For most people in the seventeenth-century British Isles, the Atlantic crossing was beyond their means. The passage from England to Virginia cost between five and six pounds, roughly a year's wages for a labourer. The solution was indentured servitude: a contract in which the emigrant agreed to work for a specified term, usually four to seven years, in exchange for the cost of passage, food, shelter, and clothing during the term. At the end of the indenture the servant received 'freedom dues,' which could include land, tools, clothing, or a sum of money. The system was not slavery, but it was not free labour either. Servants could be bought and sold during their term, could not marry without permission, and were subject to physical punishment. Runaways were hunted and had their terms extended. For people from small island communities like Mann, where the pass system restricted movement and economic opportunities were limited, indentured servitude offered a route to the colonies that required no capital. A person appearing as a 'headright' in a Virginia land patent may have been an indentured servant whose passage was paid by the patentee, a family member transported at a relative's expense, or a free person whose passage was sponsored by an investor. The record does not usually distinguish between them.