Many people who emigrated to the North American English colonies (Virginia especially) were indentured. There were essentially seven different forms of indenture where only two were by choice. These by choice were people who signed up for getting land in the new colony after the period was over and others who went for apprenticeships. The others were forced by kidnapping and sold into the process, went to escape jail time in England, were poor and the government wanted to get rid of them, were orphaned and had no choice, or were political prisoners.

In many colonies once the indenture period was over the people became citizens and were given land (usually at the frontier portions of the colony) so it was worth doing so for many as they could never get land in England. The almost endless supply of land available was a magnet for many people and also the government had no problem continually providing more and more people to meet the need. The government saw the colony as a source of products to manipulate and control so they pushed hard for settlement compared to the French, Dutch, and Spanish in North America.

Additionally, if you were a wealthy person you could come to the colonies and get huge tracts of land if you happened to bring indentured servants over. Some terms were 50 acres for you and 50 for each indentured servant you brought over. Because of this process, many wealthy English would get huges estates of 100s and sometimes 1000s of acres. The English wanted the land to be productive and settled. If you did not use the land within a set term it was made available to others who wanted it.

This process stopped towards the end of the 17th century as the English government clamped down on the forced methods of migration/indenture and as a result slavery took a stronger root.

Please see Conceived in Liberty Volume 1, Chapter 6. Social Structure in Virginia: Bondservants and Slaves.