reason to suspect that they are not fairly
representative of the whole, and we may assume that the percentage of
free families that came to the colony in this period was by no means
small. As, however, the annual number of immigrants was as yet small
and the mortality was very heavy, the total number of men living in
Virginia in 1635 who had come over as freemen could not have been very
large. The total population at that date was 5,000, and it is probable
that at least 3,000 of these had come to the colony as servants.

After 1635 the percentage of free settlers became much smaller. This
was due largely to the fact that at this time the immigration of
indentured servants to Virginia increased very much. Secretary Kemp,
who was in office during Governor Harvey's administration, stated that
of hundreds of people that were arriving nearly all were brought in as
merchandise.[158] So great was the influx of these servants, that the
population tripled between 1635 and 1649. It is certain, however, that
at no period during the 17th century did freemen cease coming to the
colony.

With the exception of the merchants and other well-to-do men that
formed the basis of the aristocracy, the free immigrants were ignorant
and crude. But few of them could read and write, and many even of the
most prosperous, being unable to sign their names to their wills, were
compelled to make their mark to give legal force to their
testaments.[159] Some of them acquired considerable property and
became influential in their counties, but this was due rather to rough
qualities of manhood that fitted them for the life in the forests of
the New World, than to education or culture.

The use of the indentured servant by the Virginia planters was but the
result of the economic conditions of the colony. Even in the days of
the London Company the settlers had turned their attention to the
raising of tobacco, for they found that the plant needed but little
care, that it was admirably suited to the soil, and that it brought a
handsome return. Naturally it soon became the staple product of the
colony. The most active efforts of the Company and all the commands of
King James and King Charles were not sufficient to turn men from its
cultivation to less lucrative pursuits. Why should they devote
themselves to manufacture when they could, with far greater profit,
exchange their tobacco crop for the manufactured goods of England? It
was found that but two thing