?In the early 17th century [1619] tobacco planters in the Chesapeake Bay area of Jamestown, Virginia needed laborers to work and help cultivate tobacco fields. Planters bought slaves from Africa that were life-long slaves as well they bought indentured servants of England to labor. Slaves were required to work for the remainder of their lives as they were high pricing; where as indentured servants were usually working off a debt that they may have accumulated in England. These debts were usually owed to the ship merchants that had allowed poor English citizens entry to their ship, essentially making indentured servants property. Planters however, realized rather quickly that life-long slaves were not a good investment seeing as the life-long slaves did not last more than five years at a time in the Chesapeake area. This was due to the diseases like tuberculosis that the Africans were exposed to and not to mention the extreme working conditions and lack of proper nutrients. To maintain supply and demand the Chesapeake laborers required great amounts of laborers; where as job opportunity in England was not very probable. The different circumstances of each location, allowed for the planters in the Chesapeake region to buy indentured servants from England, for a few years at a time at a lower price than the African slaves. This was not the choice that many indentured servants had made, as they were usually not leaving England for the Chesapeake out of freewill. “English servants became the majority of emigrants accounting for three-quarters of all emigrants in the Chesapeake Bay [1650].” 1 Indentured servants were usually those in their late teenage, early twenties and unmarried some of which were forced to leave home, as they were unwanted, needed to earn money for family or a way of being punished in some households. With that being said, free choice began dwindling away from 1620 and on, as poverty in England continued to grow it left the people with very few options. Marriage was rare, as couples could not financially support a family with kids, which meant no population growth. Contracts between indentured servants and ship merchants were dependent on where the ship set sail and where the servant was sold. In the Chesapeake area majority of servants did not see the day to actually claim their land and freedom rights, as most died from exposure to diseases and long working hours in extreme weather conditions. This resulted in a low number of population increase as the servants died more frequently than they were emigrating. “If caught rebelling their master, the servant s