England, 1650s

England, 1650s. . , An English Yeoman Farm , This timber-frame farmhouse originally stood in Worcestershire in the West Midlands in England. It was built in the 17th century for a yeoman family. The yeomen were a class of independent farmers in the middle ranks of English society. Their farms produced surpluses of grains, meat, and wool that were sold in local and regional markets., Few yeomen left England for Virginia owing to their prosperity at home, but many landless laborers who worked on yeoman farms left to work in Virginia as indentured servants. After completing their labor contract, they hoped to get land of their own and live in the colonies like the independent yeomen they remembered from home., Influences on American Culture , English settlers had a strong influence on American culture, particularly in law, government, and language. They also brought an ideal of individual liberty, an ideal that initially applied only to white Protestant men but was later opened to other groups. While other cultural and ethnic groups came to North America, English military, economic, and legal systems dominated colonial life. British cultural and social practices can still be seen in the broader American culture today., Indentured Servitude , Indentured servants from England were mostly poor. These men and women mortgaged their labor for a set number of years (indenture) to pay the cost of their passage to the colonies. Indentured servants provided most of the labor on Virginia's tobacco plantations for much of the 17th century. Larger numbers of enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia after the 1660s, and Virginia planters shifted their work force away from indentured servants to Africans. However, indentured servants continued to come to the North American colonies throughout the 18th century., [Caption:] , In the 17th century, many poor farm laborers left the English countryside and moved to cities like London in search of work. When life in the cities proved no kinder, they exchanged their labor for the price of passage to Virginia and other English colonies in America. "A Horse and Cart and Porter Carrying Wares Through London's Streets," Michael Van Meer, Album Amicorum, 1615-1616. © The University of Edinburgh.