Running head: SALLY SMITH’S LETTER 1
Sally Smith’s Letter
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SALLY SMITH’S LETTER 2
Sally Smith’s
... [Show More] Letter
Sally’s letter is one addressed to her mother, who remained in London while she ventured
into the New World, Virginia. Firstly, she coveys her concern to her mother since the letter she
wrote years ago has met no reply, creating more worry whether everything is alright with her
mother. After a brief salutation, Sally speaks of the state of things at the farm in Virginia. She
speaks of the extensive labour hours that span from night to day, the numerous tasks she has to
complete every day; from cooking for the workers and then working in the tobacco farms under
the scorching sun. After the hard day, she also has to return to the house for other duties as well.
Sally describes the atmosphere of the area; where her employer, Mr Garvey, treats her unjustly
and viciously, the segregation from the male co-workers both English and slave alike. Other than
cruelty from her employer, she suffers from the injustice and cruelty from her employer’s wife.
She states, no clothes are provided to her; she wears the same clothes all the time. She also
explains a sense of jealousy from the Mistress Garvey, which she states is because of their age
differences and her childlessness as well. Despite the injustice and the cruelty in the Virginia
farm, she claims she must labour on.
Sally letter creates an image of the state of colonial Virginia and the treatment of
indentured servants in Virginia. This letter also connects with what history has taught us about
Virginia and indentured servitude. The three-decade war in Europe had depressed the countries’
economies, so many unskilled and skilled workers were left with no employment (The American
yawp, 2019, ch.2). The new world presented hope for a new life thus resulting in immigration
from Europe to America, most of them being indentured servants. Virginia, as in the letter, was
one of the areas that harboured indentured servants, in the decade that followed the establishment
of Jamestown in east Virginia, in 1607 by the Virginia company. The letter corresponds to the
SALLY SMITH’S LETTER 3
historical accounts of extensive tobacco farming in Virginia, which demanded a plentiful supply
of cheap labour which included both slave and indentured labour. Additionally, as sally states the
region was plagued with sickness, which was as a result of labourers flooding the colony, the
newcomers faced deadly infections and other harsh conditions, while the survivors were left to
the mercy of cruel farm owners.
At the time, Virginia had not formulated “proper” gender-based work roles, besides the
women, were severely outnumbered compared to women. Due to such unfortunate condition’s
women, like Sally, performed the house duties and were not exempted from agricultural tasks in
the farms (The American yawp, 2019, ch.2). They worked alongside black, and white labourers,
the free and the enslaved as well. In these lands like many other servants, the women had a
harder issue in acclimating to the new surroundings, the majority feel ill and died. Like seen in
the letter, in the case Mr Garvey, the others were physically and sexually abused by their masters
up to the expiration of their contracts. Other than the cruelty and the subdivision of labour, sally
expresses how as a woman she was segregated from the rest of the workers. She had no place
among the white male workers nor the slaves. As part of their service contract, one was not
supposed to marry or have children while in service of the master. Women who got pregnant
while still in the service of the farm owner would have more years added to their service time.
Indentured servitude was unfairly more challenging to women, unlike men. With such harsh,
restrictive conditions and inequality, most women died before they could be free and reap the
rewards. Other women remain in the service of their masters for extremely extended periods.
Most people came to the new world as indentured servants with the hope of a better life.
The servants were either very poor in England or had no sources of revenue. Therefore, men,
women and from time to time children as well, entered an agreement with a farm owner t [Show Less]