Question

Suppose a landowner had five acres of land. How many indentured servants would he need to produce the maximum amount of tobacco (5,000 pounds)? _____________ (Anyone who paid for the ship's passage of a person from England to Virginia in the 17th century received 50 acres of free land, called a headright.) How many indentured servants would a landowner need to produce the maximum amount of tobacco (50,000 pounds) on 50 acres of land?_______________ How many acres of additional land would the landowner receive for this number of indentured servants (50 acres per person)? __________________

Answer 1

To determine the number of indentured servants needed to produce a certain amount of tobacco, one must know the productivity rate per acre, which is not provided in the question. Under the headright system, a person would get 50 acres of land for each individual whose passage to Virginia they funded.

Step-by-step explanation:

Indentured Servitude and the Headright System in Colonial Virginia

The need for a labor force in colonial Virginia was primarily met by the use of indentured servants, who were essentially contracted workers from Europe looking for a new life in the Americas. These servants were not slaves; rather, they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for passage to America and the promise of land and resources at the end of their service.

The headright system was introduced in 1619 to incentivize the transportation of more laborers to Virginia. Under this system, a person would receive 50 acres of land for each individual whose passage they funded. Thus, a landowner who wanted to maximize tobacco production would need to bring over enough indentured servants to cultivate the land efficiently.

For example, if a landowner had five acres of land and needed to produce 5,000 pounds of tobacco, the number of indentured servants required would depend on the productivity rate per acre which is not stated in the question. Therefore, we cannot completely answer without this critical piece of information. Similarly, for a landowner to produce 50,000 pounds of tobacco on 50 acres of land, the number of servants needed would again depend on the productivity per acre and per servant. The question cannot be fully answered without this information. However, for the additional land received through the headright system, for each indentured servant, the landowner would get an additional 50 acres of land.