Characteristics Of Elizabeth Sprigs As An Indentured Servants

CONTEXT:
Elizabeth Sprigs was an indentured servant working and living in Baltimore Town, Maryland during the year of 1756. At this time there were many people coming to the New World from Europe to work as indentured servants for a certain amount of time, in exchange for travel. (Foner 53) Living as an indentured servant had many challenges because of cruel treatment from masters and poor living conditions. Many people who came over to work as an indentured servant would die before their term was completed. (Foner 54) At the time this letter was written more and more of the female population were coming over as indentured servants. (Salinger 30) These women faced different problems than their male counterparts. The relationship between …show more content…
Women could also have time added if they became pregnant during their term. (Foner 53) Indentured servitude was the main labor force in the colonies at that time because it was cheap and as mentioned before, many died before their contract was over so freedom and land ownership was never enjoyed. This letter was written to Elizabeth’s father in England but could probably be circulated to show the true living conditions of indentured servants at the time. It is not clear why Elizabeth Sprigs had become an indentured servant but by reading the letter one could gather that she has been estranged from her family and may or not be in a lower economic background and people who could not afford their way to the New World usually came over as an indentured servant. It is also worth mentioning that at the time this letter was written slavery was still not widely practiced in America, so the majority of the labor force were European indentured servants. Although, Africans and Europeans were both being used as servants …show more content…
Elizabeth describes her horrible living and working conditions to her father in the hopes he will have pity on her and send her clothing. She describes her experiences in detail and states that she is being mistreated by her master. Elizabeth writes about the long working hours, being whipped, fed only salted corn and that she is made to sleep on the floor. I also think that when she writes, “ almost naked no shoes nor stockings to wear, and the comfort after slaving during Masters pleasure”, she is talking about possibly being sexually assaulted by her master. The main point of this letter is to reach out to her father for any form of support by expressing the hardships she was facing. Her main objective was for her father to send her clothing, so that she could stay protected in the manure fields while she was working. I do not think that Elizabeth had any kind of political or social agenda while writing this letter but merely writing to her estranged father out of a place of desperation. In the letter Elizabeth states that the “Negroes” are treated better than she is. This viewpoint is a bias being expressed by Elizabeth. I think that the living and working conditions were probably similar if not worse for the Black servants. She might have felt this way because indentured servants were typically worked harder because they were able to get their freedom and a bit of land