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Indentured Servitude Analysis

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Slavery has played a huge role in contemporary history. In this project I will research the settlement of indentured servitude in Jamestown in the 1600s. I will also explore how it affected contemporary society in Virginia 21th century. Tobacco was growing rapidly in Jamestown Virginia and there were not enough laborers to help grow the tobacco. That is where indentured servants came in. The servants were people who were fresh out of the streets and out of the jails in England and on their way to the new world Jamestown Virginia. They may have been hired for cheap labor but, little did they know they were making history by producing one of the America’s largest cash crops. Today immigrants are still working for cheap labor in the tobacco fields …show more content…

In fact, this is exactly what Sandra L. Dahlberg described in her research on Richard Frethorne’s letter called "Doe Not Forget Me" when she stated “in the letters, Frethorne painted a dire portrait of his life in Virginia: he was hungry, he had insufficient clothing, and he lacked consistent access to shelter” (Dahlberg, 2012). That means that the people were not only immigrants they were poor also. The same can be said about the immigrants working in the tobacco fields today. However, the people was basically brought over either by involuntarily, forced or maybe kidnapped. They lived in little to no shelter. They were hungry and …show more content…

The workers worked hard for little money; which is the exact same thing that the indentured servants went through. This is almost the same thing Richard Fethorne went through in the colonial period. The letter written by Richard Frethorne "Doe Not Forget Me" was one of the many letters written during the colonial period. However, this particular letter describes the hardship that Richard and other indentured servants went through.
One area of humanity I plan to compare to indentured servitude is the industrial revolution period. When we take a look at the industrial revolution we can see similarity in how people worked hard and they were not paid very much money. The history of slavery has definitely effected the industrial revolution period. During the colonial period, the colonist was able to get people to work for cheap labor. During the industrial period the idea of indentured servitude was still there. People were still working for cheap

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