The English ruler King James I granted a contract to a private company known as the Virginia Company to build a settlement in …show more content…
At first, Chesapeake farmers hired indentured servants, women and males from England that signed a contract that sold their labor for a period of five to seven years in exchange for passage to the American colonies in hopes of obtaining land and harvest in tobacco crops. However, by the 1680s, irregular tobacco prices and the growing limiting amount of land in the region made the Chesapeake less alluring to men and women willing to agree on the head right system. The limited amount of indentured servants meant that the price of their labor deals increased, and many Chesapeake farmers began to look for alternative source of