This selection, Letter by a Female Indentured Servant, really gives you incite as to what life was like in the 1700s as an indentured servant. (Foner, 2011) The reader can really feel the pain she is going through while she was in America trying to pay her dues for passage to what they thought was the promise land. She wanted to ensure her father really knew what kind of horrible life she was living because of the details she included like she was whipped to the degree that she now serves the animals. Apparently, you didn’t speak of the horrible things that would occur as an indentured servant because she writes to her father that she hopes he will pardon the boldness of her complaints and she also hope that he will take pity on her. I feel like she would have been an indentured servant for a very long time because she writes to her father that she is banished forever from his sight and is practically begging for sympathy. However, I am surprised that she was even allowed to write to her family because she describes her life as working very hard almost day and night and often in the horse’s drudgery with the slave masters saying that she doesn’t do half enough work. She also feels that this is the type of work she needs to do for the respect of her father, uncles, aunts, and all friends. On the complete and opposite side of the spectrum, the Letter by a Swiss-German immigrant to Pennsylvania shows that this immigrant was very content with his decision to come to America. (Foner, 2011) He now lives in a free country where one can settle anywhere he wants when the land is bought or leased. He thinks a free country is where a person has the right to own property and he focuses on this one freedom and doesn’t even think about the other statues. This immigrant really feels he has in fact found the promise land and that he wants his family to come and join him. In my opinion, I think he comes from a wealthier family, so maybe
References: Foner, E. (2011). Give me liberty! An American history. (3rd ed., pp. 118-119, 172-173, 596-597). New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, Ltd. Publication Manual (6th ed., sections 2.01–2.03, pp. 23–25; section 8.03, p. 229; see also sample papers, pp. 41–59, and supplemental material)