The colony structure
Some of the colonists which came to Virginia were the scions of landed gentlemen of England and Ireland. With no appreciable prospects at home, where their elder brothers would inherit the bulk of their father’s estates, they paid for their transport to Virginia, where they established estates of their own. For labor, they could rely on the arrival of indentured servants, who signed contracts for several years of labor in return for payment for their passage to the colony, and housing upon arrival. Some artisans borrowed the money for their passage, in return for work for the colony itself in critically needed trades.
The clothes and footwear of Europe were unsuitable to the climate and conditions of the colony and the surrounding plantations. The colonists adapted some of the native garb and customs while working their fields, but maintained their European garb while conducting their other business, including attending church, which was mandatory for all colonists, under pain of fine and imprisonment in the stocks. The communal life of the earliest days of the colony, when all food was pooled and divided equally among the settlers, was replaced with a capitalistic society, with some planters amassing fortunes in land and money, and others having less success.