Indentured Servants Thesis

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Author: Barakat Mawalin Class: Introduction to Humanities Professor: Richard Rischar Title: Indentured Servants in the tobacco fields of Jamestown Virginia and their Impact on Contemporary Society in Jamestown Virginia 21st Century Introduction/Thesis Slavery has played a huge role in contemporary history. In this project I will study the settlement of indentured servants in Jamestown in the 1600s and how it impacted 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 jails in England and on their way to the new world Jamestown Virginia. They …show more content…

The children then were treated in the same manner as the adults. This is the same thing that is happening in modern society. I plan to use literature as the part of humanities that I will use in this project. In this journal Sandra L Dahlberg is analyzing a letter written by Richard Frethorne and indentured servants. Dahlberg stated that “In Virginia Frethorne was one of many “despised poor” parish-indentured poor children without any communal protections” (Dahlberg, 2012). She basically states that Frethorne was a child and a …show more content…

To make things worse some of the modern day workers were also required to sign contracts as well as the indentured servants of Jamestown Virgina according to Michael Lin. Lin also stated in his article “Having fleeced and otherwise cheated the guest workers, these body shops often threaten to sue their victims when they become eligible for green cards and quit, on the basis of fine print in documents that the guest workers were earlier forced to sign” (LIND, 2013). That goes to show how much of an impact indentured servitude has on modern society. Works Cited Dahlberg, S. (2012). " Doe Not Forget Me" Richard Frethorne, Indentured Servitude and English Poor Law of 1601. Early American Literature , 47(1)1-30. p. 16. LIND, M. (2013, jan 29). Immigration, yes. Indentured serfdom, no. Retrieved 08 03, 2015, from salon.com: http://www.salon.com/2013/01/30/immigration_yes_indentured_serfdom_no/ Margaret Wurth. (2014, May 13). Tobacco’s Hidden Children. Retrieved 08 02, 2015, from www.hrw.org:

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