A group of planters emerged during the first generation of settlement, these were known as the "big men of Virginia". The wealth accumulated was inherited wealth, usually through women (widows), who outlived the men.
By the end of this first generation of settlement, society had become increasingly stratified economically and the nature and meaning of wealth itself was reformulated in terms of reproductive wealth, this being livestock and slaves or labors who reproduced themselves. Rather than investing the profits from tobacco into homes and other Old World display's, planters invested their wealth in labor and livestock because was the new measure of a man's wealth (reproductive property = wealth).
The social and political implications of this transformation of wealth were immense. Since wealth lay in control of labor, planters increasingly viewed their laborers in terms of property. The distinction between a servant's humanity and his position as property was being lost or at the very least blurred. The primary source of labor remained indentured servants, who had some legal recourse to limit the master's power, although black servants were probably less aware of these laws and were probably less able to be in a position to exercise those rights.
During the 1640's to 1660's, we see some gradual changes taking place. Longer life spans, more even sex ratio's resulted in a larger population of freed servants. This period represented a brief time of upward mobility when some freed servants could become small landowners. However, competition among freed servants limited opportunities for advancement. Available land lay at a distance from settled areas in exposed frontier, exposed to Indians, and far from the rivers that served as access to markets. This situation created major unrest between colonists in Virginia. This was evident in the lawlessness that had begun to increase.
