The English, like the French and the Dutch, entered the race for an American empire late. England’s failed efforts to colonize North America in the sixteenth century had left them without a permanent settlement until the founding of Jamestown on the Chesapeake River in 1607. In the 1620s, the English also established settlements in the West Indies, which quickly became the economic engine of English colonization. Expansion into these areas demanded new modes of labor to ensure a return on investment. Beginning in the mid-sixteenth century, large numbers of European indentured servants and growing numbers of African men and women crossed the Atlantic, some voluntarily, many involuntarily. See e-Document Project 2: Comparing Virginia and Massachusetts Bay Colonies.