e said Capt. Hugh Bullock, his heires
or assignes shall not plant or seate or cause to bee planted on the
said twoe thousand five hundred & fiftie acres of land wth in the
time and terms of three yeares now next ensuing the date hereof,
that then it shall and may bee lawfull for any adventurer or
planter to make choice and seate upon the same.

_Given_ at James Citty under my hand and sealed with the seale of
the colony the twelfth day of March one thousand six hundred
thirtie fower [o.s.] & in the tenth year of our Soveraigne Lord
King Charles &c.

Use of the headright had been adopted by the company as an expedient to
increase population of the colony and to encourage immigration without
further expenditure from the company treasury. The practice continued
with the fifty acres of land granted to the persons who financed the
transportation of the immigrant, but the grant itself was not valuable
enough to compensate for the expense involved. Therefore, with
increasing frequency the system of indentured servitude was used whereby
the immigrant agreed to an indenture or contract to work a certain
number of years as additional payment for his transportation. This
system, in general, proved advantageous to both the master and the
servant, to the colony by providing additional immigrants, and to
England by serving as a vent for surplus population.

Indentured servants were not slaves but were servants during the
specified period of the contract. While the laws of the time did make a
distinction in the severity of the penal code as applied to servants and
to freemen, still indentured servitude did not have the stigma of
bondage or slavery; and many servants upon completion of their term of
service rose to positions of social and political prominence in the
history of the colony. In 1676 the Lords of Trade and Plantations
expressed concern over the use of the word "servitude" because of the
implications of slavery, and they preferred "to use the word service,
since those servants are only apprentices for years."

At the expiration of the term of service, the servants usually received
equipment and supplies necessary to start them as freemen. They
received grain enough for one year, clothes, and in some cases a gun
and a supply of tools. As to receipt of land, the policy varied from
one colony to another, and at times there was uncertainty within one
colony about obligations to freedmen.