Editing Mail-order bride (section)

====British colonies====
{{seealso|Tobacco brides}}
In 1620, the [[Virginia Company]] recruited mail-order brides for the [[Colony of Virginia|Jamestown colony]], sponsoring the emigration of 140 women in hopes of reducing desertion by the settlers and to avoid the men marrying women from the local Native American tribes. They were sometimes referred to as "tobacco wives", because each male colonist who married a mail-order bride had to reimburse the company for her passage at a cost of 120 pounds of "good leaf tobacco". The women who were brought over by the company were free to marry whomever they chose, even men who were too poor to pay their passage fee. The average age of these brides was 20.{{r|zug|p=14-22}}