Richard Frethorne expressed what it was like as an indentured servant, three months into his servitude, in his letter to his parents. Frethorne was probably hoping for a new start in life as a landowner, just like any other indentured servant who was poor. In the process of inheriting their fifty acres of land, the indentured servants from England signed a contract to be a servant for around five years, depending on their age, and earned the land at the end of their contract. It probably seemed like a wonderful deal; work as a servant for some years and end up with plentiful land in a new country. However, for Richard Frethorne, as well as every other indentured servant, he did not anticipate the challenges that faced him.

In Virginia, Frethorne faced many challenges, and in his description of these challenges, he discussed his unforeseen unhappiness and misery from his servitude. The biggest …show more content…
In the beginning, I saw that he humbled himself and was even using flattery; it was clear that he couldn't handle it anymore. With death lurking around the corner for each and every indentured servant, I could tell Frethorne knew he didn't have much time left. In fact, he said that "the answer to this letter will be life or death to me", showing that he knew this was his last chance (Frethorne, 3). The gravity of Frethorne and the other indentured servants desperation was so strong that he wrote about them crying out "that [if] they were in England without their limbs" it would be better than their situation there (Frethorne, 3). He pleaded with his father to send him anything that would be of profit, so that he could redeem his indenture. Frethorne was so desperate that he begged for his father to have mercy and pity on him. Even so, at the end of his letter, it almost seemed like a goodbye letter to all the ones he loved in