This European world, however, had passed by the time of English colonization. Nevertheless, a large, landless, and poor population remained. Their status prompted the use of the indentured system, contracted labor for a set amount of time, to both provide the lower class with a means of transportation to the colonies and, for the upper class, a source of labor (Wood, 2005). Winthrop D. Jordan, a prominent historian of racial relations, explains that English immigrants were required to remain indentured for a term of “usually from four to seven [years] or until age twenty-one…” (Jordan, 1968, p. 47).
Just as the indentured were making their way across the Atlantic, Africans were finding their way to Jamestown as well, although not by choice.
Just as the indentured were making their way across the Atlantic, Africans were finding their way to Jamestown as well, although not by choice.