Looking for movie about an indentured servant in Colonial America

I am hoping to find the name of a movie about an indentured servant. It is set in colonial America. It was on television in the early 80’s and may have been a made-for-tv movie. It was probably made in the late 70’s or very early 80’s. It’s possible it was made earlier than that, but certainly not after the mid 80’s.

The servant is a young white man with about shoulder length dark hair that he sometimes wore in a low ponytail (like Ben Franklin). I think he wore a loose white shirt and dark pants throughout the movie, sometimes with a dark coat on. The actor looked a little like Kit Harrington (Jon Snow on Game of Thrones) but was always kind of dirty.

He is working on a farm that is owned by a cruel man. There are other servants on the farm, and they seem too shy or scared to befriend him.

One scene that stands out is when he is milking a cow, he squirts a few streams of milk into his mouth. A woman servant sees him do this and reports him to the farmer. This is considered stealing and for it he is whipped with a rope with knots in it. There are close ups where he is unbuttoning/untying his shirt contrasted with someone tying knots in the rope in preparation for this.

Later in the movie, he is so unhappy he runs away and lives in the forest. I think a young boy finds him there and helps him live. The farmer considers him dead and sells his indenturment to another man–perhaps the young boy’s grandfather? When the servant learns of this he returns to finish his servitude.

I welcome any suggestions or hints people have! Thank you!

5 thoughts on “Looking for movie about an indentured servant in Colonial America

  1. Thank you, Jennagain! You have done it again!
    I was able to watch some of the movie this past weekend, and while it doesn’t match exactly what was described to me, I feel sufficiently certain that this is the movie. I have been trying to identify this for years and am very happy to finally have an answer.
    Please mark this one as solved, Admin. Thank you.

  2. There is a similar movie set perhaps in the 1950s or 60s in the US where people were forced to work almost as slaves and they kept trying to escape. I watched it as a child on TV in Migeria and couldn’t believe that this could happen in the US in modern times. The slaves were a combination of white, black and Hispanics and the theme song had something like :I’m coming home….”. I will really like to find this

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