In the colonies, there was plenty of land for the wealthy landowner, but always a lack of labor. One answer to this problem was to import indentured servants. A landowner would pay the price of passage for an indentured servant and that passenger would work to pay off the cost of his voyage, usually for seven years. Often, the landowner would be given 50 acres for each person he paid to transport. Most of these indentured servants were young, unmarried men, who often had been in service in England. Both the poor and the middle class immigrated as indentured servants. These indentured servants were the primary migrant to the British settlements of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, Jamaica and Barbados. However, the death rate was very high in these colonies as many servants died before they were "acclimatized" to the region. This kept the demand for labor high.
In the 18th century, slave labor came to supplant the demand for indentured servants. About 2,300,000 Africans arrived in the American Colonies between 1600 - 1800.
Family migrations usually occurred among dissenters of the crown (Puritans, Quakers) and during depressions that hit the British economy. These dissenters were usually awarded land in the northern colonies (which were seen as being less profitable to the crown). This type of migration fostered the growth of towns and cities since the newly arrived families were looked after by local merchants, not by a landowner holding an indenture, thus boosting the town economy.
