Migration

Europeans from Scandinavia reached North America around 1000, and transpacific contacts probably also occurred early. Lasting European contact seems to have begun with the establishment of Basque, English, and Portuguese fisheries off the Newfoundland shores. In the mid-sixteenth century invasion forces as well as settlers from New Spain had reached present-day New Mexico. The territories of the north, known for their fur economies, were targeted by numerous large European mercantile companies and dynasties. The gentlemen adventurers in Virginia and the religious colonizers in New England would eventually provide a profitable return on the investments of such companies that financed their voyages. Since demand for male and female laborers exceeded the available migrants, several European states established a system of indentured servitude by which poor men and women sold their labor for a number of years in return for passage to North American or Caribbean colonies. Such redemptioners were free after serving for a period of between three and seven years. This system of bound white labor ended in the 1820s, although "free" departure under severe economic constraints lasted.