In many an humble home, perhaps in some English village, or an Ulster farm, or in the Rhine valley, one might find a family assembled for the reading of a letter from son, or brother, or friend, who had made the great venture of going to the New World.
Wages are high, food is plentiful, farmers live better than lords.
If one will work only five days a week one can live grandly. In pamphlets intended to encourage immigration the opportunities for advancement were set forth in glowing colors. In Virginia, as in other colonies, it was the cheapness of land and the dearness of labor, which gave the newcomer his chance to rise. The rich man might possess many thousands of acres, but they would profit him nothing unless he could find the labor to put them under cultivation. Indentured workers met his needs in part, but they were expensive, hard to acquire, and served for only four years.