Tobacco

Virginia Standard of Learning VS.4 The student will demonstrate knowledge of life in the Virginia Colony by Explaining the importance of agriculture and its influence on the institution of slavery Describing how European (English, Scotch-Irish, German) immigrants, Africans, and American Indians influenced the cultural landscapes and changed the relationship between the Virginia Colony and England. Explaining how geography influenced the relocation of Virginia’s capital from Jamestown to Williamsburg to Richmond.

Tobacco Fields in Jamestown

Tobacco in the Fields

Essential Knowledge VS.3 Cash Crop: a crop that is grown to sell for money rather than for use by the growers. The economy of the Virginia colony depended on agriculture as a primary source of wealth. Tobacco became the most profitable agricultural product.

Essential Knowledge VS.3 Tobacco was sold in England as a cash crop. The successful planting of tobacco depended on a reliable and inexpensive source of labor. Large numbers of Africans were brought to the colony against their will to work as slaves on the plantation. The Virginia Colony became dependent on slave labor, and the dependence lasted a long time.

Tobacco Auction

John Rolfe stepped into history in May 1609, when he boarded the Sea Venture, bound for Virginia. It was John Rolfe's experiments with tobacco that developed the first profitable export.

Tobacco was the cash crop that made some Virginians wealthy Tobacco was the cash crop that made some Virginians wealthy. It was cultivated on plantations (farms) both large and small throughout a large portion of the colony. It grew in fields like this one at the Rural Trades site in the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area.

Essential Knowledge Tobacco was used as money. A tobacco farmer could use his tobacco to pay for goods and services.

Jamestown Tobacco used up the nutrients in the soil in a few years and required large amounts of labor to cultivate.

Jamestown Tobacco was cured (dried) and prized (packed tightly into barrels) during the fall. Tobacco inspection began in November and lasted into the next year. The Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730 stated that all tobacco exported from Virginia was to be inspected and meet a minimum standard of quality. After tobacco passed inspection it remained in a government warehouse until it was shipped to England.

A barrel called a hogshead was used to ship tobacco to England. Jamestown Tobacco A barrel called a hogshead was used to ship tobacco to England.

Tobacco Cash Crop for the Jamestown colony.