EXPLAIN: What is the connection between headrights and and the expansion of slavery in the South?

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Headrights were a system of granting land to individuals in the American colonies, particularly in the South, based on the number of people they brought with them. This system, along with the demand for labor-intensive crops like tobacco, fueled the expansion of slavery in the South. Slaveholders were motivated to bring more enslaved people to their plantations in order to increase their land grants, thus leading to the growth and perpetuation of the slave system in the region.