Of the servants and slaves in Virginia is an excerpt from The History and Present State

of Virginia, written by Robert Beverly in the year 1705, and was one of the earliest
American history books to be published. It is a book, seemingly written to officially
dismiss the rumors of those in Europe who had heard of the cruel treatment of slaves
and indentured servants in America. The intent of the letter appears to be to have
recorded in history that the slaves and indentured servants in Virginia were actually
being treated quite well, were not overworked, and that there were strict and well
enforced laws in place preventing them from being mistreated. This is certainly written
from a biased perspective, and does not appear to line up with what we find from other
sources, therefore, I would not consider it to be a reliable or trustworthy source.
In the beginning of the excerpt, Beverly clarifies the distinction between slaves and
servants- A slave is one who will serve for life, while a servant will work only for the
required amount of years agreed upon in order to pay his or her debts. Next Beverly
reports that white female servants are rarely worked out doors. A high tax set for
outdoor white female workers had been set to discourage this from happening. This was
an important detail to add because from a Puritan perspective, women should carry out
the household tasks while the men worked the ground. As discussed in the texbook,
Puritan women took the family roles set in the Bible very seriously. A womans roles
were those many now see as very stereotypical, such as cooking, cleaning, and sewing
clothes for the family. African female slaves, however, could be, and often were worked
outside with no penalty. This law shows an obvious inequality of rights between the
African women and the European women.
In the next section, Beverly lays out the laws that have been set to protect servants, the
seventh of which states that it is cruel for a master to work a servant who is sick an that
if he is found doing so, the servant will be removed from under his authority, and left
with a kinder master until his debt has been paid. Here, we can see a stark contrast with
what is what was set as the law, and the way it actually played out in society. According
to the account provid in the American Stories textbook, unlike the servants in New
England, those in Chesapeake were working in cruel conditions, without enough food or
proper clothes, and many sick nearly to the point of death.
Beverly concludes this section in his book by saying This is what the Laws prescribe in
favour of Servants, by which you may find that the Cruelties and Severities imputed to
that Country, are an unjust reflection. For no People more abhor the thoughts of such
Usage, than Virginians, nor take more precaution to prevent it. This seems to be a very
inaccurate description of the effort put in by Virginia freeman to protect the rights of the
servants, and keep them safe. From what we can gather from the American Stories text,
the majority of those who came to Chesapeake died not long after their arrival. Living
conditions were poor even for the freemen with disease running rampant through the
colonies. Infant death rates were extremely high, and the life expectancy of men and
women were extremely low. Servants in this area had been torn from their families, and
were unable to make new ones. The low female to male ratio, not only made it
especially difficult for male servants to find wives, but often led to the sexual exploitation
of female servants.
 Ultimately, Of the servants and slaves in Virginia appears to be an inaccurate
description of the lives of an indentured servant. There was clearly not such a strong
regulation of the laws protecting those were in debt. Our textbook states that the
servants considered the time that they served to be a form of slavery. This biased
excerpt does not even make mention of the suffering that the servants (much less the
slaves) were subjected to.
Word Count: 703