what did the headright system offer to get settlers to come to jamestown
Headright The headright system began in Jamestown, Virginia in 1618[1] as an attempt to solve labor shortages due to the advent of the tobacco economy,[2] which required large plots of land with many workers. The disproportion that existed between the amount of land available and the population led to a situation with a low supply of labor, resulting in the growth of indentured servitude and of slavery. The headright system also served to attract new colonists. Colonists who had already been living in Virginia were each given[when?] two headrights of 50 acres (200,000 m2); immigrant colonists who paid for their passage were given one headright, and individuals would subsequently receive one headright each time they paid for the passage of another individual. This last mechanism increased the division between the wealthy land-owners and the working poor. Headrights were given to heads-of-households, and because 50 acres were accumulated for each member of the household, families had an incentive to make the passage to the colonies together.[3]
House of Burgesses To encourage settlers to come to Virginia, in November, 1618 the Virginia Company's leaders gave instructions to the new Governor Sir George Yeardley, which became known as "the great charter."[4] Emigrants who paid their own way to Virginia would receive fifty acres of land and not be mere tenants. Civil authority would control the military. In 1619, based on the instructions, Governor Yeardley initiated the election 22 burgesses by the settlements and Jamestown, who, together with the royally-appointed Governor and six-member Council of State, would form the first General Assembly as a unicameral body. The governor could veto its actions and the Company still maintained overall control of the venture, but the settlers would have a limited say in the management of their own affairs, including their finances.[5] A House of Assembly was created at the same time in Bermuda (which had also been settled by the Virginia Company, and was by then managed by its offshoot, the Somers Isles Company) and held its first session in 1620.[citation needed]