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Why I Want To Be An Indentured Servant Life In Jamestown?

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I am enlightened by your desire to come join me here in Jamestown, but life has been a never ending roller coaster as the years slowly pass by. Some days I wonder if leaving the slums to avoid my peasant status was worth risking making an attempt at creating a new life in Jamestown. I have trouble falling asleep as I am persistently worrying about whether or not I will wake up the next morning, or if I will die in my sleep during a surprise Indian attack. Even tobacco alone cannot soothe my nerves and paranoia, nor can the money that has been produced from the tobacco market keep my mind in a state of peace. Even though the colony has recently prospered from the blooming tobacco business, I would strongly recommend for you all to refrain from coming here unless you enjoy an indentured servant life, constant Native American threats, and terrible living conditions. …show more content…

Times were much simpler, yet worse, in March 1610 as there were only about sixty of us colonial men left standing and we were lucky to even still be alive due to the high mortality rate. Fast forward forty years later, and now families have been shipping in by the thousands, although some do not last long due to lingering diseases. I have made an assumption that the water we have been drinking may be a cause of all the disease that is continuously being spread amongst the people, but people seem to be more focused on tobacco and the natives. However, priorities were not always based on tobacco, because before John Rolfe blessed the colony with his discoveries there was the issue of maintaining a stable society on this

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There were 110 men willing to risk everything they had to have a new lease on life. These men were headed to Jamestown, the first permanent settlement. By the end of December only 40 settlers would survive. So, why did so many colonist die?

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The author states, “Like Jamestown’s earliest settlers, the English who came to Maryland hoped to find a wealthier life in North America, but they weren’t looking for gold or silver. They planned to make money by growing and selling tobacco.” (Walker, 54) Although it was a very popular source of income for settlers in Jamestown, tobacco is a very labor-intensive crop that requires many workers to plant, cultivate, and sell. A corpse was found in a trash pit in the house of a tobacco farmer. The body appeared to be shoved carelessly into a small hole with a shard of broken pottery.

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In 1611, Alexander Whitaker arrived in the new land of Virginia, which had just begun to be colonized only a few years earlier (Dudley Chalberg 13). Jamestown, Virginia was the first English Settlement to be made in the New World and many people wanted to know more about it. England asked for reports back from people as to what their new land was like and there were varied opinions. Alexander Whitaker had a positive viewpoint that Virginia was an abundant new paradise with many good things about it. It should be thought by one that Alexander Whitaker was correct in making the statements that he did.

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During the time of the 1650’s the Americas were not a part of what is now the United States and other countries in Central America and as well as the Caribbean. During those years European countries who were dominate in exploring the world and conquering new lands were the British, Spanish, French and the Dutch. The world economy was greatly impacted by the production of goods the Americas could provide Europe and even parts of Asia. The America’s were rich in materials that could not be made vastly, like the production of cotton, crops, tobacco and as well as natural gems like gold and silver that would increase wealth of the country who was exploring the region at the time. The British crown at the time was a powerful nation and if not the most powerful in wealth and military with great number of troops and

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Tobacco was the basis of economic life and a motivation for settling down in Jamestown. This helped result in an increase of settlers. The English expansion sparked war in 1622 led by Opechancanough. This war resulted in a tragic death of about a third of the nation. Particularly, the English inhabitants seized Indian’s land and food, cornering the Indian citizens towards limiting possibilities; needless to say they ended up dispersing.

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These colonies came across numerous hardships with war, famine, and political turmoil, in the 1600’s. These colonies worked for commercial purposes and neglected the need for relationship building with natives, safety, and resource gathering, so much so that they lost many early settlers. Working as an indentured servant was brutal in these colonies. Growing, storing, and packaging tobacco was very labor intensive work. Though indentured servants maintained contracts providing them with food, housing, and clothing, often times terms of service were lengthened.

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The process of black slavery taking route in colonial Virginia was slow. Black slavery mostly became dominant in the 1680s. Slaves became the main labor system on plantations. The amount of white indentured servants declined so the demand for black slaves became necessary in the mid-1660s. The number of white indentured servants that Virginia had up until the mid 1660s, was enough to meet white peoples labor needs.

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Indentured Servants were a vital part of the growth of the new colonies. They were cheap labor which allowed for the plantation economy to grow. There was a large difference between indentured servants and slaves. An indentured servant would only serve the amount of time their contract stated. Indentured servants were allowed to testify in courts and could eventually gain their own property, as well as start a family after their time was up.

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Since 1612, tobacco has been apart of the American economy. John Rolfe was the first American to cultivate the crop in Virginia; the cash crop has been in high demand ever since. (University of Dayton 1) Some may argue that it is a large part of our nation’s origin; tobacco has fueled government funding for centuries and has driven many government projects. Although, they neglect to mention what tobacco has actually done to our nation.

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According to Barrette (1833) throughout the history of the British West Indies colonies, no other era had so many changes as post-emancipation decades. Within a period of a few years the entire economic system of these colonies was turned upside down. Post-emancipation led to problems in the sugar industry as the planters refuses to meet working conditions demanded by the ex-slaved persons. This resulted in the ex-slaves turning their backs on the plantation which they associated with slavery and cruelty which led to the planters could not find enough labourers to work the land and consequently had to cut production. This resulted in the loss of profit that forced them to sell sections of the land at inexpensive prices to the creoles who would

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