Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/19

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of bread and a small piece of beef. This seems to have been the allowance for a single meal. The loaf was most probably Indian corn bread, flour not being easily procurable in that age. Bread made of Indian corn, it should be remembered, is one of the most concentrated forms of nourishment, and one-fourth of a loaf of the ordinary size would be sufficient for an ordinary man. Frethorne makes it plain that he belonged to a higher class than that of the agricultural servant in England — indeed, he appears to have been the son either of a tenant farmer or a small landowner — by seriously lamenting that his master did not give him a penny “to help him to spice, sugar, or strong waters.” He prays that his father will send him some cheese. For clothing he stated that he had received one suit, one cap and two bands, and one pair of stockings. Some thief had stolen his cloak.^[1] The profound dissatisfaction felt by Frethorne was that of a sensitive mind suffering from homesickness and exposed to unaccustomed conditions. How many workingmen were there in England who would not gladly have exchanged the starvation against which they were constantly contending for the situation in which he was placed? I have already referred to the cases mentioned by Copeland, in which some of the most industrious laborers of London were only able to secure brown bread and cheese for their families.^[2] The

↑ The letter will be found in Eighth Report of Royal Hist. MSS. Commission, Appx., p. 41. It is reprinted in Neill’s Virginia Vetusta. Henry Brigg, who was a servant in Virginia during the spring of 1623, writing to his brother in England, said that at this time he was living on a wine-quart of corn a day. Royal Hist. MSS. Commission, Eighth Report, Appx., p. 42.
↑ The ordinary victuals of an English thatcher, who probably was provided with better food than the common agricultural laborer, was, in 1641, butter, milk, cheese, and either eggs, pies, or bacon. Porridge was sometimes substituted for milk. Cunningham’s Growth of English Industry and Commerce, p. 193.

[1] The letter will be found in Eighth Report of Royal Hist. MSS. Commission, Appx., p. 41. It is reprinted in Neill’s Virginia Vetusta. Henry Brigg, who was a servant in Virginia during the spring of 1623, writing to his brother in England, said that at this time he was living on a wine-quart of corn a day. Royal Hist. MSS. Commission, Eighth Report, Appx., p. 42.

[2] The ordinary victuals of an English thatcher, who probably was provided with better food than the common agricultural laborer, was, in 1641, butter, milk, cheese, and either eggs, pies, or bacon. Porridge was sometimes substituted for milk. Cunningham’s Growth of English Industry and Commerce, p. 193.

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