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the headright
system and indentured servants
by mae
davenport cox
in the early
1600s, many people in foreign
countries wished to leave their
homelands for various and sundry
reasons. most had one thing in
common: they were poor and couldn?
afford the trip. a variety of
systems was introduced to help pay
their passage to america.
the headright system
the headright system was a plan
designed by england to encourage
emigration to the colonies. any
emigration to the colonies. any
person immigrating to virginia was a
potential headright. any person who
settled in virginia or paid for the
transporta-tion expenses of another
person who settled in virginia was
entitled to receive fifty acres of
land for each immi-grant. a person
whose passage was paid by another
wasn? entitled to free land, only
his or her sponsor. the person being
sponsored was called a headright.
there were no
restrictions on age or gender.
headrights could be, and often were,
children. in fact, many imported
were teenagers. families frequently
sold their children into indentured
servitude ?hopefully this was done
not for the money, but instead to
help that child find a better way of
life.
both large and
small landowners imported slaves, or
purchased them from ship captains
who brought them to the colony for
sale. the headright claims for the
indentured servants listed the names
of the individuals, but the claims
for slaves rarely identified
individuals.
the headright
system encouraged wealthy
individuals to pay to transport
laborers to virginia in return for
free land. virginia planters who
brought in slaves were awarded fifty
acres per slave, just as they were
awarded fifty acres per indentured
servant.
patenting process
there were several steps required to
acquire the free land. first, the
patentee petitioned the county court
for a certificate of importation.
the certificate, usually recorded in
county court minute books, was
considered proof of the number of
headrights claimed. patentees took
their certificates to the secretary
of the colony, who issued a right
of fifty acres per headright.
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the right
was taken to the county surveyor,
who surveyed the chosen land and
created a plat. the patentee then
returned all these papers to the
secretary, who made two copies: a
copy to be recorded, and a copy that
was sent to the governor who signed
it. it was then sealed and delivered
to the patentee.
once the patent
was issued, the patentee had three
years to seat and plant the land.
seating required payment of the
quitrent ?nnual payment to the
crown of one shilling for every
fifty acres. planting
required either cultivating one acre
or building a house and keeping
livestock.
by early 1700,
colonists wanted more land and the
crown wanted to expand the colony,
so the treasury right was
created. those wanting new land
could, for five shillings, receive a
right to fifty acres. most
land was patented by treasury
right instead of by headright
after about 1715.
indentured servants
these immigrants had their passage
paid by a landowner. in theory, the
servants would work five to seven
years for the sponsor, and could not
acquire title to land through their
work during their term of service.
at the end of
their term of indenture, they were
given basic clothing and equipment,
and were free to go their own way in
the unsettled frontier.
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both indentured servant and
headright
though frequently thought of as two
different systems, many times a
headright was also an indentured
servant. the sponsor received fifty
acres and the indentured servant,
whose passage was paid, promised
four, five, or up to seven years of
service to the sponsor.
abuse of the system
as with most any system, there was
abuse. greedy landowners found it
easy to buy names of farmers already
in virginia, and place those names
on claims, receiving fifty acres for
each name.
fraudulent claims
were made for persons who had no
intent to inhabit, such as sailors
and traveling merchants. shipmasters
augmented their profits from a
voyage by selling entire manifests
listing passengers and sailors, even
though the sailors would leave on
the next sailing. the passengers
were also claimable by whoever paid
their passage. again the greedy
landowner profited by receiving more
land.
perhaps more
importantly, it appears that use of
fictitious or irrelevant names was
common by the late seventeenth
century. eventually the corruption
of the system led to its demise.
for more about
these systems, just search the
internet for headright or
indentured servant. you?l be
surprised at the amazing amount of
material available.
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