Which policy offered land to individuals who paid for their own or others' passage to Virginia?

The Headright System is the correct choice because it was specifically designed to encourage the settlement of Virginia and other colonies by granting land to individuals who financed their own or others’ passage to the New World. Under this system, each person who settled in the colony was awarded a certain amount of land (typically 50 acres) for each person whose voyage they sponsored.

This policy played a crucial role in promoting immigration and the expansion of tobacco plantations, which became a primary economic activity in Virginia. By incentivizing individuals to bring more people into the colony, the Headright System effectively increased labor availability, as those who were brought over often became indentured servants working on the plantations.

Other policies listed, such as the Land Grant System, while similar in promoting land ownership, were not directly tied to the financing of passage. The Homestead Act, which came much later in 1862, aimed to encourage westward expansion by giving land to settlers who improved it but did not have provisions related to immigration financing. The Plantation System refers more to the agricultural organization and economic strategy of large-scale farming, especially in the South, rather than a land allocation policy.