only skin and bones, tired and weak. There is no reason to doubt Frethorne and what he sacrificed himself through at such a young age. Being that he was very young he went out there with only knowledge that he would help his family to succeed, he was deceived and his experience turned out to be much more different. He was scared and alone, he pleads to be taken back home and goes on to say he would rather be begging crippled door to door in England than to be stuck as a slave. “ Oh! That they were in England without their limbs again, yea, though they beg from door to door.” Frethorne begs his family for food towards the end of his letter and knows that he will be dying soon if he doesn’t receive any nutrition. This proves to the readers that this is serious and is a life or death situation. Though he is young, a child would not be lying about something so delicate a life. Frethorne writes, “I hope all my brothers and sisters are in good health, and as for my part I have set down my resolution that certainly will be; that is, the answer of this letter will be life or death to me.” From the beginning of the letter I had no doubt that everything tied in with the lecture. Frethornes letter gives a window and enough evidence to prove that there were many others going through the same suffering, from having little to no food and barely any clothing. The life of an indentured servant was neither pleasant or easy....