Our Plantation Is Very Weak": The Experiences of an Indentured Servant in Virginia, 1623.

Our Plantation Is Very Weak": The Experiences of an Indentured Servant in Virginia, 1623.

plantations, cheasapeake, virginia, indentured servitude, labor, migration

This primary document is a letter and a first-hand account of life for indentured servitudes, and draws parallels between the treatment of indentured servants and slavery. It also provides a look into the difficulties of settling the New World. As it result it shows how important indentured servitude became to the productivity of the colonies and how it was an heavily depended upon and seemingly reliable labor institution.

Richard Frethorne

Richard Frethorne, letter to his father and mother, March 20, April 2 & 3, 1623, in Susan Kingsbury, ed., The Records of the Virginia Company of London (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1935), 4: 58–62

University of Memphis

1623

The Records of the Virginia Company of London

The Records of the Virginia Company of London