Richard Frethorne's 'Our Plantation Is Very Weak'

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Primary Document Analysis: Our Plantation Is Very Weak The author of this primary source is Richard Frethorne, who wrote the letter, Our Plantation Is Very Weak. He was an indentured servant in Jamestown that was working on a plantation. He was a witness to what was happening at Jamestown, which was misfortune and death measuring at many degrees such as disease, lack of supplies and poor food. The document was written right as the event was happening. He talks about how many people are dying from disease. The author is a credible source for learning about Jamestown’s demise just as it was starting to happen, since the document was written on the 20th of March in 1623 and worked right in the middle of everything. The purpose of this document is to inform the recipient of it about that status Jamestown is in so that they can convince them to buy out his indenture. He sent this with very graphic details of the disease, death, and lack of supplies. He then explains how…show more content…
Frethorne’s perspective is that Jamestown is very dismal and its presence will not have long to last if all the disease and poor food supplies continues. He wants to leave and is desperate when reaching out to his parents for help. A bias that could be present is that he could be making things a lot worse than they are to get a better effect on the audience so his indenture could be paid off and he could escape Jamestown. The bias is not very desirable and is used in the means of manipulating the audience. It limits the source by only describing what is going wrong with the town and detailing it to intensify the severity of Frethorne’s situation. The context that needs to be taken into consideration is Jamestown’s lack of food, clothes, horrid conditions and the rampant disease that is quickly cutting down the settlements

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