How Did Frethorne Move To The Colonies

Out of extreme desperation, a Virginia indentured servant, Richard Frethorne wrote home to his family who still resided in England, with the hopes of getting food, supplies, or money to redeem his contract to get out of the terrible situation he found himself in. Life in the early 1600’s in England were hard. Not everyone agreed with the King and his religious views and were treated badly because of it. The difference in religious opinions was not the only thing taking place at this time, England was also in the midst of a social crisis. The economic growth was not able to keep up with the population growth that was taking place. So many thought the move to the colonies, to Virginia, would bring about a better way of life, and that farming
So you can only imagine the aches in their stomachs, the pain they felt in their joints, the headaches and the dizziness he must have experienced. Much of the food and supplies in Virginia came from trade and importing because a primary focus in the colonies was the growth and harvesting of cash crops. They needed to get as much rice, indigo and tobacco grown, harvested, and ready for sale as fast as humanly possible. Which made the growth of food on their own lands low on their list of priorities. I can only imagine what the expenses were to import and bring over the majority of your food and supplies. And since their masters placed such a high importance on wealth and making a profit, giving out the bare minimum to their servants would have played well into their bottom line and their pocket books. And then when you think of the 1620’s and the colonies farming, plantations, and crops are what first comes to mind, doctors and the availability of medicine on the other hand, are not. And this could be because there were many miles between each of the plantations, due to the lack of roads and cities around. So they had to endure all this and more with no help to get them through it. And to top it off, after everything they endured, they were subject to their masters wants and needs so they had to push on, and keep on with the
In fact, “they’d be happy to give up an arm or a leg just to be back in England again, even if they had to be there without legs begging door to door.” They lived in sadness and in fear because if disease and starvation, or their masters did not hurt or kill them, there was the possibility that the Native Americans could revolt and do just that. “What are we supposed to do now, helpless as we are before them?” They had experienced of loss of eighty men through prior uproars leaving them at only thirty-two compared to the three thousand Native Americans, meaning they were extremely outnumbered, and with no help for many miles. I’m sure from their own experiences and losses along with their knowledge of other attacks, such as the Uprising of 1622, when the Powhatan tribe lashed out and killed hundreds of settlers because the English wanted to expand the colony and not just continue using it as a trading post, all played heavily into the fear they never seemed to emerge out