Indentured servants who worked in jamestown in the early 1600s were mostly

British lower class and prisoners--early Jamestown servants were recruited into indentured servitude and either volunteered or were offered it as an alternative to prison. 

Indentured servants were provided passage to the new world in exchange for work on the plantations. After a set amount of years of service were provided, indentured servants were freed and often moved on to buy their own land.